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I guess I should begin with I wasn't in Charlotte North Carolina proper fighting the crowds for Black Friday. I should also mention that at 9pm the night before I had no intentions to be at Walmart at 12:30am, inline at Target until 4am or Dick's at 5am.
Goals for Black Friday
A true experience Black Friday shopper says to have a list, rank your items by need and shop in that order. List? What list? I had an idea at each store what I wanted but thankfully our kids and family aren't die hard needy punks that would throw a tantrum nor do they ask for crazy things during the Christmas holiday. Football jerseys and lacrosse balls? We can totally do that!
What was I Thinking?
Late Thanksgiving night I looked up some ads online for Walmart, Target and others in the area (these people are not worthy of links, and I'm sure you know how to find these fine venues.) I also looked up
Squidoo's recommendations for "tween's" which supposedly where our 9 and 10 year old boys fall.
At 12:01am Walmart was opening for Toys, Home Goods and other basics. Really? That's what I needed! I looked up games, did some research on deals and made a very vague list. I left the house at 12:20am and pulled into Walmart 10 minutes later to what looked like a concert parking lot. I have NEVER seen so many cars at Walmart. I don't think Walmart has seen so many cars at Walmart! I walk in calmly, knowing that probably the most important thing at this venue was Kim's two crockpots. Well, they happened to be literally 5 feet from walking in the door! Grabbing the last of both "door buster" deals I felt very proud. "This wasn't so bad" I said to myself, as I safely put Kim's crockpots in my shopping cart.
Thankfully Walmart treated Black Friday as a strategic mission. Placing hot items and toys around the large aisle's with large balloons for pricing over top. Security guards were also scattered around the must have items, for the toys protection of course. I picked up several amazing deals on big ticket item toys, let's just say I bought 3/4 of the kids Christmas gifts there and Kim's two crock pots for <$200. You'll have to wait till Christmas to know what we bought!
Hard Choices
After leaving Walmart at 1:15am I had a hard choice in front of me. Target didn't open until 4am, and it was 1:15am. I feared that if I went home that I would go to sleep and sleep away great deals. Then I would procrastinate and not buy gifts until the week before Christmas!
I went to Target. I wasn't prepared to wait in line for 2.5 hours. I had capri's, no bra and no coffee. Oh yeh, there also wasn't a coffee brewer anywhere to be found. So I stood, in line, from 1:30am until 4am, freezing my ass off. I met nice people, we chatted, I was probably delirious. I didn't want anything special that required me to "run" into Target. But I did because we were in the first 100 people and I didn't want to get run over by some red neck looking for a flat screen TV hidden in the kids section. I was also treated to a Caramel Brulee Latte from a friend, so thank you Jill!
From Target I went Dick's Sporting Goods. Dick's tempted me with sweet looking kayak's out front for 50% off. I live on the water, a kayak would be nice, but maybe I'll research for next years Black Friday event.
I Survived Black Friday
I got home at 6:20am, after leaving at 12:15am. My car was packed, all we need is stocking stuffers for the kids, gifts for immediate family and I'm very excited to have most of it done already! Looking back I wish these stores harnessed the internet, check in on Facebook Places for a special coupon, or to get inline for that HDTV! Maybe next year... I know I was the only person to check in at Target this morning at 3am.
The Numbers and Economics Don't Lie
You can predict, forecast or . I worked in retail half my life to know this, but it isn't concrete. What is concrete is the amount of people in line on a Friday at 4am to shop for the great deals. To make their dollars stretch. If anything this experience once a year is a good way to witness how the economy is turning and the moods of shoppers going forward.
I didn't reread this, this whole post probably makes no sense what so ever.
