For the experienced, it was well known that Black Friday was not a day to just show up at a store and hope to find something. Black Friday shopping took scouting, preparation, organization, strategy, and stamina. It was not for the faint of heart. Following is what I would have shared had someone asked me just how one goes about becoming a legendary Black Friday Shopper.
Reconnaissance
You’d start by scouring ads in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and formulating your family’s wish lists to get to know your targets. Your reconnaissance should include who carries what item and, if it’s a store where the lines are known to be notoriously long and the item will be highly sought after, visit the store ahead to not only find out the aisle and shelf of said item, but the shortest route to that aisle. Bear in mind, the item may be so popular that it’s moved to a center display. If you time your scouting closely enough, the move already will have happened, and you can plan accordingly.
Your team
This is important. You want people who are all in and see the night for the awesomeness that it is. Those who would struggle to wake to up, show up ill-prepared, and then refuse to stand in a line either to enter a store or check out of a store—all while complaining about being tired and going off the strategic plan in order to browse, try things on, or any other non-efficient behavior—would not be the best partners. I don’t care how good of a friend or close of a relative someone is, all that goes out the window when door busters are on the line. A cohesive team is invaluable.
There will be times when your co-shopper might not need anything in a given store and can advance directly to the line, holding a spot for you as you snatch your items. The saved time is priceless, getting you to the next store on your itinerary all the faster.
Consider wearing matching shirts with a team-building slogan to add to the solidarity.
Black Friday eve
Once you’ve thoroughly enjoyed your Thanksgiving—reflected on your how immensely blessed you are, eaten until your waistband digs into your flesh, wrinkled your hands from dishwater duty, and caught up with family through conversation and charades—it’s Go Time.
Grab a newspaper—the one busting with adds, find your scissors, a plastic baggie, notepad, and pen. The scissors are to cut out the occasional door buster coupon to add to the baggie. The pen and pad are to jot down stores, items you’re interested in, prices, and times doors open—which can have a variance, sometimes up to six hours. Some shoppers forego the notepad, choosing to circle right on the ad. But then you have to carry the ads as you shop. Not efficient.
When you reach the end of the newspaper, assess your notes. Where you see item duplication, highlight the one that has the lower price. Next, organize by hotness of item. You’ll want to prioritize what you anticipate will take the most effort to get before the stock runs out. Of the stores carrying the item, based on your research earlier in the week, which store will you be able to get into quickly enough to score the merch. And which location of that store? Sometimes it’s worth driving to a less convenient location to outsmart shoppers who will stick close to the malls.
Once you’ve prioritized when you’ll be going after which item and at which location, you draw your map, design a schedule, and decide what time you'll need to arrive at the first store to get into line outside. (Most stores open with their door busters in the wee hours of the morning—we're talking 2 or 3 am.)
By now it's late in the evening. You've spent too much time methodically preparing and are keyed up. Have another piece of pumpkin pie and go to bed.
1 am
The alarm rings. Most likely you never slept. You get ready, dressing in layers because standing in a line wrapped around a parking lot is cold, but inside when you’re body-to-body with other frenzied shoppers as you speed walk your premeditated route, you will heat up. And the last thing you want is slippery, sweaty hands when you’re trying to snatch something ahead of thirty other people. Too risky. So, dress accordingly. Which also means go for comfortable shoes. This is not a day to choose fashion over arch support.
Also important, even though your wake-up time is not much after midnight, eat. Thanksgiving leftovers are just the carbs, protein, and comfort food you need for the work ahead. Gather your list, baggie of coupons, granola bars and other snacks, water bottle, the newspaper as backup in case you lose your list or can’t read what you wrote, and a ChapStick (all the standing in outdoor lines gives your lips a beating). Throw all but your water and newspaper into a fanny pack with your wallet. No one needs to keep track of a purse under this kind of pressure. Then, out the door you go. You want to be prompt to whatever time you and your shopping partner(s) agreed upon.
