Battling the Black Friday crowds; a first person narrative

As soon as my family left for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner, I bolted out the door. It was 44 degrees outside on a Thursday night, which meant one thing—it was time to get ready for Black Friday shopping. However, compared to some people such as Lori Davenport of St. Petersburg, Flordia who has been prepping for Black Friday since early Tuesday, starting Thursday night wasn’t early enough.

Once I ran out that door, I had failed to realize what I was thankful for. My friends, family, and house, sure. But, my mind was set on one thing. The sales. I had picked up my friends less than ten minutes after my family had left and we started setting up our Black Friday home base at one of my friend’s houses and planning events for the next day. We weren’t sure why standing outside of Target in the ridiculously cold weather sounded appealing; in fact, we weren’t even aware of the sales we would stumble upon, but we decided to go for the experience.

Before we could venture off to face the craziness that is Black Friday, we had to do a little prep. Starting with online shopping at midnight (can you say free shipping?), making numerous Christmas lists, bundling up in several layers, and watching five hours of Glee, we were ready to hit the sales. Or in our case, the crowd.

We looked down at our cellphones. 4:00 a.m. The Target located on Stevens Creek Blvd. opened right on time. With that my three friends and I found ourselves amongst the hundreds of people sprinting down the aisles of the overly crowded store trampled by ravenous, die hard bargainers looking for half off priced sweaters, cheap TVs, 30% off the new iPod touch, as well as discounted gift cards.

Two hours at target, three hours at the mall and another one, and a half hours at the San Jose Sharks’ store—it is no wonder all the shopping on Black Friday helps the economy. Before noon I had managed to buy three sweaters, a shirt, two pairs of jeans, shoes, earrings, two jackets, and a San Jose Shark license plate frame. Buying so many things in one visit is something I normally wouldn’t do, but with all the “SALE” signs thrown in my face it was hard to resist the urge to swipe my card and buy that one thing I will probably end up returning the next day.

However, despite the $75 savings on a San Jose Sharks windbreaker, $53 on a pair of Nike shoes, and the buy one get free deal at Forever 21, the best part of the day remained spending it with my two best friends and coming home to celebrate a shopping victory with those I love.

While Black Friday may be helping the economy, it seems to leave Thanksgiving in the shadows. Upon our arrival at several locations, it was obvious as to who stayed up all night. Carrying around tents, coffee mugs, and chairs, Black Friday shoppers take this day seriously. Possibly a little too seriously.

While I love the new pairs of jeans I bought, I failed to realize how I loved my family and friends more. Was it worth dashing out the doors as soon as Thanksgiving dinner ended then pulling an all-nighter for all the sales? Probably not.

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