Day: Black Friday 2004
Total Number of Shopping Hours Logged: at least 9.3
Time Shopping Day Started: left home at 5:25 am
Time Shopping Day Ended: returned home for the day at 9:20 pm
Hours of Mid-Afternoon Sleep: 1.3
Stores visited: 15 (Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples [x2], Express, Old Navy, Macy's [x2], Limited, Banana Republic, Target, Costco, Disney Store, Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works)
Items bought: haven't taken the time to count :)
To give you an idea of how my day started, here are some snippets of the situation from the Staten Island Advance about my first store: Best Buy. They have pictures in the print edition of the paper, and about 250-300 people back in line, I almost made it into one of the pictures! So here's what they have to say:
"Black Friday," the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season -- and the day stores supposedly go from red to black in their books -- started before midnight as a group of seven poker friends camped out overnight in front of Best Buy in New Springville.
Their mission? Snaring one of 25 laptop computers that were offered at $499.99.
"We're all here for the laptops," said Joe Ciprello, of Eltingville. "EVERY-BODY." At one point the group had pitched a tent until security told them to take it down. Fellow bravehearts Anthony Traverso of Rosebank and Eddie Vaccaro of Great Kills kept warm throughout the night tossing footballs and going to Dunkin' Donuts for some steaming hot java.
In contrast, my aunt in Westchester arrived at Circuit City at 5:30 and was #1 on line (lots of people waiting in their cars came out after that, but still).
My Diary:
All times are approximate. I didn't always have a chance to check my watch as I raced across the parking lot. ;-) (On foot, not in the car, there was no racing in the car to be done today.)
5:25 am. Out of the house and into the freezing cold car. Ready to battle the crowds and hoping that we might actually get to Best Buy early enough to get my grandfather one of the $500 Toshiba laptops.
5:32 am. Arriving at Best Buy. The line doesn't look too bad. Oh wait - the line is going in the reverse direction from last year. And it's really really really really really long, going past 4 storefronts and curved into the parking lot.
5:36 am. I'm on line. There have to be at least 250-300 people in front of me. The chances of getting the laptop are rather slim, I suspect.
5:42 am. I have my fleece headband and gloves on securely while balancing my cell phone and camera. What's wrong with my camera?! No!!! I want to take a picture of the absurd line outside the store and I have a perfect angle, but I forgot my camera battery in the charger!! No!! How could I have forgotten it, when I could have gotten a perfect picture of Black Friday madness to post?
5:47 am. My dad shows up after having dropped off my mom on the Circuit City line. We're going to spread out - he's going to go for the laptop, I'm going to head for the Mean Girls and Will & Grace DVDs. I don't think there's going to be any laptops but I can't hurt to try. We could break the line up by segments based on the pillars outside the store. I think they were giving out laptop tickets and they didn't get beyond the first pillar. He showed up and started looking around a little further ahead on the line for me. I'm like, "I'm still back here, right where you left me!" No movement on the line.
5:50 am. All of a sudden there are chants near the second pillar of the line (and the pillars not far apart, so this is at most 100 people into the line). "No cutting the line, no cutting the line." There are at least 10 people saying this in unison, but there is clearly a ringleader. A ringleader, who no more than 30 seconds after "no cutting the line" ended, started with, "Don't cut the line." My comment? "Apparently someone didn't sleep last night." Oops, I didn't really say that out loud, did I?
5:55 am. Doors are open!! The line is streaming into the store like a river. Go bargain hunters!! At least Best Buy is smart. They handed out double sided diagrams at the door with the store layout. One side was for the 6 hour specials, the other for the 2 day specials. They had numbered all of the specials and showed where they were on the diagram. Incredibly helpful, after I remembered last year's madness running around screaming, "where are the DVDs?!"
6:02 am. I'm done and checked out and we're out of Best Buy. I ran down the aisle to get the DVDs, waited by the line for my dad who found out they were indeed out of laptop tickets, and I paid. Even though they let us in early, the store was only officially open for 2 minutes and I was already done. Not bad. :)
[Best Buy Madness Story: While checking out, I asked the cashier what time they had to get there. She said 5:15 am. I asked her how long the line was when she got here. She laughed and said it was really long. While on line, I heard the guy managing the checkout lines say that when he finished closing the store up last night, there were already a couple of people waiting. I guess there was no way we were going to get that laptop. And judging from that Advance article above, that's probably 100% true. We could have gotten there at 4 am, and been out of luck. But had we been there any later, we'd probably be out of luck for everything else too.]
6:05 am. In the car on the way to the Circuit City/Staples parking lot. My mom's at Circuit City, so we're going to try going to Staples instead. They have free laminators, $10 jump drives, $3 for 40 packs of DVD-Rs, $2 for 40 packs of jewel cases, and free surge protectors. I wonder if Staples will be really crowded.
6:09 am. I'm in Staples. Thank goodness the strip malls are so close to one another and it's not a far drive from store to store and we can team shop.
6:15 am. I've grabbed DVD-Rs, jewel cases and surge protectors. When I came in, I saw a line going to a window but people said it was only for "big ticket items." Since I thought all the things I wanted weren't big ticket items, I went for those first. Maybe if I had gotten on line when I first got in the doors, I could have gotten the laminator and the flash drive. We waited on the line that was the length of the store for a very very long time, only to be told that they were all sold out.
6:30 am. Playing phone tag with my aunt in Westchester and my mom over at Circuit City grabbing rebate stuff. Staples is so disorganized and chaotic. No one knows where the lines are. The layout is dumb, putting the free stuff so close to the registers and so close to the "big ticket" distribution line, which wasn't labeled.
