<p>I just saw on the news that people are already starting to sleep out for Black Friday deals. I won’t even go near the stores on Fri at any time, let alone even consider sleeping out for any deal. It’s just not worth it.</p>
<p>Good Lord, I have to go to the mall to pick up DH’s slacks from Nordy’s. I think I’ll do it on Sunday and pray that the alterations did everything right. He will need the pants on Monday.</p>
<p>Other than that, I’m so shopping online, from the comfort of my couch. I have some things bookmarked, so if they go on sale, shopping will be a breeze. :)</p>
<p>First let me start by saying that I HATE the mall. Last year, I did go out with my sisters on Friday…but it was NOT in the middle of the night. One of them got up and went…we just chuckled later on because everything she bought was still there when the rest of us went much later in the day. We had a leisurely breakfast and relaxed. Then we went shopping.</p>
<p>When my kids were little, I would meet a good friend early in the morning on Black Friday (back in the day…the stores opened at 8 in the morning and THAT was considered early). We would go shopping a bit, then out to breakfast. It was our little shopping trip. The day after Christmas, the same gal and I went out…again for 8 a.m. Now THAT is really when you get the bargains around here!! We would get Christmas things for 75%-90% off…now that’s worth getting up for. After our little shopping “spree” we would go out to breakfast.</p>
<p>In both cases, we got home just about as the morning cartoons were ending.</p>
<p>Now…well, I’m with many of you. Either I’ve already purchased it at some store (we already got DD’s gift)…or we will get it online…delivered to our door.</p>
<p>Saw ads from Walmart just now saying that they will open at 10 PM on Thanksgiving. Soon Thanksgiving DAY will become what Black Friday once was.</p>
<p>Okay…I’ll have to admit TG at midnight is too early for even me. My kids and me have made Black Friday a tradition for years and now that they’ve grown up I really miss it.</p>
<p>Stores open 6 am…it’s cold…rout kids out (whoever decides to still go)…lots of laughter…got a super list…stand in line…chat…party atmosphere…doors open…snag your goodies hopefully.
Home by 9am with Christmas shopping done…breakfast waiting…or go get doughnuts…decide if you want to go back out or back to bed! I look forward to it every year (but before 6am opening is too early for even me!)</p>
<p>I go with my young adult children. We split up and each single person or group of two goes to a store with photos of items taped to paper, so it can be shown to a store clerk for easy communication. Cell phones are handy for communication with each other. We pay cash for everything, and are VERY specific of what we want. We keep to a very tight budget and are done in less than 2 hours. We have been very successful over the years with this strategy.</p>
<p>My son, 19 last Black Friday, decided that he absolutely had to go to a specific outlet mall that opened at midnight or 1 am Friday morning. He went with some friends, there was a huge traffic jam just getting off the highway, they were directed to remote parking in some state park nearby to be shuttle bussed into the mall itself, he was rear ended by some other crazy person doing $2000 in damage to our car, and basically did NOT have a good time! He did find the specific item he’d gone shopping for – but realized that it really was not worth the supposed savings. </p>
<p>I hope he will not do this again!</p>
<p>excellent, now this is what I was looking for.</p>
<p>So, you go because it is less expensive? Is this true? Are there amazing deals? So, you strategize it out and you know where you are going? </p>
<p>Will you go to one store? Or more than one store?</p>
<p>Will you be there at 10pm, or earlier than 10pm.</p>
<p>Does it ruin thanksgiving or is it worth it to you? How long have you been doing this?
