Black Friday Casualty

First off lets start off with a couple of definitions:

What Does Black Friday Mean?
The day after Thanksgiving in the United States. Retailers generally see an upward spike in sales and consider this to be the start of the holiday shopping season. It's common for retailers to offer special promotions and to open early to draw in customers. 

Casualty:  a person who is killed or injured in a war or disaster (or in this case Black Friday.)

This year I am not a Black Friday Survivor but rather a Black Friday Casualty.  Its hard enough doing Black Friday but doing it with MS is a whole different ball of wax.  Here is how it went down:

Let me start by saying I’ve been dreading this for over a week now because I have been having a very hard time with weakness in my legs and I can’t stand or walk for very long before I start getting weak, sore and loosing my balance.  I also know as a seasoned Black Friday shopper that scooters & shopping carts first thing in the morning are not a helper but a hindrance.

Last night we started out by going through the ads we needed and going through the kids Christmas List.  I transferred it all over to the computer and spit out a print out so that I could read it easier and even went as far as looked up the video games they wanted and copied and pasted pictures, prices & the locations that had them at Game Stop.  I got smart this year!  So this is about 9:00 pm last night…nothing like the last minute to develop a plan.  So then I took a shower about 9:30 pm or so and put my makeup on for today.  Then I waited awhile & blow dried my hair and then about 10:45 pm I laid down on the couch to take a nap and get up at 1:15 am to fix my hair, get dressed and get my husband up for him to get ready.

The plan was to leave here at 2:00 am and drive an hour to Lubbock and start off at Sears.  First time for us because usually Wal-mart is starting point but for once we found what we wanted at a different store.  We got up and left by about 2:15 am and got to parking lot of the mall at 3:15 am.  Thank the Lord I got the up front handicapped parking spot.  We waited in the car till 3:45 am and then got in line for the last 15 mins. 

So we know we are going to the electronics section of Sears which is upstairs to get a couple of the digital camera’s and a couple of those little flip video recorders that are a different brand for $20.  Can’t beat that deal!  Well let me tell you….EVERYONE was headed for the electronics.  We were all a little worried about if that escalator in the store could hold everyone lol.  We got up there and there was NO, NONE, NADA organization by Sears at all.  So we quickly figure out that the digital cameras you had to get at the registers because they were not on the shelves. 

Ok so there are 3 cash registers up there in the electronics section and the lines right in the middle of the electronics sections had lines all the way back to Sibera.  But right next to there is the vacuum section and a register there.  I was like “Hot Damn!”  There was only 5 people in line!  What luck to start off the day! Woo hoo…not!  That line moved slower than molasses in December.  We got to know the people around us VERY well. 

Thankfully we started talking with the lady behind us about what all we all in line to buy and her daughter (grown) walked up about the time we were saying the $20.00 video cameras.  She said “oh those aren’t in the back I saw them on a display over there.”  “Do you want me to go get you one?”  Well I left my husband standing in line and followed her over there and there was only 7 left and I took 3.  I thanked her a hundred times for her help because by the time we found out where they were they would have been gone. 

Also one other good point was that register was right next to the bathrooms.  Thank you Lord.  Those were the only good points.  Finally when we get up 2^nd to the register the couple in front of us was getting a video camera and the supervisor had walked up.  As luck would have it Sears’s 30 year old DOS cash register’s system went down and they couldn’t tell if they had any in stock or now.  So the poor couple had the choice:  #1. take a chance and buy it hoping they had it, go down stairs to package p/u and see and get it or wait in another line for a hr to get a refund.  #2 have waited in line for a hour and not try to buy it.  They chose #1.  Then the little supervisor lady asks if they want the extended warranty or not.  They said "no" and that little lady went off on the customers.  I swear her eyes about bugged out of her head and she said “WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO BUY A WARRANTY?!?!”  So God love the husband he said “What is it a bad product?” and she said “NO ITS LIKE A HOUSE YOU BUY IT AND GET HOME OWNERS INSURANCE!”  You would not believe how snippy she was.  I almost busted out laughing at the guys comment to her.  She got upset and walked off to let the poor guy at the register to finish.

When we FINALLY get up there to check out we get our stuff done which took forever because they wanted to sell you the warranty…no then they wanted your email address, phone, last name, brand of toilet paper used etc. We finally get checked out only to find out we also had to go down to package pickup to get the cameras.  As we walked off I looked down at my watch and the "short line" with only 5 people in front of me took 1 HR & 5 MINS to get done!

So we get downstairs to the package p/u and you are supposed to scan your receipt at this kiosk and they bring out your stuff.  Guess what went down?  Yeah so we had to do it all by hand.  We got back in line right behind the people before us upstairs and thankfully for them they did get the video camcorder they wanted.  We laughed about how rude the supervisor was got our stuff and left!

We went on to JCPenny’s in the mall and by now I’m hurting and starting to walk really slow and sway a bit.  We leave there and come back through Sears to leave when I find some boots that my son wanted that were $50 but were on sale for 50% off so I got them.  By then the lines downstairs were thinned out. 

We left there and went to Old Navy…looked like a bomb went off in a war zone, went and had breakfast and then to Wal-mart.  There I DID grab a motorized cart because by then walking was extremely painful and my meds were just starting to kick in from breakfast.  We left there and went to a Game Stop, Hastings and onto a 2^nd Wal-mart and got finished…oh and another motorized scooter & finally by Ultimate Electronics and we were out of town. 

All on two hours sleep!  We came home and crashed and took a two hour nap but I was in so much pain that it was only sleep out of necessity but not good sleep.  I will be going to bed early tonight!  So that is our Black Friday experience.  We have made a pact that we will NEVER go to Sears again.  That was enough for us! So we made it though another year of Black Friday.  I know some people think all of us who go out are crazy and maybe we are but all in all we got home and figured it up and we wound up saving $277 and in this economy we need all the help we can get.