6:40 am. Comment to Dad while on the checkout line: "Hey, it's still dark outside!" He smirked at me. Haha.
6:50 am. How is it possible that I've been at Staples this much longer than Best Buy?
6:58 am. I left Staples for Circuit City to help my mom and buy the rebate stuff. My DVD didn't ring up the right place, and the lines were all messed up so it took a little longer than it could have. Then again their register and line efficiency isn't remotely close to Best Buy. Best Buy has one orderly line feeding into 15-odd registers and someone with balloons at the end of the line as it goes around the border of the store. Circuit City has about 20 haphazard lines all over the store with no order to it whatsoever. It's enough to make your brain frazzled.
7:20 am. Back at Staples with my Circuit City loot. After the stuff is moved to the car and my mom and dad are both in Staples, I take off for a cold morning jog across the parking lots to get to the mall. Express was scheduled to give out free cashmere scarves (with purchase) and the mall opened at 7...
7:28 am. In Express. It's empty and they have two bins full of scarves. And you didn't even need the coupon to get the scarf. While I purchased my earrings and got my free scarf, the cashier remarked to the other cashier: "They should have made the scarves free only with a $75 purchase." I wasn't sure whether or not I was supposed to be offended by that, but I couldn't care less. I had a free cute cashmere scarf!
7:40 am. In Old Navy because they have $5 performance fleece blankets. The ad didn't say you needed to purchase anything, but apparently you did. But they have $1 shopping bags, so who cares. :) It hasn't even been two hours yet and I'm in store #6.
8:20 am. Heading home from the mall with a trunk full of goodies. We hit 7 stores, pit stop at home, and then we're heading to Jersey. Staten Island has no Target.
9:00 am. At the Staples in New Jersey. They are so orderly! The tables are set up all around the store, there is no chaos, the "big ticket" line is mostly orderly and the guy manning the line knows how to manage and how to distribute to get things moving in a competent manner. We got our flash drives and went on our merry way by 9:15. So organized compared to SI.
9:20 am. Arrival at Target! Woohoo! I'm so excited. I wonder if they still have TV DVD sets left! ... They do! And clothes! And accessories! And Candyland! Oooooh, I am so excited and I love Target. (We all knew this already.)
11:00 am. Trip to Costco. (The diary gets considerably less involved as the time gets later and shopping becomes less frenzied and more "normal." Also the big blowout sales are winding down.) While supplies lasted today, Costco gave out free cookbooks. I'm an excited little girl. Hahaha. And it's $12 off of Fox and WB TV DVD sets. Uh oh...
12:00 pm. Over to Menlo Park Mall for lunch and some shopping. The Wendy's is incompetent - I ordered Wild Mountain Chicken sandwiches and they gave us cheeseburgers. And the cashier looked at us like we were crazy saying he made a mistake. It's something about that storefront - the Burger King that was there before that was pretty incompetent at getting orders correct too.
Mall shopping brought us to Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret (I love the new striped shopping bags and had a birthday coupon to use), The Limited (mmm... comfy pants) and Macy's (didn't buy anything). Going through Bath and Body Works got me excited for after-Christmas sales. Uh oh. I sense an addiction? Except for the fact that, with the exception of some DVDs, I've barely bought anything recently, especially not clothes. So this is fine by me. :)
2:10 pm. We leave the mall. We've been shopping for a solid 8.2 hours. We are insane.
3:00 pm. At home, watching Uptown Girls and random TV, napping. So exhausted and was getting so faded at Macy's. It was so hard to make it through the final stretch.
6:30 pm. Sushi dinner at a restaurant near home that makes yummy sushi as a good reward for an endurance shopping experience. Yay for yellowtail and scallion rolls! :)
7:45 pm. At the local mall at Macy's, since I have a gift card scheduled to expire on Tuesday (although the cashier claims that they can extend expiration dates? I've never heard that before, but that would be great). At first it looked like I had a lot to try on, but then I thought about it, and considering I picked up any sale item I would conceivably buy for the price, trying on about 14 items is kind of sad. That's all I might conceivably wear of all the sale merchandise in the whole store?? I think I'm an exceptionally picky clothing shopper right now.
9:20 pm. I'm tired but not as exhausted as earlier this afternoon due to my nap. I feel satisfied, arriving home. It was a good shopping day. I feel proud. :)
So what was the damage? Let's put it this way: I got a few TV on DVD sets, which generally run anywhere from $30 to $50. But everything I bought today (non-gift) cost less than what the total cost of those DVD sets would be at full price (not mfr's suggested retail, but regular selling price). I think that's pretty good. :)
And as a parting thought on Black Friday and holiday shopping, also from the Advance, check out the list of this year's "hot" toys:
According to the editors of "Toy Wishes," a magazine focusing on family entertainment, the "Hot Dozen" list of toys this year includes: Balloon Lagoon, Barbie as Princess Anneliese and Erika, Bella Dancerella, Bratz Tokyo-A-Go-Go Dance N' Skate Club, Cabbage Patch Kids, E-L-M-O, Interacttv, Ms. Pac-Man TV Games, Nitro Battlerz, Tamagotchi Connection and Vtech V-Smile.
Reading this list really makes me long for the toys of our childhood. I know 80s toys are making a comeback, but give me an old Lite Brite, Etch-a-Sketch, Simon, My Little Pony, Speak and Spell any day over something like a Boobah. Haha.
It's been a long day, I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to go to the gym and the last thing I want to do is any part of my accounting final. But I need to post this before it gets any longer than it already is. What did you do for Black Friday?
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2:00 AM - 11:00 AM: Sleep
11:00 AM - Now: Eat, TV, Game, Nap, Shower, Game, Eat, Game, TV
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