After much thought, consideration, planning, and a few spaz outs…I decided to attempt Black Friday this year. Prior to last night/this morning, I hadn’t done the Black Friday thing since highschool. I’m more of a Cyber Monday kinda girl. Plus with the way things have gone the past several years, I’ve noticed that you can get some really awesome deals each weekend that leads up to Christmas.
But this year, I had something I wanted and I didn’t want to take the chance of it not working out for me. Every year {most} I like to get a gift for the family or a household gift. It’s something that we all will use and hopefully enjoy. This year it’s the Xbox Kinect. We already have XBox 360 and when the Kinect came out I knew that it was something I wanted. I’m not a video game girl at all. When the Nintendo Wii came out, it didn’t interest me….but the Kinect…it’s oh so different. I was very excited to get it and now I can’t wait to use it!
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been scoping out the Black Friday ads and they all (Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Kmart) had the same price for the Kinect: $99. It retails for $149.99. But Target had something the others didn’t…an extra game…that made the value go up to $199.99!! The extra game is Wipeout and I particularly don’t want the game, I was gonna sell it for a game I did want at Game Stop or something, but DH thinks he wants to keep it, so the jury is still out on that.
Aside from the Kinect the other item I wanted to get was this huge Farberware cookware set for only $39.99. It’s a freakin huge set!!! And it comes with cooking utensils too, which we were in need of both!! And no, this isn’t one of those flimsy sets they sell during back to college time either. The set retails for $79.99 and the utensils are a bonus and it’s a brand I know.
Like I said before, it took a lot of thought etc, for me to decide to venture out. But I figured, I can handle midnight. I would rather do Target over Walmart. It’s not uber cold out….let’s do this! So me and my friend went to Target’s 2 Day Sale.
So let’s talk about the experience shall we.
We arrive at Target at about a quarter to 11. Of course there’s a line, but in my opinion it wasn’t too bad. I was the optimist. Now if you live in my city you know what I’m talking about, but for the rest of ya just imagine your average strip mall. Target is one of the middle stores. From Target down it looks sort of something like this:
Target Shoe Carnival TJMaxx Dress Barn Nail Shop Chinese Rest. Pizza Harris Teeter
So when we made it to the end of the line we started at Grand China Buffet. That’s quite a ways away! But eventually we became the middle and it felt good to be where we were. The line inched up every so often and before you knew it the countdown was on from being thirty minutes, fifteen minutes, etc before the doors would open. SN: By the time the doors did open my phone was already on the red bar. Story of my life, when I need my phone to charge it won’t. Therefore when I need it to entertain me it lets me down O_o
There were quite a few hiccups along this journey. For starters, we were told there would be carts inside…we get inside…no carts. No bueno when my friend was trying to get a huge a$$ tv. So the tv she wanted was gone already but she got her second choice and I ran off to get a cart. Thankfully I found one quickly and we were off to get my prize. Hiccup #2. There were maps of these huge specials and if your item was on that map then that’s where it was instead of its “typical” location. So I run off to find my Kinect in the atypical location that the map suggests. It’s not there. That means it’s in electronics. That means I’m screwed. So at this point I’m closer to housewares, so I run off to get my cookware set. Score! It’s there.
At this point I’m not with my friend, I have to find her to put this in the cart that she can barely see around with this 40″ tv in it. I have to get into the line that goes to electronics. This line I also would like to call: the line to hell. This line started up near the seasonal/snack aisle all alongside the side wall of the store, past the pharmacy and into a door that would not normally be open to the public to allow access into the electronics department. Now I haven’t been to many Targets, but the normal entrance into electronics isn’t very large…that was to serve as the exit out of electronics.
So here we are in line. The line outside of electronics eventually seemed to move and I was in. That’s where the problem started. Up to this point I didn’t have a problem with the crowds or anything like that. But this was where things began to unravel. Once I got into electronics that’s all I could do. I couldn’t move. Especially with this cart and this tv. I had to get an associate to get the Kinect for me. Got it. Great. Hold up. Not great yet. I still can’t move. During this time of not being able to move, I get to thinking…where’s the Wipeout game that’s the bonus? So now I’m getting ill and paranoid because I don’t want to miss out on the extra game because I can’t move to go get it my own self!
I am not lying or joking when I say that we barely moved a few inches within 30 minutes. Next thing I know it was an hour…we had moved, but not by much. Long story short…turns out there was some confusion about what lines were what, creating a pileup on that entire side of electronics. So you have a ton of people trying to check out in electronics on top of people just trying to maneuver around in electronics. So once they got that resolved, there was also the issue of those that were buying things in electronics like that, had to checkout in electronics. There were only two cashiers. One of which was very slow. Plus there was a price check issue. And if I overheard correctly, someone was actually trying to fill out a Target Redcard application…like really?? Eventually someone with some sense decided to relieve our cashier and the line started moving.
As we were able to inch up slowly, I was able to go ask the guy about the Wipeout game. He said they were sold out. I swore I saw it. So I go back to my cart pissed off that I didn’t get it. But when we were up by the register, I saw the game in the cage that’s supposed to be locked but it wasn’t. And there it said plain as day that it was free with purchase of the Kinect. I was like this mofo…but I was happy I got my game! Then we were checked out and just had to be able to get out of the store.
Let me also point out that Target needs to step up their security game. When we walked out of the store with this huge tv, an Ipod touch, a Kinect and a cookware set, there was no one checking our receipts. We just walked out the door. Now I’m sure that at least for the small items the electronic sensor was disabled when we checked out…but still, we could have just walked out with the stuff…now ain’t that some ish?
By the time we left Target it was 2:25am and I was beyond exhausted. The trip wasn’t that bad if it wasn’t for that electronics department ordeal. The waiting to get into the store was completely bearable It’s the standing in the electronics dept for over an hour for absolutely no real good reason that I wasn’t down for. But thankfully there were no fights or altercations or any pepper spray involved as I’ve heard has happened at other stores. I don’t know if I will do it again…it would have to be for something I really really want or need like this time. The consequence to Black Friday shopping like that is that I slept all day today and it’s been hard to function. Next year I will plan for it because I would like to do it for appliances like a new washer/dryer or maybe a new tv…who knows. I just know that I’m glad that I got what I wanted and I don’t want to think about Black Friday again until next year!
I honestly don’t know how people can do this at more than one store!! I’m sooo exhausted. I was woken up by my kids at almost 9am. I never sleep that late. That’s after getting to be about a little after 3am. As I was pulling into my driveway my aunt in law/neighbor was pulling off to go to Belks! So I was up long enough to get the kids situated, get some coffee in me and then I told DH I had to go back to sleep. I don’t think I’ve slept so hard in so long. Next thing I know he’s telling me to wake up because he was going to the movies. This was about 1pm. The rest of the day has been in a haze. I did go back out some, even braved Walmart, but I’m beyond sleepy and exhausted. The question is…will I go again? lol
**sorry for the long post but hope you stuck it out!
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