Well my Black Friday didn't go exactly the way I had planned, but ultimately I got some awesome deals! I cann't list everything since several items are top secret Christmas presents, but overall I spent $196.20, which was savings of $241.88 off normal retail prices, and got $10 in Kohl's cash! Knocked out almost all of my Christmas shopping and some birthday presents for next year!
Some highlights:
64-count Crayola Crayons and Coloring Book, FREE at Toys R Us
Vtech Learning Laptop, $14.99 at Toys R Us
Lightning McQueen Radio Control Car, $14.99 at Toys R Us
Fisher-Price Medical Kit, $6.49 at Toys R Us
Land Before Time DVD, $1.96 at Walmart
Toy Story 3 DVD, $10 at Walmart (I still have my CVS raincheck to get it for $3.99 but I'm not sure if they'll ever get in back in stock. Either way, I will submit for both the $5 Rayovac and $5 Campbell's rebates, which will make this free.)
RubberMaid 24-Piece Food Container Set, $6.48 at Walmart
Toy Story Yahtzee, Jr., $3.99 at Target
My Adventures
Well Black Friday started for my hubby and me when we went to Toys R Us at about 9:50 PM. The thought never crossed my mind that the line would be HUGE and even when I did see the line (which wrapped around the ENTIRE building and around half the parking lot), it didn't occur to me that that many people would be a fire code violation. So... we had to wait outside the store until midnight since they could only let so many people in at a time. And let me just say... I was not dressed appropriately for cold weather. Lightweight denim jacket + no socks = totally miserable. I totally lost sensation in my toes. It was like an epidural, only without the comfy hospital bed.
Once inside Toys R Us, it was pretty crazy but I was pleasantly surprised that most items on my list were still available. One item that was sold out I price matched later at Walmart. The only con was that the employees were not really knowledgeable about where items were located (they should take some tips from Target...more on that later!). But their checkout line system was very efficient and by the time I checked out at 1 AM, they still had the free w/ purchase Crayola crayons and coloring book (really surprised me as there had probably been at least a couple thousand people checked out already).
So I had been planning on sleeping after Toys R Us, but since it was already 1 AM when we left that seems pointless. So next we went to Wal-mart since the only items were wanted there had already started at midnight. That was a madhouse...and several items on my list were already sold out (like the $2.80 Sterilite storage containers). We were there a while though searching through the discount DVDs (got several!) and didn't leave until after 2:30 AM, so next we headed to Kohl's.
Kohl's was our quickest stop, probably because the line to get in was really not that long. We waited outside for about 15 minutes until they opened and were able to quickly find the items we wanted and then check out. Sorry I can't talk about anything that I got there except for socks for me which came in handy when we waited outside at Target. :)
Target was our last stop but took about 1 1/2 hours. It was INSANE in there, even more crazy than Walmart. It was basically push-and-shove to even walk through the store. They were out of the Disney Princess baby doll that I wanted to get for Liberty and a few other things, but we got some good deals including Yahtzee Jr. for Peter's birthday next year and a Lady Antebellum CD for me (yay!). My favorite thing about Target was the employees that were stationed all over the store with copies of the sale ad marked with the locations of all the items. EXCELLENT, I wish other stores would steal that idea.
On the way home we stopped by Burger King for breakfast and were disappointed to find that they were not open! They were supposed to have been open but for some reason were opening late (my guess is someone overslept...but wow, on the busiest/earliest shopping day of the year?!). I had a buy 1, get 1 breakfast sandwich coupon that I didn't get to use. We actually ended up going to Arby's without a coupon - gasp! :)
Our Meijer Stores in Fort Wayne, Indiana handed out a map with where all Door Busters where located and There were employees every where with walkie talkies if you couldn't find what you needed they took you there. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI love Meijer - wish we would get one here!
ReplyDeleteOur Walmart also had maps with the doorbuster locations - it was VERY helpful (would never have guessed that DVDs would be in the produce department)!