Many people know that I have an aversion to shopping, in general. This weekend I was more vocal about it than I realized. I only know this because of my tweeting about it off and on since Wednesday night and the replies I got back to those tweets were a little less than nice. Not mean, but more like, “we get it already…” Ooops, my bad. Here’s the thing though…I don’t hate it so much that I won’t do it. I simply won’t get out at the wee hours of the morning and stand in line for something that I will save a few bucks on. Quite frankly, I can find a lot of the same stuff online and for cheaper. The power of google + promo codes = happiness for the online shopper. Most places offer free shipping anyway and if you order soon enough, you will have it in plenty of time for Christmas. Online shopping is the way to go for me.
And here is where I become a huge hypocrite. I went shopping yesterday, on Black Friday. Gasp! In my defense, it was much later in the evening.
- Translation: I went shopping during regular business hours and didn’t have to stand in line only to fight off the lady that needed the Keurig more I did.
So, here is the deal. My daughter has been on break all week and “stuck in the house”. She told me yesterday that she wanted to get out and do some shopping. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked what she was after. She mentioned looking at some stuff for her boyfriend. After I picked my jaw up off the floor for the 2nd time, I asked where she wanted to go. She rattled off a few stores and I accepted the challenge. We loaded up, all 2 of us, into the Armada and muscled our way down the road to our first destination. The roads were not too bad but I knew once we turned into the parking lots it would be a different story. Low and behold, I found parking spots and lots of them. I was feeling pretty good about this until we walked into Best Buy. Holy crap that store was busy…especially by the phones, games, laptops and cameras. Duh, right! I mean, who doesn’t want at least one of those items? Needless to say, we did not stay long. What I was actually looking for was sold out anyway. And if I told you what it was, you would laugh and call me names for thinking it would even be in stock on Black Friday at 7PM.
Anyhow, we left Best Buy and started to walk across the parking lot to the next store. It was at that moment that I realized I was putting my life and my daughters life in danger! People in cars, in a parking lot, on Black Friday?! What the hell was I thinking? We started to sprint across the parking lot to avoid being run over by people n e e d i n g to get to that sale item. We arrived the next store in one piece and I was shocked at the amount of people that would fit into one tiny little space. Needless to say, we did not stay long at that store either. Number one reason was the selection of items we were looking for was pretty limited. So, back across the battle field we went. We hopped into the beast and headed out to our next destination.
We made our way “across town” so speak and found prime parking once again. And as soon as we hit the doors, it was almost like the angels were singing and the shopping gods had paved a way for us to find exactly what we were after without having to spend too much time in the store. Okay, so I exaggerate a bit…but seriously, the store was not overly busy and my teen found exactly what she was looking for. We paid the lady and left to go to Target. By this time, I was feeling brave and figured how bad could it be?!
And it was not bad at all. Again. Good parking and no super long lines. But the batteries we went in for ended up costing me $100+. Those batteries better last!
The last store we went to was Game Stop. There was something in there my daughter was drooling over but I can’t very well buy stuff for her when she is with me. I told her to rattle off the stuff she wanted and I would make sure Santa got that list. :)
- “Santa?! Really, mom ?!”
We left there and made our way back to the house and in one piece with our sanity intact. All in all, I would say it was a successful trip. And yes, I did get out on Black Friday. Call me a hypocrit if you like, but in my defense, it was not in the middle of night (<—- tent and all) which is what I find pretty crazy!
Oh yeah, Keep Moving. ;)