Barb's Blog: November 2011

This year the stores opened early. So did the online sales. I started watching the sites at 12:01 Thanksgiving morning. I got the door buster Canon camera that I wanted at 6AM. (Sale $89.99 Saved $70)

My nephew, Shaun Grover, shopped with me this year. We had fun. My mom wanted a TV this year so we were on a mission to find a bargain priced HDTV for her. Walmart had a 42" for $248, a $250 savings. Walmart started their sales at 10PM Thanksgiving Day.

I put on my "Black Friday" tee shirt and passed on the long underwear. This year it wasn't needed. The daytime highs are around 60 degrees and the night was above freezing. (much warmer than other Black Fridays that I remember.)

I met Shaun at the store at 9:30. The parking lot was chuck full so we were concerned that we might not get what we wanted with all those people there. The store had balloons marking the waiting lines for each Early Bird Special. Once we were in line, Walmart gave us a ticket guaranteeing that we would get the TV that we wanted! Score! The sales were staggered and the TV that we wanted went on sale at midnight. A Walmart employee passed out high energy drinks around 11:00.

1:00 AM Walmart

While going through the long winding checkout line, I spotted the toy dog, Cookie, that Sierra wants for Christmas. It was $7.00 off on sale. I picked it up. The dog has a motion sensor which makes it whine and bark. After storing it in the trunk of my car, we had to listen to it whine while we were driving.

Best Buy 2:00 AM

After our success at Walmart, Shaun and I decided to stop by Best Buy to say hi to my daughter, Jamie, who is one of the managers there. Oh my gosh! We thought that Walmart had a lot of people. You couldn't even move at Best Buy. Needless to say, we couldn't find Jamie. (I was glad that I had made my Best Buy purchase online hours before.

Shaun and I drove around to see which unopened stores had lines.We also checked out Target. The check out line wrapped all the way around the store, so we made sure not to purchase anything while we were there.

We took the TV to Mom's house. She was still up...anxiously waiting for her new toy. So at 3:00 in the morning, Shaun assembled the TV for her. (I think Shaun was as excited about the TV as Mom was.) Later Mom told me that she stayed up until 4:40 AM watching her new TV. ha ha

3:00 AM Assembling Mom's New TV

Shaun and I made another trip to Target at about 4:00 AM. This time the checkout lines were reasonable so we purchased the $50 sewing machine that I wanted. Shaun bought coffee to stay awake.

Office Max 5:00 AM

We waited in line at Office Max for a little over an hour. A radio station served us coffee while we were. I needed to buy my Norton 360 that I get there every year. It was $60 off . I also picked up a couple other things including HP 4x6 photo paper, 100 sheets for $1. Scored again!

We finished our Black Friday Experience with breakfast at iHop at 7AM while the sun was coming up. It was a successful night! I enjoyed Shaun's company. As I dropped him off at his house, I told him that I might be asking him next year to join me again when I do my Black Friday Shopping. At the time, I didn't realize that I wasn't done yet.

On the way out of town, I decided to stop at Gordman's to pick up some of their 75% off Christmas decorations. Little did I know that I'd be in the checkout line for an hour.

Jodi Nesemeier contacted me and I met her and Savanna at Dunn Bros Coffee Shop at about 9:30 AM. I had to check out Savanna's new laptop that she had just snagged.

Finally after another stop, this time at the grocery store, I headed home. Instead of jumping in the shower and then bed, I got side tracked. (imagine me getting side-tracked, ha ha) I hung up my new outside Christmas decorations. THEN... the shower and bed at 2PM.....

It was a good Black Friday!