We all know the hype of the day after Thanksgiving. Some people love it and want to take advantage of all the deals and offers, while others stay as far away from shopping malls and Walmarts as they can. I have always heard about the chaos that is Black Friday, but have never actually participated because I enjoy sleeping in on the day after a holiday. But, this year I decided to see what all the hype was about and go to the mall to see what I could find.
In the past, I had seen news stories about people beating each other up for a TV at Best Buy, and about barricades outside stores in order to control the lines on Black Friday. My mom had warned me and said that I was crazy for going, but I wasn’t going to miss out this year. I was moderately intrigued about the hype, and I was half hoping I would have a crazy story about my first Black Friday experience and I could tell my friends of how I survived AND got great deals.
With this mindset, I woke myself, my sister, and my boyfriend up at 5:30 am in order to get to my local mall by 6. It was still dark outside which made it very hard to get out of my warm bed, but we eventually made it with only a few complaints in the process. I anticipated the traffic and parking to be horrendous, but when we arrived, there was only a handful of cars parked in the lot around us. It seemed weird, but we assumed people had just parked in other lots around the mall. We walked in, again expecting a crowd, but it was empty – even more empty than when I usually go on a typical afternoon.
With this unanticipated emptiness, the three of us breezed through stores like American Eagle and Victoria’s Secret. Since there were no crowds anywhere, we were able to get into a store, look around, and easily leave or pay for what we found. There were no lines for checking out, dressing rooms, or entering stores. The only place in the mall that was packed was Victoria’s Secret Pink, but none of us needed anything from there so we laughed at the people who were waiting on the long line to enter the store as we walked by. We finished our excursion in about two hours, then went to Starbucks for a celebratory coffee.
All in all, my first Black Friday experience was a bust. Sure, I did make off with some pretty good deals, but getting up at 5:30 am was not worth it at all. I could have slept in and then went to the mall at around 11 or noon and gotten the same deals. And, the mall was completely empty! I didn’t get my story of survival in a massive crowd or an experience of how I snagged the last sweater in a store before someone else could get it. To say the least, it was not worth the hype and all that hype of Black Friday was basically non-existent at my mall. So, now I know for next year – stay in bed and go shopping later!