The moment you slide into your fully gassed vehicle and back out into the icy night with your seat heaters on high, then and only then is when you turn on Christmas music for the very first time of the season. If you’re lucky, there will be a light snow falling. The streets will be mostly empty, and you will get this all-over glow as you sing your carols, dashing on your way.
And you're off
Throughout the morning, you will have successes and losses, but the successes always will seem to outshine the losses. There was a time I could not even get into a store for a hot item I so wanted for my son. The line outside looked hours long. My mother-in-law, aka my co-shopper, and I drove to two other locations before finding one with a manageable line. I raced through the doors, to the aisle, to the exact shelf, so sure I was too late. I wasn’t. It was there—Thomas the Train Lego. I only allowed myself a moment to take a breath, wipe a silly tear, and whisper thanks. Then I was full speed ahead maneuvering it into my cart before someone else did. You just don’t get that kind of feeling adding something to your Amazon cart. You really don’t.
Another time my co-shopper and I could not get out of a Walmart parking lot. It was total chaos. Without hesitation she jumped out and started directing traffic. She was fearless. A top-notch shopping partner.
I remember one time starting to drag at around four or five in the morning, feeling like I couldn’t possibly stand in one more line. You start questioning how much you really want the remaining items on your wadded-up list or whether it sounds better to go home to bed. You must push through. That’s just when something will happen, like when I walked into the old Gander Mountain and saw tables of donuts and hot chocolate, all for the shoppers. I bet you’ve never gotten that from Amazon. Or the time I was speed walking through the mall at 3 am and a mall worker stopped me to ask if I wanted a bottle of water. With a parched throat, I was like, “How did you know?!”
Then there’s the look you share with other Black Friday Shoppers. It’s a kind of camaraderie, a knowing. It’s not so much about being desperate for bargains or even about trying finish our shopping before the weekend is over. It’s about adventure. There's just something about it that makes fighting crowds almost fun. And when you’re standing in line slightly sweating, eating your granola bar, and putting on your ChapStick, and you look down at your cart and see that hot item—the one that was at the top of your list, the one thing that was going to be the absolute hardest to get—it’s a feeling to which no other shopping experience can compare.
The surrender
When the last item has been checked off your list or you simply you can’t go another step, drive directly home while you still can. Be forewarned, it’s difficult. You’ll wonder if there's any store you missed, any item you overlooked as you reread the ads that by now you've memorized. You’ll convince yourself you still have steam, still have pep, still have money. It’s hard to say you’re done, that it’s over. Use the last of your mojo to get home safely. Then, with your remaining energy, tuck your treasures into your established hiding spots and hang up your fanny pack until the next Black Friday.
Except there won't be another one.
All that has been taken away
After the stores could no long open earlier and still be considered Friday, the line was finally crossed and stores opened Thanksgiving night. And then sales started the day before Thanksgiving, then the Monday before and it became Black Friday week, and this year even earlier. I’ve even seen the term "Black Friday pricing" used sporadically throughout the year. It’s watered down the term and what it even meant.
My question is: Are stores doing as well across the Black Friday "events" as they did on that one marathon night? I have to wonder. In the heydays of Black Fridays, some of the most infamous sought after items were Beanie Babies, Tickle Me Elmo, Furby, PlayStation, Harry Potter Lego, and Bratz dolls. Those were they toys over which parents were known to body tackle fellow shoppers, desperate to get the last one. That’s the kind of passion, commitment, and thrill of the conquest missing from online shopping and the diluted Black Friday events of today.
The absurdity of having shifting and lengthening beginnings and endings to what used to be "Friday only," combined with technology that brought us virtual browsing and Cyber Monday, have made it so there’s no going back to the Black Fridays of old—which is the one and only reason I could divulge my intel.
The true Black Friday is now but a memory. I miss how it was. I prefer how it was. But I’m glad I was able to experience it, if only for a while.
What are your Black Friday memories?
Krista Yetzke is a native of Ottawa County. A jeep-driving, guitar-playing wife, mom, and everyday adventurer, Krista was raised on the love of Jesus, the great outdoors, the arts, the value of frugality, and the beauty of food as medicine.
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