Black Friday Shopping

It's the day after Thanksgiving. My neighbour and I decided to brave the crowds, the chilly weather and the insane hours to go shopping on Black Friday....with kids in tow!! It's my first time doing this so I didn't really know what to expect. I must say it's quite an experience. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

We started off at 4am. Our first stop was Walmart. We got there around 4.30am. It was insane. There were already tons of people there. But no one is allowed to load their carts until 5.00am. You can see everyone crowding around the items they want to buy...especially the electronics. At 5.00am sharp, we started loading our carts. But after only 1 item and trying to maneuver our carts in a sea of people and carts in tiny aisles in complete gridlocks, we decided that we needed a new strategy to make this work for us. So, we moved our carts and kids to a not so busy aisle and we took turns shopping. We communicated through cell phones and we would help each other pick up items. Worked out perfectly! We got what we wanted and were out of the store in a little over an hour.

Another good stop we made was at Geoffrey's. We used the same strategy as their check-out lines were long. We just took turns shopping while one person waited in line to get to the check-out counter. Walmart and Geoffrey's had really good bargains. We also made stops at Target, JC Penney and Sears. But their prices were not as great.

All in all, a very fruitful shopping spree. We rewarded ourselves with lunch at International House of Pancakes. And the most surprising element, the kids were extremely well-behaved.