We came...we shopped...we conquered.....

Another year down! Once again I braved the crowds, woke up before dawn, and swept up in the bargain department. Black Friday shopping was a HUGE success!!

For the last 10 years I have gone out with the masses to do my shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Over the years I have had different shopping companions but my strategy has always been the same. This year the lucky participant was my cousin Terria, her husband came along just because he wanted to witness the madness. Terria and Joe have never been shopping on this day before and I felt it was my family duty to break them in, just for your entertainment let me review our day for you:

3:20am - my alarm sounds
3:40am - phone call to Terria to tell her I am on my way to pick her up
4:05am - arrive at Kohl's and am happy to see that no one is lined up at the door. Proceed to sit in the parking lot with several others until someone makes a move.
4:15am - a stranger gets out of her car and proceeds to the door, okay, that's it we must get out too. Line up. We are numbers 8 and 9 in line.
4:30am - pleasantly surprised that the local Panera Bread Company is delivery a free breakfast pastry to everyone waiting in line.


Terria happily shows off her free breakfast.



5:00am - The store opens. HERE WE GO! HERE WE GO! HERE WE GO! Terria and I take off in opposite directions with explicit instructions on what we are after.
5:20am - SUCCESS!! We have managed to snag every item we came in for and only had to spend 10 minutes waiting in line to check-out.
5:40am - arrive at Target to find the line wrapped around the building. We decide to wait it out in the car until the store opens at 6am.


This means I have a little more time to go through the ad and prioritize.



6:10am - We're in!! Once again we split up and meet after each of us has rounded up a few items. While we are shopping here I am talking with one of co-workers (Trena) by cell who was shopping at Best Buy. Trena and I exchange lists with each other and plan to meet up later to exchange goods.
7:15am - Get in line to check out. The lines are a little longer now but our spirits are still high. Once again we have obtained everything on our lists!!
7:30am - Arrive at Home Depot with one particular item to buy. Once in the store we ask the nearest worker and are told they just made an announcement that they had one remaining. Began a frantic rush to locate the last one. Luck is on our side today, we got it!! Also managed to pick up a few unexpected but great deals.
8:00am - Go to Sonic to grab a little snack and meet up with Trena to exchange the goods. It's great to have friends on days like this!!
8:45am - Arrive at Belk. No particular items in mind but we figured it can't hurt to check things out. I was able to score 2 sets of pj's for Avery for only $3.73 a set and a new pair of denim capris for me for the bargain price of $5.26. Picked up another couple of items. Cross 2 more people off the list!!
9:30am - Wal-Mart here we come!! Managed to fill up an entire buggy, with no room to waste. Also able to pick up some things that had caught our interest in the ad but were not must-haves.
10:45am - Pit stop at Joe's mom's to drop off some things we had picked up for her. Good thing because we were about to run out of room in the car.
11:15am - Stop at Lowe's. This was the only store we entered today and left without purchasing anything. That's okay, we only stopped 'cause Joe wanted to and we figured since we had been dragging him around for 7 hrs now we might as well "throw him a bone".
11:45am - Kohl's: Round 2. Yes, we came back. We were in such a hurry this morning to grab only the limited quantity items we wanted to return and casually shop some more. We shopped for about an hour and then waited in line 20 minutes to check out. The wait would have been much longer but Joe went and stood in line empty-handed until we were done shopping. We then joined him in line and began to compare "war stories" with everyone around us.
1:05pm - Decide we better call it a day. We have the car filled up, we are dragging because we're exhausted and we're probably running out of money. We have managed to obtain every item we spotted in the various ads. Decide to make one more stop for lunch.
Terria and I standing by the loaded down car. This is not the best picture but I can assure the car was full!! I am happy to say that Terria and Joe did very well on their inaugural black Friday expedition.





I finally arrived home about 3pm and with the exception of two items I am done shopping!!

I had intended to spend the afternoon wrapping presents but decided to have a nap instead. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!!

Anyone want to sign up now to go with me next year????