My Black Friday Experience

    Last year we were in China so I didn't get to go shopping on Black Friday.  As I previewed the ads online I realized there were several things that I would love to get on sale so I decided to go this year.  Because Stefan needed to stay home with the kids, I was going to go by myself.  I planned to go to Toys R Us at 10:00, Walmart at 12:00, and Target at 4:00.  On the way back from Stefan's parent's I decided to call my friend Stephanie to see if she was home and if she had any interest in going shopping all night.  She just happened to be on the way back home from western PA and had wanted to go shopping.  I was so excited to have someone to go with.
    I left my house at 9:30 to go to Toys R Us.  When I got within a 1/2 mile I realized that traffic was not moving at all.  In fact, two lights up from me was NEVER turning green-it was staying red.  A bunch of cars were parking at the mall or other stores and walking up to Toys R Us.  I managed to be able to get up to the highway and go to the next exit because I remembered that there was a side road next to Toys R Us.  I decided to try it to see if I could park closer.  I found a spot along the side of the narrow road and then started weaving my way in and out of the parked cars so I wouldn't get hit.  I realized I forgot my list so I went back to the van and decided to go up to Toys R Us and turn around and park on the other side of the road.  When I got up to the Toys R Us parking lot at 10:30 (doors opened at 10:00), the line to get INTO THE STORE was wrapped from the front all the way around the building almost back to the front again.  I quickly decided that I nothing I wanted at Toys R Us was worth that wait.  I headed to Walmart.
When I got to Walmart at 10:45 all of the sale stuff was on pallets wrapped in plastic or paper.  They had about 100 extra workers guarding the stuff so that it wouldn't be opened until 12:00 when the sale started.  My friend Stephanie was looking for something special (I'm not going to list it in case her children read this!)  so I waited back by that item until she got there at 11:00.  She did end up getting what she wanted when it was finally midnight and I was able to get almost everything I wanted (with the exception of some cheap Wii games and a sheet set).  We only had to wait in line to pay for about 10 minutes even though there were tons of people in line waiting to pay.
    After Walmart we ended up at McDonalds as Stephanie had not eaten since her meal at 2:00. We headed down to Target and pulled into the parking lot around 2:15.  The line was about 1/2 way down the front of the building.  Later on Stephanie asked the people at the front of the line what time they had arrived and they told her they got in line at 7:30 (for a 4 am opening).  We decided to cross the five lane road to get to the outlets.  I am looking for a white sweater for Taylor to go with one of her winter dresses.  They didn't have any in her size at Carters so I checked two other stores.  One of the stores I checked was Children's Place.  I heard that the check out lines were taking 2 HOURS!!!!! I don't believe that anything at Children's Place is worth a 2 hour wait.  They have sales all the time.  We headed back across the street and went to Game Stop.  At 2:50 I told Stephanie I was going to head to the Target line.  The line was now all the way across the front and half way down the side.
At 4:00 we were allowed in the store and Stephanie went one way and I headed back to Electronics (with hundreds of other people).  I wanted to get a Wii Balance Board for $67 and I was able to get it.  We found everything we wanted at Target and then headed to the front to pay.  The man at the front told us to head across the front and we would find the end of the line.  We stood in what we thought was the line for about 20 minutes until we got to the center of the store and were told that we weren't in the line at all.  It started back in electronics went across the back of the store then up to the middle of the store and then back across the whole store until it turned to the back and then went up the perimeter to the front and across the front wall to get to the cash registers.  We waited a total of 50 MINTUES to check out at Target.  I have to say that Walmart was SOOO much faster at checking people out.
We ended up back at Walmart at 5:45 to get cameras and we didn't have to wait at all to check out.  I finally headed home where I slept from 7-11.  I felt pretty good until I fell back asleep at 5:00 and Taylor woke me up a little after 6:00.  I didn't feel too great after that nap.
Stefan would not have liked the whole experience so I am glad that I got to do it with Stephanie.