Its been a little over 12 hours since waking up at the crack of 2 a.m., throwing on my beanie and gloves and quietly tiptoeing out of the house. I was going to do it. For the first time I was going to be one of the crazies on Black Friday.

The first time…and most likely the last.

Let me tell you my experience…

On Thanksgiving, after stuffing my face beyond all reason, I scoured the Black Friday ads and narrowed my plan of attack down to three stores…Kohl’s Target, and Walmart. I had a specific list of items I wanted from each store and I even went as far as to map out my route as best I could for each store.

Well. What’s the saying…”the best laid plans”? Let me just sum up the experience for each store…

Kohl’s:

Kohl’s opened at 3 a.m. (across the country, I think). They had over 400 early bird specials which really were some pretty good deals. I arrived at 2:30 a.m. and the line wrapped around the building on both sides. All at once, the doors flew open and people rushed in, scattering to their destinations. The problem was, there were so many people you couldn’t even move in the aisle, let alone find the things you wanted. Once I found the first thing I was going for, I realized the checkout line was wrapped around the store isles, overlapping in the back. It would have taken another hour at least to checkout. With only one item in my hands, the need to use the little girl’s room badly, and a tight schedule to keep, I did what any savvy shopper would do. I bailed (after visiting the little girl’s room).

What they did right:

• There seemed to be a lot off associates on hand to greet people, help answer questions and man the registered.

What they could have done better:

• There needed to be roped off lines to keep people from cutting in right as the doors open.
• They should have only let 100 people (or so) in at a time. Their stores are too small to let everyone in at once. It was literally wall to wall people. I cant imagine what the fire marshal would have said if he happened to be Black Friday shopping.
• Make the shopping bags and cars more accessible at the entrance. They were, naturally, all gone by the time I got in.
• There should have been extra registers and associates doing a “pre checkout” ticket or something as people are waiting in line.
• Have a store map available online prior to the sale (if there was one, I never found it).

Target:

Target was my next stop. Being held up at Kohl’s (just trying to leave…) I was late getting there. The line this time wrapped all the way around the back of the store into the loading dock. I thought for sure it was going to be a repeat of the Kohl’s fiasco. And it was a little nutty inside, but I was able to get about half the things on my list and met the nicest lady in the looong checkout line. It ended up being a great thing because we held each others place in line as we went off to other areas to find more loot. Yet again, no carts, so it was whatever you could carry.

What they did right:

• The lines were clearly marked with ropes. If you cut, it would have been obvious.
• There were security guards and even police officers on hand inside and out.
• They too let everyone in all at once, but being a larger store it could accommodate more people and it wasn’t as bad.
• All checkout lanes were opened and the wait was tolerable. There was an associate at the beginning of the checkout line directing people to the next available cashier.
• Though I didn’t actually get any of the specific door buster items, it looked like they had plenty of things in stock.

What they could have done better:

• Again, not enough carts (although having one was a double edged sword…maneuvering a cart in a packed store is as fun as getting your teeth cleaned).
• They could have had some ropes set up for the checkout line. In my Target, there was a lot of confusion as to what was a line and what was just a wall of people in a traffic jam. One lady stood in a line for 20 minutes only to realize it wasn’t a checkout line.

Walmart:

Oh Walmart. I would have avoided you all together, honestly, if it wasn’t for one major purchase. First of all, the parking lot was a zoo, but that’s just the nature of my local store. I ended up not getting what I went for because of a misleading ad. This was the first year (so I was told by an associate) that Walmart opened at midnight but only had their Black Friday deals start at 5 a.m. Confusing? I know.

So I showed up shortly after 5 a.m. when my “non door buster but still a great deal”  item was supposed to go on sale (per the ad) only to be told that it had sold out shortly after midnight. My bad? No. Walmart’s poor communication and advertising. Oh well. I probably wouldn’t have made it anyway, but still…the whole sales schedule seemed very confusing.

What they did right:

• There were a lot of people directing traffic (human and vehicle).

What they could have done better:

• Like I said earlier, the sales flyer were misleading and confusing.
• Again, wall to wall people, not enough carts, etc. and so on.

I guess I’m just not willing to battle for a parking space, stand in lines for hours and purchase only that which I can carry because all the carts are gone…that’s if I can find it…just to save a buck. If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn’t. Ok, that’s probably not true because I’m a sucker for a sale. But I would:

• Make a detailed, succint list
• Probably limit it to two stores instead of three
• Plan to arrive at least an hour before the store opens
• Take my little old lady fold-up rolling cart in case I cant get my hands on a cart
• Go with a friend! (I can definitely see the benefit of using the buddy system)

So tell me, what was your Black Friday experience?

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