In light of the pending shopping insanity, I’m moved to ask about the times you risked life and limb to get a great deal… or to be the first one to own [x], be it a giant TV or tickets to see a favorite performer.
I’ll also accept stories of crazy relatives or friends (because we’d never do things like this) who camped out to get a great deal on a toaster oven.
Happy Moanday!
Me? Never (literally – never). I have a friend at work who camps overnight in front of the Apple store to get their latest iBauble. He does this repeatedly and proudly displays his latest acquisition to us the next morning. Another co-worker loves Black Friday and considers it a “contact sport” (her words).
And so I share my one and only tale of shame. It would have been the middle 90s when we were still living in FL. WalMart was going to have great deals on rollerblades and my daughter really wanted some. Now that particular store never closed, so there was no crowd at the door, but there were a bunch of us milling about inside, waiting for the magical hour.
I got caught up in the crazy. Not only did I get the rollerblades, but I loaded my cart with all kinds of crap - even a set of dishes! The total came to way more than I should have been spending at that point, but I was feeling so generous towards all and sundry.
Then I got home and unpacked the car. The moment of “What the $&^#@ did I just do??” hit me when I opened the set of dishes and saw what cheap, ugly crap they really were. So I sorted my purchases, reloaded the car a few days later, and made a huge return. And I never did anything like that ever again.
We shall see if grandmotherhood has any effect on my shopping… 
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN 'Tis 45 Amurrkin out and fair (well, dark) with a predicted high of 71 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. Today I shall spiff da cave and do some prep stuff for the big feast. Tonight is men’s night over to the church house so that takes care of sup.
I have shopped on dreaded Black Friday a few times in the past. I remember one year there was a big deal on tvs and vcrs (this was back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) at Montgomery Ward (further proof of this bein’ the age of dinosaurs) and I was there at four a.m. and waited two hours. A couple other folks were already there and by six when the store opened there was a huge crowd. However, I got in, got my tv and vcr and was outta there all within fifteen minutes. Also did that once for a dvd player a few years back. Now I would not even consider such a thing. Then again, due to the majik of teh intartoobz I can tell my computer what I want, give it a credit card number and the objects of my desire appear at my front door a few days later.
MOOOOOOM I am sure that if Roxstar is desirous of whatever the latest, greatest, just gotta have toy or gadget, you will camp out in front of :eek:Wally*World:eek: or wherever for at least a week before to make sure she gets whatever that may be. 
The big question is, will you be the grandparent whos quest is to make sure she has one of everything in the world. Some grandparents do that you know.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day. Rah.
Happy Moanday Y’all!
Mom: I’ve never been caught up in that kind of crazy, and can’t afford it anymore anyway, so I’m not too worried about it. This week I might get a $20 haircut, but I don’t need to buy gasoline, and I might stop at Publix for a couple of things, but the entire “HEY, YOU CAN SPEND CREDIT LIKE YOU’RE CRAZY (BECAUSE YOU ARE IF YOU DO IT)” thing just entirely escapes me. I don’t have a dog, horse, cat, or anything like that, so that’s not a consideration, either. As for the ads on TV about all the “FREE! STUFF!” to try, well, that’s just window dressing for “YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET SCREWED”. I drive a 2013 Ford Explorer, and marvel that Ford makes offers in advertising about taking $10K+ off the list price of a truck, “somehow”. And don’t even get me started about how sick I am of seeing TV ads which consist largely of people “swiping” on their smart-phones!!! I will be empowered to endure Thanksgiving dinner or something with a small subset of family this week, and I swear if anyone starts playing with their phone while I’m trying to have a conversation I just might produce my pistol (in the most non-threatening way possible, of course), field-strip and clean and reassemble it, as loudly as possible![/rant]
I may be one of those grandparents who gives a set of drums… once she’s not living with us. 
Happy Moonday!
It’s a cloudy 36 degrees outsside with a high fo 49 predicted.
I can live with that.
