Black Friday is a word that strikes energy and excitement in many diehard shoppers. I have heard families planning their shopping strategy on Black Friday with the precision of a military strike. I am not one of those people. I have done the Black Friday shop twice: today and on other time when I shopped for a Fisher Price Power Wheels jeep, which I found out was not a WalMart Black Friday special when I got to the store.
This morning, I left my house much later than the typical start of Black Friday. At 11 a.m. I entered Best Buy to see what was left. The story was crowded, yet it was not impossible to navigate the aisles. I did feel badly for the guy with the stroller and a walking toddler. I had my sights set on a Garmin GPS device as I am seriously navigationally challenged. I don’t usually shop in Best Buy, so needed to ask the salesperson by the door where I would find the GPS devices. He pointed to a huge blue, 10 foot high sign…ooops. The GPS devices that were advertised in the Best Buy flyer were in large, well-labeled plastic bins. I browsed around, tested the devices with my address, and decided to buy a GPS device that had a few more bells and whistles than the one on sale. I checked out with the GPS and a few hard-to-resist DVDs for $4–I dare you to walk past a bin with $4 Fantastic Four and The Last King of Scotland DVDs…impossible to resist.
As I entered WalMart I felt the buzz of Black Friday. I heard shoppers complaining about missing specials, babies screaming, and employees wondering when the madness would end. The aisles were jammed, especially in Toys and Gaming. I saw a woman with a double stroller…she was making almost no progress through an aisle crowded with carts and displays of DVDs. The Shoes and Clothing sections were empty. I got busy finding the specials I had come for: a Barbie jeep plus Barbie for $10, High School Musical 3 dolls for $5, and Twin Nerf Shooters for $10. I added Power Rangers, Transformers, and Star Wars toys and I was done.
Next stop Kohl’s…curiously the Returns line was longer than the checkout line. The last item on my list exercise clothes for me. The sizes and colors were not what I was interested in, so I left empty-handed.All in all a successful morning of shopping without screaming kids and money-conscious husband. A good day in my book!
Update on the Mom on the Run Family FastfooD Ban: No fast food purchased since Friday, November 21. I considered stopping at a McDonald’s in WalMart, a McDonald’s on the way out of the shopping center, and a Burger King on the way home, but did not stop…yay me!
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