Tell us about your Black Friday Experience: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly...

[Stitchy]

we got up at 7:30, had breakfast at McDonald's with my parents who were leaving straight from there..and heading home to La. Then, we went home, lounged around...and around 10am left to go to the mall. We headed straight to the Disney Store, where I got the tree skirt I wanted, and a tree topper hubby wanted (40% off) and two shirts (4.99 each). All of that was an extra 20% off. So, I got everything for what I would have paid for the tree skirt. What made it even better, was I had $23 left on a gift card....so, I paid a little over $18 for everything. Woohoo!

We also went to Old Navy, Sears, TJMax, and Catos...but, didn't get anything worth mentioning.

[Disneyland Daddy]

We just hung around the house and then went to friends house who have a home theatre.....where we watched my sister's wedding video. The friends are also videographers........and have a spectacular home theatre......with a marquis, etc. It's very much like a theatre.

Afterward, we went to the new Miguel's in South Corona.....nice day.

[Monorail Man]

This Black Friday, I did something different. I didn't camp out a big-box store - and instead hit many little stores. Here's how much I saved, and a few items I got for myself (Note: I'm not listing gifts I got, because those go to certain MiceChatters).

Midnight - Disney Store - Galleria at Tyler:

It started at Midnight. After the Turkey day, on the way home, I started at the Disney Store, and got some awesome deals combining an 'additional 20%' coupon I had, plus all the deals in the store.

Items For Me: Wall-E 22" Plush, EVE 22" Plush, WALL-E Truck Playset, Misc. Things.
Total Spent: $84
MSRP: $150
Savings: 44%

4:00 AM - JCPenny's - Mall of Victor Valley:

After driving back up the hill, I took an Hour nap - and then the Mall crawl started. The JCPenny deals were not awesome, but they had some great gift things for not bad prices:

Items for Me: Clothes, Shoes, etc.
Total Spent: $68
MSRP: $194
Savings: 64%

6:00 AM - Radio Shack - Mall of Victor Valley:

This was a bust. Went for only myself to get Dualshock 3 controllers for $30 (that's $25 off of MSRP). Total fail, they sold out.

Items for Me: None
Total Spent: $0
MSRP: $0
Savings: FAIL

6:30 AM - Sears - Mall of Victor Valley:

So, who goes to Sears? Not alot of people, most of the Video Game deals were good. I didn't pick up anything for myself here, nothing but gifts for the family.

Items for Me: None
Total Spent: $130
MSRP: $210
Savings: 38%

7:30 - McDonalds - Village Shopping Center:

Gifts from McDonalds? No. I needed breakfast. However, I had some coupons, so that added to the Black Friday savings!

Items for Me: McGriddles Combo Meal + Bonus McGriddle
Total Spent: $4.80
MSRP: $7.10
Savings: 32%

9:00 - Kohls - Jess Ranch Marketplace:

It's back to Apple Valley for this last round of shopping. Once I hit Kohls, they were crazy busy - and most of the gift items had been picked over. They had some neat Game Show tins, but they were gone.

Items for Me: None
Total Spent: $20
MSRP: $29
Savings: 31%

9:30 - Staples - Jess Ranch Marketplace:

By now, I'm getting super tired. So, the last stop was Staples. They had just about all their deals still in stock, but I didn't spend much.

Items for Me: Microsoft Office 2007 Student & Home, Microsoft Optical Mouse 3000
Total Spent: $93 (Extra $20 coming in Rebates)
MSRP: $179
Savings: 48%

Grand Total:
Total Spent at All Stores: $399.80
MSRP: $769.10
My Black Friday Savings: 48%

Not bad. Just about half off MSRP.

What kinds of deals did you get?

[cakvalasc]

I shopped online on Wilsons Leather and Bought a $249.00 Biker Jacket for $83.00 (free shipping) then at the Disney Store I bought the Mickey Mouse Wreath for $11.83, Reg 29.50 (40% off and %20 off entire store discount)

The disney stores here in New Mexico were busier then any other place I saw in the Malls, but the malls were busy with people just not the smaller stores.

[alphabassetgrrl]

Didn't do the crazy sales, but we bought a big tv and a Wii. Went to Costco for the tv, so just the usual crowds there. I've never found the crush to be worth it for the "OMG I have to have that item right NOW!!!"

Went out in the nightmare one year and the car got sideswiped in the parking lot. I was glad it was a rental and somebody else would handle it since of course he didn't leave a note.

[Stitchy]

Just talked to my mom...same thing happened to her.

They left my house (Ok) Friday morning, they drove from La to here and back with NO car problems. But, she went to Walmart last night, and before she walked in the door, she decided it wasn't worth the crowd of people, and went back to her car. When she got there, she noticed her car had been sideswiped. Knocked the mirror off the car, it was just hanging there. They didn't leave a note either.

[aimster]

People suck.

[tassie]

that's how they "do" the sales here. They have these AMAZING prices, but only one or two PER STORE

[alphabassetgrrl]

Stitchy, that stinks. On the crazy days, ya can't even park in the far reaches of the lot, cuz there are people there. Usually the ends are empty but not on the crazy days.