I woke up around 4 and couldn’t get back to sleep until right before the alarm went off.
I feel like hell.
I can’t say I ever got into the BF craziness, but I now others who have. Like Pullin, I have that one friend who considers it a contact sport, well used to anyway, she is in her 50s now and has slowed down a bit.
I hate shopping, I hate crowds, I hate noise, I hate being hot, I hate standing in line, I hate looking for a parking space, I hate traffic, I hate Christmas muzak, and like Swampy, why go out in all that mess, disorder, and chaos when one can order online.
I love da jungle.
I found things in there that I didn’t even know existed, let alone know I needed. 
I haven’t even start my Christmas shopping, and I like to be done by Thanksgiving.
I think everybody is getting gift cards this year, except for my mother and the two younger boys. My mother is pretty easy though, she likes different flavored teas and sweet treats. Her house is already overstuffed, so I get her consumables.
Today is Moonday and that is clean the kitchen day. Not a whole lot to do there. I need to change my irk schedule for this week.
My niece is hosting Thanksgiving this year.
Morning all.
Count me among those who don’t like to stand in lines waiting for a bargin. The only times I’ve gone somewhere early to be among the first in line is for something I want to do, like at Amusement Parks. Shopping just doesn’t excite me that much.
Have stopped mail and newspaper for my journey up to my Brother’s house for Thanksgiving. Need to pay credit card bills and do some packing before my Wednesday departure, but otherwise nothing critical. Weather looks to be fair for the trip, rain this evening is predicted, but dry on Wednesday and Sunday, my travel days.
Sari, I do gift cards too; been Barnes and Nobles for many years, may ask them if they want something different this year.
FCM, what happened to you is why stores do this whole shtick; get the suckers in for one thing and they’ll buy more. You were one of the smart ones who caught on.
The only sale I get excited about and carried away with is the end of season seed sale at the garden centre, when everything gets marked down to 50p. They dump everything into one big heap or several buckets, all mixed up. Instead of being competitive though, it turns into a cooperative game half the time; everyone’s normally looking for something specific, plus whatever else looks interesting, so I generally check what everyone else is after, in case I find it, and it turns into a big gardening discussion with total strangers. I do try and be there in the first day, before all the best stuff’s gone.
In a big year, I might spend as much as £10 :eek: getting enough seeds to keep me going all through the next summer.
Laazy start this morning; I’m not playing with tiny plants today 'cos the lady running the place has a meeting 'til 2, but I was planning on going to the garden centre to play with bigger ones.
That’s been a bit scuppered by me not getting to sleep til really late last night, then when I finally did, not waking up 'til 10.30. By the time I got properly up, it was practically lunch time.
I’m a bit concerned as well 'cos my phone suddenly went totally flat overnight, from 100% to dead, which is a new one. I keep it in the room as an alarm, though I hadn’t set to today, 'cos I was planning on a bit of a lie in, if not one that long; I never play with it and on the rare occasion it goes off it’s almost always something I need to know, like my boss phoning to change a shift, but if it’s gonna start doing that, that’s a problem.
The most I’ve ever done was wait in front of a Best Buy for an hour when a certain tablet went on a fire sale at around 80% off (back when tablet were new and exciting technology).
My mother and sister though are Black Friday and sale pros, getting out early, waiting in lines and scoring all the deals. Two years in a row for some furniture store’s big annual sale, she was first in line when they opened and scored a $500 gift certificate for her efforts and a $250 certificate for my second place sister. The sale was in January or February, meaning she hung around with my sister for nearly 12 hours in the Chicago winter night, armed with blankets and a thermos of hot chocolate. But, hey, she knew what she was getting into.
I partake in the madness. Each year there’s usually something, but nothing huge or mindblowing. But when you’re dirt broke, a half-price scooter for your kid is the only way to afford something for Christmas. And the only way to get a half-price scooter is to deal with the crazies on Black Friday.
