To Shop or Not to Shop?

That is the question that most people ask when it comes to Black Friday. And typically, we go shopping on Black Friday, but we don't get up at the crack of dawn with the crazies, but sleep in and then hit the sales that end at 11:00 or so.

This year the plan was no different, until K got an idea in her head. She had purchased part of what she needed for her managers but needed to go to several stores in the Salt Lake City area. The plan was to do that on Black Friday. But she got to thinking. Instead of fighting the crowds that morning, why not go when the store opens at midnight? We aren't going for all the sale items so we can go in, get what we need, and get out. Great plan!

So off we headed to Salt Lake at 11:30 Thursday evening. We got to the first Kohls and there was still a line outside, which meant we had officially joined the ranks of the crazies, but it moved rather quickly. We went to the back, found what we wanted, paid, and headed to the car. Unfortunately, we still needed a few more. So we headed to the next Kohls. Here we hit the jackpot and found the exact number we needed so we jumped in line. Now mind you, the line was at the back of the store and starting down the middle aisle. AND there were two lines - one for each side of the store that took this lovely path. We got in line with hopes that it would move quickly (and the store person monitoring the lines was SURE it would only take about 20 minutes). One hour and 30 minutes later, we reached the check out. By then we had acquired a couple other items that would make great gifts for family, we had watched the people in front of us take turns standing in line while the others shopped, and bonded with the people behind us about the lack of carts and how our arms were about to fall off.

We arrived home a little after 3:30 am and passed a few people that looked like they were heading out for the stores opening at 4:00 and 5:00.

Even though we didn't get a lot of sleep, it was a fun adventure. We chatted, looked at things that were on sale and wondered who bought them, commiserated with other shoppers, discussed what we wanted to do that weekend, and basically just enjoyed hanging out. I'm not sure I'm ready to do it again anytime soon, but it makes for a good story and an even better memory.