Surviving the madness of Black Friday

By: Kenzie N   

Many people may argue that Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. With lots of scrumptious foods, and families getting together, and it is a time to remember what everyone is thankful for. Although those are all great reasons, none of them are the main reason why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love Thanksgiving not only because of the actual day of feasting and family, but because of the adrenaline rushing, shopping crazy, black Friday that always follows.

            The Friday after Thanksgiving, known most commonly as Black Friday, is a shopper’s favorite fantasy, and a store employee’s worst nightmare. It is one day set apart from all the other days of the year where stores choose to give amazing price reductions and doorbuster deals on some of the most wanted and expensive items of the season. It is an ideal time for Christmas shopping and saves shoppers a lot of money if they seek out the right deals. However, the great deals come at a cost, because the prices are so low and the deals so incredible, everyone wants them. This calls for some serious, pushing, shoving, strategizing, and even some camping out to snag these one day only deals. For those of you that have never experienced the madness and mayhem that comes along with early-bird Black Friday shopping, here are some tips for next year.

            It all starts on the Thursday of Thanksgiving, sitting around with your family making a pre-game strategy. Strategic plans are a necessity! You browse through all the fliers advertising the biggest deals. You make a list and decide which store has the best deals and plan to get there first. Then, place the rest of the stores in order from best deals to least and you then have a game plan. It is important to take a fairly large group with you on this shopping escapade. Remember, there is strength in numbers! The most effective strategy is to split the items among members of the team. One person gets the new GPS, another goes for the 50 cent 300 pack of batteries, a third for the ridiculously under-priced digital camera, and the fourth gets the cart and parks right in front of a cash register to save the pain of waiting in line for hours. Once you have retrieved the item through the clawing customers, you rush back to the cart holder and place your item triumphantly in the cart, ready to check out and move on to the next store.

            Most stores advertise their deals to only last for a limited time, many of them starting around four or five in the morning. When you live in a small town like Elgin with the nearest big shopping city a good hour and a half away, this requires a wake up time around two in the morning. You get up, put on the comfiest clothes you can find because everyone is too tired to care what you are wearing, pump some caffeine through your veins and drive to a city with your favorite store. Of course you have already figured out the proper side of the city to enter on depending on the location of the store you want to start out in. You then have two options, either wait in the car staring at the mile long line of freezing people, or actually joining the crazy people standing in line shivering violently. As soon as you have been granted access to the store you refer to the strategy mentioned earlier and head for the item you are responsible for. It is important to go in with the mindset of being in a battle; do not come out with defeat! You must retrieve that item!

            At the end of a hard-fought day of pushing, shoving, grabbing, clawing, and cart banging, you may think you are crazy for ever daring to come out on this dreaded Friday. However, it is all worth it on that Christmas morning when your child, parent, or sibling opens up that one present they wanted so badly, and you know you retrieved it for an immaculate deal, in addition to a few scratches and a bruise. So, it may be crazy to get so into this shopping holiday, but if you love an adrenaline rush and buying the perfect presents, you may want to give Black Friday a try next year.