Did anyone else make the festive journey to stores on Thanksgiving or Black Friday weekend? And if so, how was your experience? Any horror stories?
In my family, it's a tradition to go out shopping on Black Friday. But this year, since the stores with the deals that I was interested in opened at 10p & midnight, I was able to avoid the 3am wake up call and instead could hit the malls after work. My mom and I arrived at Walmart at 9:45p and found that there was no parking in Walmart. We headed to the strip mall across the street to park instead. This Walmart made those not interested in the midnight electronics deals line up in a large line by the electronics section. After cutting through the line in order to get to the DVD section, I managed to get in without much fuss. Getting out proved more difficult as more people were in the store and I ended up having to go around the walls of the back of the store in order to find a somewhat clear path to the front of the store. Upon leaving the large lines in the electronics section, I heard yelling and shouting. It turned out that some people were cutting into the electronics line and those in line were in a fighting mood. While standing in Target's line later that evening, I heard that a riot broke out at the store in the electronics section and that five people were arrested.
And later that night at that same Walmart, after a failed robbery attempt, there was a shooting.
Other than the Wallyworld zoo, it was a good experience. I thought things were handled well at Target. They gave out maps of the store and where the items in the ad would be located. They gave tickets out for the TVs and breakfast bars for those waiting in line for a couple hours.
