Shannon Stacey


Not-so-Black Friday

There is one true constant in my life: I hate shopping. I don’t care if it’s food, shoes, clothes or toys—I don’t wanna go. I didn’t even do the bridesmaid dress thing with my sisters. After a brief discussion of color palate, I told them to wear whatever the hell they wanted. (And they both looked absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend the bride stay out of some things because brides are batshit crazy. That’s no secret. Even the ones who do like to shop.)

So yesterday morning my husband says, “Since it’s such a shitty day, we may as well hit the stores.”

What?

Since we’ve been together seventeen years and he knows just the prosect of shopping turns me into cranky bitch, he must have been incredibly bored so I swore a lot and stomped my foot a few times, then got in the car with the rest of my family.

Yes, we took our kids Black Friday shopping with us. The idea was to get the other people on the list out of the way, so their presence didn’t matter (other than the extreme crowd-paranoia that cause me to maintain such a death grip on the Short Kid’s sweatshirt he repeatedly had to plead with his Daddy to save him).

Many hours and one hellish trip through the mall food court later we returned home with one item: one of those stupid kiosk toys—a ball with an attached fake ferret that jiggles around. Yes, our only Black Friday buy was a cat toy.

Is it just me or have they ruined Black Friday?

Sure, if we were in the market for a television, a Bluray player or a digital camera, it would’ve been like Christmas had come early. Alas, we weren’t.

I think if retailers were to look back at some successful Black Fridays of yore, they would notice they used to have a $5.00 price point for toys. Remember those days?

With the blending of families, we’ve had an explosion in the juvenile population for this year and if there had been $5 Nerf guns and $5 games and $5 puzzles or dolls or whatever, we would have dropped some coin.

As it was, we never saw anything in the age group we were shopping for (boys and girls, aged 1 to 14, so pretty broad) discounted enough to merit standing in the lines and we left every store emptyhanded (except the cheezy toy kiosk at the mall).

I should have bought each family group a Bluray player and called it good.

7 comments to “Not-so-Black Friday”

  1. Charlene
    Comment
    1
      · November 28th, 2009 at 12:12 pm · Link

    And I was at Target for the $13 flannel sheets. :mrgreen: There were good deals, depending on what you were shopping for. And as somebody who buys toys for little girls, I recommend Big Lots, Walmart, and Toys R Us. All places we’ve found toys for $5, without Black Friday lines or crowds.



  2. Lillie A.
    Comment
    2
      · November 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm · Link

    The only thing that came close to tempting me to go shopping yesterday was a local discount store that had scrubs on sale for $3.99. But I just couldn’t see myself battling those crowds just for work clothes. I don’t like my job that much.



  3. Annmarie
    Comment
    3
      · November 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm · Link

    You deserve a medal for having to go out into that mess. I hate crowds. Crowds make me paranoid, er, MORE paranoid than normal.

    I stayed home and decorated the tree, Tommy Too Tall.



  4. Shannon
    Comment
    4
      · November 28th, 2009 at 5:27 pm · Link

    Oh, there’s a Big Lots a couple towns over and I didn’t even think of going there! For six of the kids, we want to give them a nice gift each, but they’re not immediate family, if you know what I mean. That might be a good place to try.

    And I don’t blame you, Lillie. If the Black Friday crowds are braved, it should be for something more fun and exciting than work clothes.

    I really, really want to put my tree up, but just the thought of hauling the tree sections and deco boxes up from the basement exhausts me. I think I need to recover from two birthdays and Thanksgiving in one week first.



  5. Rhonda
    Comment
    5
      · November 30th, 2009 at 3:10 pm · Link

    >>>>There is one true constant in my life: I hate shopping. I don’t care if it’s food, shoes, clothes or toys—I don’t wanna go.

    I hear ya, sister! I.hate.to.shop. I online shopped Friday. Kids gifts – seriously – Walgreens!



  6. Aja
    Comment
    6
      · December 4th, 2009 at 11:34 am · Link

    A blue ray player – I can’t wait!!!! Hehe. :grin: Ur the best sister EVER!



  7. Shannon
    Comment
    7
      · December 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am · Link

    You only want a Bluray player so you can borrow all the movies I buy in Bluray so you can’t borrow them. :lol:







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