I kind of like it, though. I grew up when Black Friday first became a marketable thing. My mom would curate the ads on Thanksgiving, figure out which kid could come with to which store (as in, which kid she wasn’t buying for at that store), make lists and arrange transport with my dad. She’d have a kid or two standing in line at one store to get a door buster, my dad would have a kid or two with him at another store. We’d get our deals, check out and get to the next store, with some kid swapping and driving between sometimes. It’s a fond memory of my childhood, hanging out with my mom in the pitch blackness of 4 am, chatting about life and shopping strategy.
I wouldn’t step foot in a mall or Walmart on Black Friday. It might as well be renamed to Purge Friday. It’s a single, scheduled day of every year when violent crime is expected and celebrated… largely without consequence.
I’m not getting murdered for a radio controlled toy car. Nope, I’ll be safely at home watching the stampeded and fist fight videos trickle into Youtube.
The closest I come is back in the early 80s the day after Christmas. We had our first house, not much else, not a lot of money - but we knew we could make what we had count in the after-Christmas sales. Plus back then we had people to shop for and could stash things aside for next year. It seemed perfect -------- except for that predicted blizzard thing. We played it smart and used the bus and trolley to get to our favorite mall on the opposite side of the county and shopped until we dropped. And then had to figure out how to get everything home. I had thought ahead and packed a couple surplus duffel bags along so we crammed everything in the two of those and started our journey home through 16-20 inches of the white stuff. It wasn’t our vehicle or insurance but it was still a 4 hour adventure with me pack-mule for better than 150 pounds and the OW toting some big bags as well. All ended up fine and we actually still use some of the things we snagged then but --------- never again. Not even for 80% everything must go. We can afford to be lazy and smart these days.
We’re the Anything Store and we love you too!
Speaking of which we may get volume from Baltimore starting this week. If so I may be a stranger (like I ain’t strange now) around these parts. Have to run out shortly and get my last trim before serious and not serious Santa things start. Santarchy is next SATURDAY!!!
(the 1st for anyone feeling a road trip to punish their liver)
For the most part, I skip the BF madness. I do like to check out the ads for some of the businesses near me and see if they actually have any exceptionally good deals. IF it’s a really good deal for something that I actually need then,yeah, maybe I’ll face the crowds. Even then though, I’m not going to stand in line to be the first through the door. That’s just silly. If it can’t wait until 10AM, I don’t need it.
I have never done Black Friday. There is nothing I need. However, I have done the day after Christmas thing, back when there were good markdowns at Marshall Fields (shows how long ago that was).
Oh, good lord. You just made me remember some childhood insanity, circa 1984. My mother used to hit the mall the day after Christmas and buy up wrapping paper at 90% off for the next year. One year she had to work the 26th so she dropped my sister and I off at the mall on the way to work at something like 7am. Mind you, I think I was maybe 11 and she was 13. A security guard let us in an hour early at 8ish and we loitered around until 9am when the stores opened. Then we split up and purchased discount wrapping paper out of our $40 allotment or whatever we were given for the next six hours until we got picked up.
When I make seedy purchases, I wear a long overcoat & don’t talk to anyone. :o
Don’t do Black Friday; sleep in & recover from Thanksgiving; though I frequently bought the Thanksgiving paper to get all of the circulars to see sales that weren’t doorbusters but available the rest of the wickend.
Sahirrnee, I hate to say it, but I think you need to be tested for sleep apnea. I’m sure Ripple will be amused.
Half the local radio stations that were listenable have flipped to hexmass music. For the record, the only Christmas music I can listen to for hours comes from Bob Rivers.
Or Red Peters
It’s my bladder that wakes me. If I can get up and get back in bed without waking all the way up I’m good.
I couldn’t be more proud, Ripple caught his first mouse today. What great fun he had, although I couldn’t get him to take it outside to play with it.
He killed it a lot more quickly that the cat does.
I told the cat his job is redundant and he’d better be careful.
He just yawned, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.