Black Friday

Over the years I've gotten up early to "shop" on the day after Thanksgiving. Today was one of those days.

I hit North Neil Street about quarter to 7 and encountered the expected snarl of traffic. My first stop was Kohl's, and my usual entrance to their parking lot was a bit of a jam so I went around all that and entered from the east.

Upon entering Kohl's I headed straight for the women's clothes. I've found "bargains" here on past after-Thanksgiving shopping ventures. It was clear to me that the amount of shoppers was much larger that I expected as I saw that the line for the checkout stations extended through the main aisle clear around the store. I got to the women's section only to find it is now petites. Why do that do that? Six months from now it will be women's again. They've done this before ... flip-flopped between women's and petites.

I continued circling through the main aisle -- made much more difficult to navigate because of all the merchandise displayed in the middle of the aisle. It became clear to me that even if I found something to buy, I wasn't going to wait in the checkout lines. I never did find see where the women's section had been moved.

So I left Kohl's and went next door to Office Depot wanting to purchase a new 2009 appointment calendar for Mom. Here again, the checkout lines were long, and I knew I wouldn't want to wait in them in order to purchase just that calendar.

By now it is after 7:00 so I headed next door to Hancock Fabrics. It was closed with holiday hours posted saying it would open at 8 a.m. What? How un-American .... not opening before 8:00 on the day after Thanksgiving?????

I then headed for the mall where I had a couple specific things I was looking for. I entered through Bergners, and once again, navigated around merchandise displayed in the middle of the aisles. Crazy. There were lots of people, although not too many children, thank goodness.

I went to Macy's. More merchandise-filled aisles. I contemplated a couple things there, but passed on them. Next, CJ Banks where it was mercifully peaceful without lots of shoppers. Skipped Sears. I figured they probably didn't have anything that would appeal to me. Back to Penney's. Long lines again. Then back to Bergners.

I've been wanting one of those waffle makers that flip over to cook like motels have. Bergners had one advertised for half price. I looked at it -- displayed in the middle of an aisle, of course -- and didn't recognize the brand and thought it looked kind of chintzy. I thumbed through the instruction booklet, but it didn't have a waffle recipe so I decided this wasn't the waffle maker for me. As I was exiting the store I passed a whole row of 5-piece luggage sets -- in the aisles .... where else? I've been wanting to get us a couple pieces of "real" luggage to replace the make-shift totes we've been using. This set totaled $50 (regular $200 -- yeah, I believe that!), and I decided to purchase a set. The biggest problem will be where to store them.

Now headed back home -- it's 8:00, been out "shopping" for just over an hour -- I rememberd CVS Pharmacy had a waffle maker advertised for cheaper than the one at Bergners. I decided that if I was going to own a chintzy waffle maker, it might as well be a cheap one, so I purchased it. Don't know where I'll store this either.

And that is my big Black Friday adventure. The number of people in the stores was truly awful. I hope that I will remember that next year when I'm tempted to see what bargains I might find.

P.S. Patrick and I plan to venture out later this afternoon to try to buy his Christmas gift, a new iPod.