I’m not. But I have the benefit of only having one person to buy gifts for. (no, kids, just a wife).
A coworker told me the other day how she plans on going out around 3am to get in line for the Black Friday rush.
Theres no way I could do that. Are the deals that good? My wife works in retail and I am a little bit concerned about the wacky stuff people do in a shopping frenzy. Remember, last year some poor guy got trampled in New York.
I’ve looked through the ads and didn’t see anything that would have me shopping, however there’s a deal on Thursday at KMart for an 8GB flash drive for $10. So I might try and pick up a couple of those.
I may get up early and eat at a local restaurant that is giving away free breakfast entrees between 4am and 5am, my SO is always up at that time and I know he wants to go. So we’ll probably do that.
This will be the first year in a decade we’re not really doing the whole Black Friday thing. In the past we’d meet up with a group of friends at 4am, plan of attack in hand. This year just TheKid and I will be hitting Menards and maybe KMart, but that’s it.
stpauler - free breakfast? Where?
I will not join the crowds. The sales aren’t worth my aggravation. I’d rather watch stupid daytime TV programming than go near a mall on Black Friday. (despite my being … well, you know… a Black Chick)
Any of the “Blue Plate” restaurants:
Edina Grill, Longfellow Grill, Highland Grill, and 3 Squares.
4-5am free breakfast entree
5-6am 75% off any breakfast entree
6-7am 50% off any breakfast entree
Oh hell no. Let me amend that, no fucking way will I fight with crowds that are abusive to customer service people to save $.29 on something I really don’t need. I really wish business would give the poor people a break and let them have the day off.
No way. I don’t see the point.
Good lord no! I hate huge crowds! I don’t even want to be driving that day, but I’ll have to be.
Besides, I have all my shopping done.
Never. I don’t like crowds; there’s usually nothing I’m interested in buying; the best deals are scams; and the items will be on sale the entire month anyway.
I really don’t see why it’s worth the aggravation.
Worse… I’m *working *it.
Not if you woke me at 4 a.m. with either a gun to my head and orders to get up and out of the house - or - if you gave me a wad of $100 bills. Thanksgiving kicks my ass as no other day - I have to do ALL the work, in TWO households, and the day after I am near-comatose. I spend it sitting on the couch, wrapped in my blankie, watching whatever TV marathon is on. Hopefully House, Dirty Jobs, or Deadliest Catch. No, black Friday shopping is, like attending an all-night rave, an activity for the young and vigorous!
I’m thinking this should be in the IMHO forumm (would do good with a poll too), but I’m not a mod, so …
As to shopping on Black Friday, why the hell not? I’m Canadian, so … 
(hell, any of you Yanks feel pressured just take a drive up north and find regular mall crowds!) We even had Thanksgiving already (6 weeks ago), so you don’t even have to worry about feeding us, we’re still full!
In Canada, the equivalent to your Black Friday I guess is Boxing Day, where everyone, especially the big box retailers (no relation to day name) has their ginormous sales, several with long lineups at the door on midnight to get things like an 18th century mohagony table for 89 cents or something like that. However, Boxing Day is December 26, I still have yet to figure out why people do massive shopping after Christmas, at least Black Friday makes sense! (Well, it works for me in a way because my sister’s birthday is December 31, so I usually get her gift after Christmas).
My poor roomie has to be at his job at 5 am. I will almost certainly not be out shopping. But I may do a little internet shopping.
I prefer to pay the extra $100 for my merchandise and consider it the “not waiting in line in the freezing cold for six hours while battling other shoppers for three items” fee.
I used to, but I have very few people to shop for this year, so fuck it. I’m sleepin’ in.
Amazon.com shall be my gift chariot this year!
Yeah, but probably not until 10 or 11, whenever we get up and ready. We don’t buy the big-ticket items that really go on sale that early, and I’m not looking for anything specific, but I do like to go and see what deals I can find, especially since I still have some Christmas shopping to do, but have no idea what I’m getting a few people.
A lot of stores are extending their sales all day this year, too. Target definitely is, they open at 5am, but their sales are going on all day - some are even starting on Wednesday, to drum up more business.
Seeing as rent is due a few days later (what I like to call Gray Tuesday) I think not.
Actually, I typically spend the day after Thanksgiving hosting a gingerbread house making party. So although I don’t shop, I’m up at the ass-crack of dawn making the gingerbread pieces.
(I supply the house parts & royal icing, my guests bring bagfuls of candies and other construction type items.)
I may do some online shopping between batches.
Nope, never have, never will, I hate crowds, especially Ill-behaved, frenzied crowds
Sure I am. I find it festive. I don’t even really have plans to buy anything this year. I just like the experience. We avoid Wal-Mart, though. The people there tend to be a little more confrontational. The crowds at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Target are much friendlier, especially earlier in the morning before people start to burn out. My mom and sister and I usually start around 4 AM and then knock off for lunch around 1 PM. Good times.
:o My condolences!
I went out once. The first Thanksgiving I hosted, I was tearing down the turkey carcass to make stock, and realized I did not have a large enough stock pot. So, off I went the very next day. I went to a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which itself did not have big crowds, and although it was in the same strip mall as a Best Buy and a Toys-R-Us, I was fortunate in that there was an access road between those halves of the mall, controlled by a stoplight, so it was separated physically from the crowds over there and from most people looking for parking. Got in, grabbed a great stockpot (with deep and shallow steamer inserts), got out.