Black Friday

I actually did it. I participated in the frenzy that is Black Friday. This was not something that I had planned on doing, but it was born out of necessity.

The Thanksgiving Day newspaper came loaded with fliers for every store within 100 square miles. Kellie and I flipped through many of them but one caught our eye. It was the flier for Toys R Us. You see, with 3 small kids, you know that most of our money is going to be spent at a place like that. And there were several items that we had planned on getting the kids that were half priced, so I felt like I needed to get in on the bargain parade.

My alarm clock woke me up at 4:15 a.m. on Black Friday and I was in the car a short while later with a Sobe No Fear energy drink in hand. When I arrived at Toys R Us, I saw that I still had 10 minutes to spare until the store opened at 5:00. I also saw a line of several hundred people winding around the sidewalk. But I wasn't going to turn back now; I'd come too far for that.

The line moved surprisingly fast and I was in the door in about 10 minutes. Every shopping cart was gone and I knew that was a foreboding foreshadowing of the consumer glut that lay ahead. the place was wall-to-wall people but I was feeling pretty nimble and my adrenaline was pumping. My first stop was the electronics department for a $9.99 MP3 player for Chandler. Guess what? Everyone else had the same idea and they were sold out.

So I made my way to the magnetic games that we wanted to purchase for our cousins. Buy one get one free and in stock. Booyah! Next, I needed to get Reynolds the princess sleeping bag that she wanted. Chandler already has a Barbie bag so now the two of them could camp out in the living room. I found the bags but the princess ones were gone. I hope Reynolds likes the Little Mermaid.

Now it was time to shop for Deacon. Poor kids lives in a female dominated home so I was looking for "man gifts." I spotted the adjustable Play Skool basketball goal and picked it up. One more gift to go - his very own "big wheel" style tricycle. I found them at the end of an aisle and all the boxes were pink. That means that the ones for little boys were sold out and I sure wasn't going to get him a pink big wheel. That would scar him for life.

With my shopping complete I made my way to the check out line, which by now was 100 people deep. But it moved surprisingly fast and after a little over 30 minutes I was on my way out the door.

So was it worth it? Kind of. I did get a great deal on the items I bought but I couldn't get everything that I wanted. Plus, unless one of my kids is crying for me I really don't want to get up that early again. Next year I think I'll send Kellie out on Black Friday.

No comments:

My Story to Tell

I was hesitant at first to write this blog post. A big reason for that is because so many people have experienced a lot of life-altering eve...