Last night two of my nieces (Paige & Haleigh) came to spend the night so that we could shop the Black Friday sales together. We did this last year and it was so much fun that I was really looking forward to shopping with them again this year.
We scoured the ads and decided which stores we wanted to go to and we then decided that this year we would not wait until morning to begin. So we all got ready and headed to Best Buy at 11:30 so that we could be there when they opened at midnight. We pulled into the parking lot and saw very few open parking spaces and an extremely long line of people waiting outside for the doors to open. For those of you who live in Wichita; the line started at the Best Buy door, headed east down the strip mall clear past Office Depot's door.
Check out the picture below of part of the line. We were all appalled at the amount of trash flying in the streets from these people just throwing wrappers, cups, bags, etc into the street.
We waited on that long line of people to file into the store and then we headed in, with a mission to find our Garmin. It was CRAZY, people were rude, the lines were long, and you could barely get through the crowd to find the item you were shopping for. In fact, when we left the store we saw a friend of mine in the parking lot. She and her friend had just gotten mad and left the store without buying what they were shopping for because they were so disgusted. Although frustrating, we did get our Garmin (which Don and I are thrilled about. We have wanted one for several years and now we finally have one!) and left feeling happy with our accomplishment.
We then shopped Target, where we stood in an even longer line and made $25 in impulse purchases while snaking through the store. But we did leave with our bargains we went there to purchase and another name got checked off the list.
When we left Target it was around 2:30 so we headed to IHOP to have breakfast. Once again we had a long wait. We finished our breakfast and made it to Sears shortly after they opened at 4 AM. Sears was much nicer to navigate and there was only a 5 minute wait in the check out lane - another name checked off the list!
We left Sears and went to Kohl's. Unfortunately the line at Kohl's was longer than I wanted to navigate to pay for my one set of sheets I wanted to purchase, so we ditched the sheets and left the store. We headed to Gordman's made it there at their opening time of 5 AM. Believe it or not there were more people at Gordman's than there were at Best Buy. I have yet to figure out what the big deal was. It was almost 5:30 by the time all the people in line got into the store and we could then go in. The girls did some shopping in Gordman's. As any of you Black Friday shoppers know this is not a good time to shop - as in looking around to see what you might like to buy. Once the girls were satisfied that they had what they wanted we set out to find the end of the line. I think it took us almost 10 minutes just to find the end of the line. Then we began to wait . . . . and wait . . . . and wait . . . . and wait . . . until I felt like I was just going to burst from the inside out and could not stand there another second. At 6:30 I advised the girls that since I had nothing to purchase I was going to abandon them and wait in the car. I went out, went to McDonald's and got us all a drink, then sat in the car and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . yeah, you get the idea. After several texts back and forth to check progress the girls were checked out and to the car at 8:14. I believe those poor girls probably stood in line for over two hours! Now that is dedication.
We left Gordman's and went to Bed Bath & Beyond. This was a really good shopping experience. We were give a coupon at the door for 20% of our entire order and there was room to move about the store and look at what was available. We didn't even have to stand in line. The manager saw us pull into a line where there were 2 people and he escorted us to the customer service desk where we were quickly checked out.
We left Bed Bath & Beyond and I made a quick stop in Perfect Peace. Here I received a free pen, which I can take back to be engraved, and was able to purchase my nephew the Bible he wanted for almost 60% off. Next stop Kohl's for Paige to get a really nice item she had seen before that she decided her friend would like.
On our way to Kohl's I was teasing the girls because they could barely stay awake and I was having no trouble at all. Me, an old woman who had been up since 8 AM yesterday morning (over 24 hours ago). Check out the pictures below:
Paige in the passenger seat:
Haleigh in the back seat - she just got comfortable and gave into the sleep:
So the two teenagers are worn out and sleeping or struggling to stay awake and the old lady is wide awake just waiting on Paige to come out of Kohl's with her purchases.
Those young whipper-snappers ain't got nothing on me!
Gotta go - I'm fading fast - need sleep right away!
So now you know - leaf piles are not just for kids!
