Did you shop on "Black Friday?"

No, I avoid shopping all year long. One of my sisters is a shopaholic and hits the store every year at 5:00 am. I give her my credit card, my list and send her on her mental way.

I went shopping at 7:30 pm yesterday for two items. I'm breaking down and getting the kids Gameboys for Christmas. And Circuit City had a one day sale--$49.99 for the durn things, when they're $79.99 everywhere else--that I couldn't pass up.

All other gifts I make myself...from my own hair and toenail clippings.

I worked retail in college and am still traumatized by the memories of working on Black Friday ... I typically won't go anywhere near a mall or shopping center the day after Thanksgiving. Heck, usually I don't even leave my house.

But yesterday I went into work for a few hours in the afternoon, and then needed to kill some time while waiting for my friends to get out of the movies and let me know if I was going to their place for dinner last night, so I went to Target and got a couple of purses. It wasn't crowded, and there was no line at the checkout. I don't really think of going to Target as "shopping," though -- Target is more of a day-to-day essential, like going to the grocery store.

No way! Even going to the mall the day before Tgivg was too much for me. Especially the parking lot. Ack.

But, as it turns out, I did go to OSH and True Value for some supplies. Osh almost had me by an xmas Nutcracker for my mom, but somehow I talked myself out of it.

My mom & I waited until evening. We missed all the sales, but we also missed the insane people.

Nope. I stay away from Black Friday intentionally -- hell, I usually stay away from malls unless it's completely unavoidable (I think I've been twice this year). I prefer to shop at smaller stores, locally owned whenever possible, or at least not to add my $$ to the gluttony of BF. I usually do my holiday shopping at indie bookstores anyway. Books and shoes are pretty much the extent of my consumerism.

No, I haven't left our house since Tuesday.

I love to shop, but hate crowds. Just sharing an aisle with another person makes me nervous.


I am probably going to go someplace, today, though.........lest I have a breakdown of some sort.

Got up at 5am and headed out! Apparently there were people camped outside Best Buy in tents for gods sake!

Had a blast and visited all the cute little shops in downtown Olympia. Had a wonderful day of shopping.

I went to the mall and it was really crowded! I didn't buy much. I'm more of a browser and once I'm done, I'm done. I want to leave. My favorite places in the mall are bookstores, and I would love it if there was a mega mall of just different bookstores, a Barnes and Nobles, a Borders, a Books a Million, and some indepedent bookstores. I could spend the day there!

You mean "black and blue Friday." (Taken from the NY Times today.)

Nope. I like Internet shopping the best. I've done that since the early days of stores going online. I was one of the first fifteen people to buy online from Williams-Sonoma when their web site went up. I got a free apron. Oh well.

I figure, if you can't buy it on Amazon or Ebay, how bad do you need it?


I bought an IPOD from Apple about a month ago .............but otherwise, it's Amazon or Ebay for me.

We swore we wouldn't, but cabin-fever set in around 9:00 last night. Hubby has been sick and he wanted to get out for a while. We went to Wal Mart. I was shocked.

The parking lot was only about half full. The store wasn't nearly as busy as it was even the night before Thanksgiving. We went in, bought a couple of movies and went home all in about 15 minutes. We didn't even have to wait in a line.

No.

Nope. Did walk around some craft stores and antique shops in old Fair Oaks yesterday afternoon, but it was quiet and the weather was lovely. One shop had a roosting hen nesting with her new chicks (we counted 6 and two more eggs) in the planter outside of her door.
We did black Friday several years ago, took time to research the ads ahead and mapped out a plan, got up at 4:30 and were home by 10, all our shopping done for about $400 for five kids and family..was worth it but not something I'll do often.
Watching baby chickens in a planter was way more fun.

We went near a mall to the theater. Happy Feet is a cute movie.

We went shopping on Friday for the first time in my life. This was partially due to someone posting a link to Black Friday deals here on this board. We needed a new DVD player and a new stereo amplifier. I checked out Circuit City's deals (through that link) and we went there. We got there around 9. CC was having a five-hour only sale, and we bought an awesome DVD player for $50 (has digital outs for our HDTV), and I bought a great amplifier for $60, with a $20 mail-in rebate. Sure it was busy, but we walked out with exactly what we went in there for.

allen

Stopped at an Ace Hardware store for some furnace filters, was in and out in about 15 minutes. Might as well have been any other Friday.

No, I worked. Now that that's out of the way, I heard on the radio about some anti-consumerism *cough cough hippies cough* that did something that was funny to me. They dressed up in monk outfits bearing corporate logos and tried to get shoppers to worship products. Struck me as funny.

Shopping on Black Friday? That's crazy talk!

Nope. Not me. Monday is soon enough.

The Sherriffs Department was directing traffic at our local outlet mall - today.
Some people don't know when to quit.

Well, I sure did. I shopped and shopped and shopped. I shopped all day long (but never went to a mall. Ick.) and then at night I shopped online. If I'm gonna buy stuff, I want a deal. You have to know what things go for so that you know if it's a good deal or just marked up so they can discount it. This is my reconaissance. Then you need the flyers so you can plan your attack. Early morning, I need coffee and donuts to fuel myself up. In the evening I relax in front of my computer and clean up the last few details. I'm almost completely done.

Yes, I'm nuts.

No way, I got to stay home and laugh at the mall scenes that the newscasters were broadcasting...some people were waiting in line since 30 am Yikes!

jbal said:

No, I worked. Now that that's out of the way, I heard on the radio about some anti-consumerism *cough cough hippies cough* that did something that was funny to me. They dressed up in monk outfits bearing corporate logos and tried to get shoppers to worship products. Struck me as funny.

Click to expand...

Our *cough cough culture cough* already has the masses going deeper into debt every year to worship at the altar of consumerism -- mayaswell just come out of that closet and hold serivces at WalMart . . . your local mall . . . take your pick.

I mean, how much crap do people truly need anyway?