Once upon a time, there was a girl.  This curious girl decided that she would give Black Friday a chance.  Black Friday is a the crazy shopping day after Thanksgiving.  It was 10:00pm, she had the sales ads right in front of her and decided to give it a shot.

She mapped out her night, starting at Toys R Us since they were the first to open at MIDNIGHT. She wrote a list of possibilities at each store and got in the car at 11:30 and drove away.  Forgetting the importance of sleep, she hurried off with excitement until she saw before her very eyes the scene at Toys R Us.   The cars, the lights, the people…  Apparently she wasn’t the only one with a fabulous shopping idea. There was no parking anywhere near the vacinity so she parked across Power Rd at Coco’s. (Tim’s favorite place to eat, hehe)  She made her way across Power, to the parking lot and just couldn’t believe it-never had she seen such a sight of madness.  The first thing she walked up was THE LINE.  She realized that there was hours of line ahead of her.  HOURS.  But, the excitement still kicked inside her, like a growing baby!  Within moments the enormous line grew even more enormous to circle the store twice, wrap the parking lot and head straight south on Power Rd. 

“There must be something to this,” she kept telling herself.  Is it the excitement, the hype, the true deals? What is it?  She just had to keep waiting to discover what craziness lied ahead.

During her nearly an hour wait in line she learned:

-never go shopping on Black Friday by yourself (you need a back-up to hunt down a cart, one to park the car, and others to move along to other stores to start the long wait in a new line)

-never stand next to people who love the “F” word when there is nowhere to escape

-leave the camera at home (You see, she loves to keep track of things in her life and thought a camera would be a good addition to the adventure but proved to not be true)

-Wal-Mart will price match with any ad and they are open 24 hours

and then the last straw was when she learned

-Toys R Us had Black Friday shopping online-same prices and free shipping.

When she heard that she left the line, which was fine because she was not even close to getting in after the long and cold hour outside.  She raced back to Coco’s, called her patient husband and asked him to look online.  Right there in the parking lot of Coco’s she did her Toys R Us Christmas shopping.

But it didn’t end there.  She certainly was tired and wanted to call it a good night with lots of learning but she remembered the Kohl’s opened at 4am.  She knew it wasn’t a reasonable plan to go back home, sleep for an hour, then head back out so she decided a nap in the car in the parking lot of Kohl’s would suffice.

At Kohl’s, it didn’t seem as crazy as the first stop so feeling relieved she set her little phone alarm and laid her head on the carseat (not such a good pillow, she noted) in the back for 45 minutes.  When she sat back up, the line had not grown too much-still only about 5-10 people in line and it was 3am.  Back down she went and when she sat back up the second time, the line had grown, exponentially.

What would she do?

She determined that she wasn’t interested in waiting in THAT line for 30 minutes for the 2 items she noticed in their sales advertisement.  So, off she went.

So far, almost 4 hours into the shopping and nothing tangible.  But she was unstoppable.  She had been accused of being that way in the past and it was no different this night, morning.

She went to Walgreen’s, she saw 2 things that her precious children may want.  In Walgreen’s, the sales were over.  They were of a different plan and decided to make their prices valid UNTIL 6pm on Thanksgiving.  So, she missed the deal which wasn’t a big problem because they didn’t have what she needed anyway.  BUT, since it was now past 4am with no bags in hand, she decided to make the most of her Walgreen’s trip and grab some stocking stuffers and some Epsom salt for a particularly soothing soak. 

The most exciting thing on her list was the inversion machine on sale at Big 5 Sporting Goods, which opened at 5:30am.  But after Walgreen’s, a few bags and a online shopping cart-already checked out, she decided that it was truly an insane plan and she should have stayed home.  She didn’t NEED anything, she hadn’t saved anything by being out and she didn’t know what to do until 5:30.  She headed in the homeward direction.

UNTIL SHE PASSED Wal-Mart

She pulled in, grabbed her piles of sales ads and decided to put the theory to the test… see if they will price match.  She didn’t get too far in the store when she realized there was really nothing that she needed price matched.  She bought her goods online and decided against the Kohls purchases.  The only things she really wanted was the inversion thingee.  Well, she was down to 45 minutes until Big 5 opened so she decided to enjoy the sights at Wal-Mart.  This time, sleeping bags with red-eyed families were in the aisle with their hand securing a box stacked in the tall pile of shrink-wrapped items with a sign displaying “these items are not available until 5:00am".”  People were hovering those piles.  Eventually disruptions came across the PA system to let the crowd know which items were gone.  They started handing out tickets to people so those who were clearly not going to get one of the “door buster deals” need not wait any longer. 

As she wandered, she found a few more Christmas items, nothing on sale and nothing that wasn’t available the day before or even three days later.

Then it was check out time.  The clock showed 4:55am and none of the registers were lit.  She wondered why the employees were standing by the register but nothing was happening.  She asked (she has been known to get to the bottom of things, too) and found out that all the sale items would not ring the right price until 5:00am so they were holding off until that time.  “But I don’t have any sale items, I just have a regular check-out,” she told the lady.  I am sure the lady was wondering why she had to be at Wal-Mart at that time in the morning if she wasn’t trying to score a great deal.

It was all so tiring for the girl.  She wanted to sleep.  Her eyes were burning.  She checked out as the the loud speakers announced the time and the availability of the items wrapped.  The lines went from one or two people to hundreds of people within moments but she was OUT OF THERE. 

The time was 5:20 as she loaded her car and drove off to Big 5 Sporting Goods, the moment she had been waiting for.  At 5:25, she arrived to see about 20 people in line.  No biggie she thought.  The doors would open in moments, she would run to the item she circled in the flier and be off to her home and bed within 10 minutes.  And that is exactly what happened. 

In the door, straight to the inversion table, right back to the cash register in front of 5 other people buying the same thing.  Purchased, loaded and on her way home by 5:40.  She arrived at 6:00am and went to bed at 6:02am

All this (starting a shopping day at 12:00am and driving around with no purpose or purchases to be made) because she wanted to buy an inversion table for $89.99.  Who could blame her?