[lou_mom]

Here's my story. I got up at 6:45am out of house at 7 and went to Walmart. Called my MIL and a friend, told them where I was and they both had things they wanted me to get for them, They will pay be back(they had better, haha) My MIL wanted the playdo tub and Pixos for my 8 yr old girl. My friend wanted the Pixos and an MP3 video and audio player. I got flannel pj bottoms with characters on them for my oldest daughter,20, and son, 17 and hubby. The 8 yr old girl I got three pairs of the pj's they had for $4. A few cheap DVDs and a pepsi for my breakfast. From there I went to ToysRUs. I got my DD a PollyPocket Cruiseship, an Octopus playdo set and the game Operation. From there I went to Circuit City as my son had just started work there. He worked 10 am til 11pm. I got a NDS game for my friend, a few DVDs, including the BEE movie my son is getting my little daughter for Christmas. I talked to my friend on the phone and she asked me to go back to ToysRus and get her a PollyPocket Cruise ship for her daughter. they were 50% off. We live next door to each other and our girls play Polly Pockets all the time. ToysRUs was right across the street so going back wasn't a big deal. I then went to the mall and my friend, the one i got the polly for was working at SEARS so I went to talk to her. She went on Break and bought me some Canyon Ridge jeans that were on sale, plus her discount. I visited with her for a few minutes then went to KB toys and got meDD a KNEX set for 50% off. Then I went home. All in all it was a fun day and I must admit that I don't stress out that easily so the crowds are not a problem for me. Maybe that's why I love DLR. I seem to thrive on excitememt and chaos.

[Xharryb]

Mine was a breeze. I sat down at the computer before bed (around 1am), purchased my new ipod online, did the instore pickup option, then slept in and didn't go pick it up until around 5pm. There was no one in the store at that point and I was in and out in under 10 minutes (including taking a look to see if there was anythign else I wanted while there).

I never rush out for the door buster sales. The crowds are too crazy and your chances of scoring them is slim. I'm sorry some of you were disappointed by the lack of stock on those items, but that's the way these sales are set up. They advertize these few amazing deals as a lure to get you in the door knowing that even if you don't get one of the 3 they have at each store you'll still look around to see if there's anything else you want. Often it even says in the small print of the ads that the store "may only have 3 in stock" or something like that. That's why I don't even pay attention to those items and instead focus on the things that will be on sale for the entire weekend that I can pick up at a more leisurely pace.

[OogieBoogie]

I pulled an all nighter and drove down to Wal Mart in Oakland at 4:30am. When I got there the line circled the building but once the store opened at 5, the line moved very quickly. When I got in, I noticed everyone was back in electronics or in clothes, and no one was over in the corner where I wanted to go (Vaccums). I strolled over there, calmly picked out which Bissel $28 vaccum and which $10 wet/dry vac I wanted, spent a little time picking out a new hand mixer, had some breakfast at the MacDonalds there, and then went over to the checkout lanes to find that they were completly empty. I took another walk around the store and realized that while everyone was shopping and grabbing stuff, no one was buying.

I bought my purchases, got home, hid the ones that my wife shouldn't be seeing, and went to bed. I had to take her to work at 2 (She works in the bedroom department at Ikea), and I went to both Target and Wal Mart after dropping her off. Target still had several of thier big ticket computer lap tops available (at 3pm, almost 12 hours after thier sale started), and Wal Mart still had several of thier TV's available.

I know that people are saying that it was a decent black friday for the retailers, but from what I've seen, it wasn't that good.

[mamabot]

I woke up at 5:00 am to check to see if any of the Best Buy/Circuit City deals were available online. Nope. Went back to bed to finish reading Breaking Dawn.

Went to the San Juan Capistrano Mission for my son's 4th grade mission project.

After dinner, I was itching to go see if there were any deals available. Started out at Circuit City. Not much of what was on my list was available in the store.

Target. There was a ton of stuff there for the kids. I got a great deal on a Nintendo DS Super Mario bundle. It was supposed to come with a $10 gift card, but they were out. The cashier gave me $10 off on the spot. Woo Hoo!!!

My husband did a little shopping on his own on Saturday at Best Buy. We hit Toys R Us, Best Buy, Game Stop & Macy's together. Overall, I think we saved at least 25% across the board. Since money is super tight, every little bit of savings helps.

[Jon Autopsy]

Mine probably isn't the most grand of Black Friday experiences but, since I'm bored at work, I figure I'll share...

I woke up at around 10:30am that day, took a shower and threw on a black pair of Dickies shorts and a black tshirt and headed to the mall because I needed a new black baseball hat (I wear a plain black baseball hat on a normal basis but the one I have is old, dirty, and faded, and it was definitely time for a new one).

So I got to the mall (Stonewood in Downey, CA.) and parked all the way in the back, instead of hunting down a primo spot. I walked to the mall itself and headed inside to the little island kiosk that I bought my original black hat from.

Dodging past the large crowds, catching a few grimaces from the families wandering the building supports and cell phone salesmen (I have multiple facial piercings so it's normal wherever I go), I made my way to the nice Asian gentleman who has been running the little hat and stitch kiosk in the mall for years. He happily pulled out the hats until he found one that fit me (I wear the fitted caps but couldn't remember my size and the tag on the inside wore off years ago). I paid for it, got my change, and headed back the way I came.

Before exiting, I ducked into Suncoast Motion Picture Co. and purchased Smokin' Aces on DVD since I had been meaning to pick that up for quite a while. With that all done, I exited the mall, walked to my car, jumped in, and headed home.

Yeah, not so epic, but it did kill some time for me here at the job

[knittingknerd]

Originally Posted by Disneyland Daddy

Afterward, we went to the new Miguel's in South Corona.....nice day.

Wait there's a new Miguel's in South Corona?!

You, Yvonne, and Ashee will appreciate this:
On Black Friday my brother called and asked what I wanted for Christmas: a gallon (or 2) of Miguel Junior's hot sauce. I'm like 1500 miles away and have been craving that stuff.

I finished 2 Christmas gifts this weekend. I made a blanket/wrap and an Enterlac scarf.