thank you.</p>
<p>When I was a teenager, many many moons ago, it was for the sport. I think my son was hoping he’d get an amazing deal. </p>
<p>My store is offering Black Friday deals that are sort of a joke. We’ll be open regular hours, and one specific merchandise department, those items that are black in color, will be marked down for Friday only. </p>
<p>We never see big traffic on Black Friday anyway. Everyone’s at the malls if they are out at all.</p>
<p>I hate shopping. With a passion. I shop for food and I shop at Salvation Army when it’s absolutely necessary (ie- my clothes are falling apart at the seams). </p>
<p>With that said, I love shopping on Black Friday- mostly for myself. It’s a time to get great deals on some things that I want (I’m allowed to have a girly moment or two) and gifts for my friends. I will gladly give up a few hours of sleep to save $100 (I’m a broke college student and that’s three weeks worth of gas right there!). That, and quite frankly, I think it’s hilarious to watch people. I haven’t had to buy one of those big-ticket items that people fight over, but as an anthropology student, the Black Friday ritual absolutely intrigues me. It’s a chance to remind myself just how close to non-human animals we truly are. It’s like a Discovery special! </p>
<p>Oh, and fwiw- none of the stores I’m planning on going to open at midnight. The mall opens at 3 or 4. My techie boyfriend might end up going to Best Buy which opens at midnight (I’m amused to see how he takes Black Friday. It will be his first and he’s about as passive as it gets. He’s going after a laptop that seems to be high in demand- let the games begin!)</p>
<p>In MA the stores by law have to be closed on Thanksgiving (with few exceptions that don’t include stores that do Black Friday).</p>
<p>When they announced plans to open at midnight, they got a nice letter from the AG “reminding” them they can’t make employees work on Thursday, so there is no way the stores can open at midnight.</p>
<p>I would be p***ed if I had to give up a big chunk of my Thanksgiving so my place of employment could open at 10 PM or midnight.</p>
<p>So for us, Black Friday still starts at 4 AM or 5 AM or whatever.</p>
<p>Well - not for me, I will not be participating. 
</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>The MA hordes will come up to New Hampshire then and won’t pay sales taxes in MA. That’s why the area near where I work is absolutely nuts with traffic on Black Friday (yes, I often go to work on that day). We don’t observe Christmas so shopping at this time isn’t a big deal but I work near a major mall and shopping area just over the border of MA and I try to stay clear of that area after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately my favorite Trader Joes is in the area and I have to brave the traffic to buy grocery staples.</p>
<p>We have Canadians coming to shoping centers in my neck of the woods by busloads. At least they “carpool”, lol.</p>
<p>I’m with romanigypseyes.</p>
<p>Black Friday was a MUST for me for many years. It was the only way to afford all the gifts I needed to get. I only remember going for a “big” ticket item once. For me it was all the medium sized gift deals. Coats and toys were staple savings for me in the past. And all those $5-10/item savings added up to a couple hundred dollars.</p>
<p>In the last 2 years, as my kids are out of the toy age and our shopping list has shrunk in the number of folks to buy for, I’ve done fine with on-line Black Friday deals at midnight. Last year I found the in-store sales pretty much the same the weekend after Black Friday as it was on Black Friday. On-line through ebates (double cash back) is the best I could do on Black Friday. My kids have settled into some staple name brands, like Converse and REI, whose best sales I now have down as to which weeks they occur.</p>
<p>I have some fond memories of Black Friday shopping from when D was little and I was in grad school, and money was tight. The $20 or $50 I could save was a big deal–definitely worth getting up a few hours early for. My favorite Black Friday purchase was a big pink plastic dollhouse–Little People or Fisher Price or something like that.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>We get them too, I think mainly from Montreal. Next year I think that we’ll be getting Europeans with a new premium outlet mall coming in for their ski and shop vacations. That is unless the debt crises gets solved.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the debt crises gets solved AND you get the europeans.</p>
<p>About twenty years ago, I shopped at Bradlees (out of business, store is now a Walmart) at 6 am for some Barbie something house for our DD who was like 2 at the time.</p>
<p>Nabbed the item and still made it to WORK at the hospital by 8am!
That was my one Black Friday victory.</p>
<p>I’ve never participated in Black Friday, and never will. I loathe shopping under the best of circumstances, and the idea of pushing and shoving in a department store at 2am is just a non-starter for me. </p>
<p>Toys R Us is actually opening at 9 pm on Thanksgiving, followed by Walmart at 10 pm. For shoppers who get in line many hours before the opening, doesn’t this interfere with Thanksgiving dinner? And don’t forget the store employees who have to leave THEIR family get-together to go work these crazy hours:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[The</a> Collegian Student employees affected by Black Friday](<a href=“http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2011/11/20/student-employees-affected-by-black-friday/]The”>http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2011/11/20/student-employees-affected-by-black-friday/)</p>
<p>I use to go out on Black Friday – mostly for toys when the kids were little. I am an early riser, so I would leave the kids and husband asleep and then hit Toys R Us. I would never get there for opening and never for any kind of mad rush. </p>
<p>Poetgirl, stores have limited numbers of the hottest/best priced items and that is why folks line up. I hear that some of the deals are incredible – I don’t really know because we are normally a generation behind in most purchases, with the exception of computers and we would never buy those at a big box store anyway.</p>
<p>I have a friend and she has plotted out her morning for herself and her college age children, they have been doing it for years and they have a blast.</p>