This 'might' be what I'm doing RIGHT NOW!It's 4am and very 'black' on this dark November morning. I'm planning on going to the infamous Walmart Black friday sale with my mother, sans makeup, sans sleep, sans sunlight, sans sanity.
I will let you know how it goes....
Update: Well, I'm back. A little tired, a little wiser. This was my first black friday doorbuster experience and I really did not know what to expect. If any of you considered going to Walmart on Black Friday or plan to try it in the future I have some sage wisdom to grant.
Walmart places sale items in different areas of the store to spread out the crowds and handed out tickets for the most popular items. If you wanted to get a popular item you had to be there early enough to get a ticket. These were mostly tvs and computers.
GPSs, blurays and smaller ticket sale items were first come first serve which got a little crazy. You had to come prepared with a map of where each sale item was in the store if you wanted to get there first. At 5am, employees tore off the wrapping paper from the skids and all it was every man for himself.
I think a lot of people shy away from Walmart because of it's reputation for chaos. However (despite the above photo I used) there was no mad dash. Mostly slow shuffling between A LOT of people. Not that pleasant either.
Here's one positive that might go unnoticed: It's warm. Target and Best Buy opened their doors at 5am. People literally slept in tents and waiting for hours in the cold. At Walmart you could come at midnight and walk around the store and shop, do your groceries, eat at McDonalds. If I were to do this again, I'd stay up all night. I'd get to Walmart around 2 or 3am. Get my tickets. Get all my grocery shopping done. Put my groceries in my car. Go back inside and wait for 5am to roll around. Maybe eat at McDonald's if I got bored. If you have your ticket, you don't have to push through any crowds. You can just pickup your item from an associate.
Negatives: Crowded. I parked, literally, 2 football fields length away from the entrance. Never in all my life have I seen Walmart so packed. If you had a cart you couldn't get anywhere. You really need two people. One to dart through the crowds, one to watch the filled cart. Some areas were so tightly packed with people you had to abandon any hope of entry (ie the toy department).
Long lines. Every checkout line stretched to the middle of the store. It took me 20 minutes to get a Sausage Biscuit at the in-store McDonald's.
Surprisingly, I would do it again. It was an experience. I'll give it that.
Like not spending money? 
3 {comments}:
Perfect Stocking Stuffers
http://www.simplycouture.etsy.com
I like your blog and that means I think I would like you personally. I'm sure if I met you at a party and you told me you did this, I'd be surprised to learn it about you since your blog seems to be all about handmade and not very commercial. I'm curious what you bought, how much you think you saved and how much time you spent total.
Being self-employed, I value my time like a currency. There's not one single product sold in Walmart worth standing in a line outside in the cold for, much less risking being trampled by a crowd for.
I'm with Aubrey - buy handmade - from Etsy sellers. Give our planet a break.
tcarole,
I think you read my blog and if so you definitely know I love love love etsy sellers. I feature them constantly both as giveaways and sponsors.
But, I'm not ashamed to admit that I like electronics too. I'm quite the gadget geek. Walmart had GPS units for $59. Normally they're twice that price. I bought one for my dad and one for my mom. I saved about $120 on those.
I don't think it's stepping on any etsy seller toes to purchase a GPS unit. If I knew how to handmake a DVD player I'd much rather do that than pay money for one.
I give both handmade and electronic gifts to my family. I plan on making embroidered homemade handkerchiefs to my dad as well. I think a mix is a good thing.
As for the standing in the cold, I'm so not the type of person to wait in line let alone in the cold. I liked Walmart because it's open 24 hours a day and you could wait inside. In answer to your other question, I was there about an hour, and we were home around 6:30am. I went to bed just after.
They had some other really good deals. I won't go into details but I can understand how in this economy someone would want to save $200 on a laptop for their son or daughter.
I hope I didn't offend you in my response. I'm just being honest about the whole black friday thing. This is the first year I've done it and if it saved me a couple hundred dollars on a few big ticket items I wanted to check off my list I still think it was worth it, for me.
I hope you still enjoy Grosgrain.
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