I’m looking forward to it. I rarely buy presents for other people on Black Friday (since I pick things up all year as I find them), but I take the opportunity to get myself stuff I need or want for good sale prices. For example, one year I found a good microwave oven for $20 after rebates, and I needed it because I was moving at the time. This year I want a good digital camera, I need a new printer, and the Nintendo Gamecube with four Zelda games is going to be marked down to $80 at Wal-Mart… almost sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.
When I worked in retail, I loved that day! Swarms of people loading up my commissions check. 
Some of my workmates would get all freaked out and hassled by the rush, but I (and a couple of others) thrived on it.
As a customer, I would go if a certain offer was so outrageous as to make it worth it. Like a Sony 27" for $100.00 for the first hour only, or something like that.
Moving crowds don’t bother me. I guess because I can really take care of myself, if you know what I mean. Stationary crowding, though, like in an elevator, freaks me out.
Me? Get out of a warm bed on Friday morning and go to the store so I can look at stuff I can’t afford to buy? Um, no thanks.
I’ve never heard it called Black Friday.
I, however, was scheduled to work at my previous job (a MAJOR electronics chain with an alliterative name) at 3 am. 3 am the day after Thanksgiving. That was just one of the myriad of reasons I quit that job. (on of the other major ones was there was no time off between September 15 and January 15th.) So the ladies that were pregnant at the time better find a doctor with an open schedule, because if they needed time off for a check up, tough luck.
I don’t go shopping on that day because I value my health and my life. Everyone’s seen the stories of the people getting trampled and hurt because pushing or ‘standing in line rage’.
I’ll go next weekend, thanks.
I never go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. No way.
Humm. I’m sort of sad there isn’t a similar thing here in Canada (we celebrate Thanksgiving in Oct.) - it sounds like fun.
Oh well - I’ll go shopping this weekend anyway. It’s my favorite hobby. Really.
She was a scheduled c-section (we knew she was gonna be huge, and she was. . .just two ounces shy of 13 lbs.). So, she was indeed born Dec. 29th. As for your mother, well, I guess she managed. Actually, I would have been okay, too, even having to shop in stores, if not for the health problems and partial bedrest. The one time in November of that year that I had to go to Sam’s Club, I ended up using one of those electric carts that handicapped people use. If online shopping hadn’t been an option, I guess I could have catalog shopped.
I did once, last year. Wal-Mart had a TV on sale for $100, and it was worth the trouble.
Same here, actually. I ordered my stuff for my girlfriend around the middle of the month and bought the rest about a week ago, including some schwag for me.
Having faced the insane mobs on Black Friday: Like hell!
Yes, I shop the day after Thanksgiving, last year at a huge mall near San Jose and this year at a huge outlet mall. One of my nurse pals and I will tear a chunk out of that place!
I’m in the “Hell, no!” camp and I’ll throw in a shudder. I don’t particularly like crowds or shopping, and I spent a few years in retail working that day so, like most of the rest of my family, I make my goal to stay away from malls. Actually, for the next month or so, the less time I spend in shopping malls, the better, although I’ve still got a few gifts to buy. Better Siege than besieged! 
CJ
I’ll have my eye on FatWallet, Amazon, CompUSA and a couple local retailers. When possible, I try to buy things online rather than endure whining children, screaming shoppers, pushy people (fair warning, I’ll return that elbow or attempt at sneaking in front of me with a shoulder check) and the ever popular obsequious or entirley absent sales staff - never a happy medium there.
Besides, I’ll be at work on Friday. Somebody has to be here to make sure the ATMs, your checkbook and credit cards work!
Years ago when I worked retail, everyone in the store made a point of dressing entirely in black for the day, in “mourning” for the start of Christmas shopping season. 
The earliest we ever opened though was 8 AM.
In answer to the OP - no way in hell would I actually shop on Black Friday. I can’t stand having to fight through the crowd. Saturday evening is much more reasonable; around here, the stores are usually dead after 6 or 7 PM.
Huge hijack:
As someone with two kids who weighed five and six pounds each, I just have to say, “Holey Moley!”
Damn. My two kids combined didn’t weigh as much as your one kid!
Your darn tooting I’ll be out. I’m leaving at 4 am to get in line at a local Toys R Us. From there it’s to Mervyn’s then the Bon. I hope to hit a Wal-Mart by 10 and a Target by lunch time. If all goes as planned, most of my shopping will be done. And I have cheated too, I already have all the sale papers that will be in Thursday’s newspaper. Play Doh and Hot Wheels cars for 19 cents, watch out!!!
Sweet baby Jesus, no. I despise the mall under the best of circumstances, and battling hordes of retail-crazed maniacs is far from the best of circumstances.
Yeah, I know. I had her at a hospital that did not have a pediatrics unit; they had to send a nurse to the nearest hospital that did have a peds unit to get diapers for her; no way in hell the size 1 diapers they stocked in the nursery were fitting on her huge butt! She was delivered in a Catholic hospital, and one of the nuns there hand-made her a receiving blanket, because the ones in the nursery wouldn’t wrap around her properly!
Not anymore. It’s just not worth it. And I have to work this Friday, more than likely.
Another “never heard it called that”.
I don’t go near malls or department stores any time of year.
I will be scoping out ads on Thursday though. But for “standalone” type stores. If there is a really, really, good one, then I’ll be there ready for the store opening. (I have also gone out late in the day for a deal I know that only a few people will go for, so it will probably still be in stock.)
Except for advertised great deals, I completely ignore what retailers consider their shopping season.
I do. My best friend and I consider it an adventure 