I made the mistake of getting suckered by the Kohl's coupons. Not being totally insane, I didn't do the being there right as the doors opened on Thursday evening or even terribly early on Friday morning. Nope. I noticed the coupons and "door buster" specials were good until 1 p.m. on Friday so I said "as long as we're in the store before noon we're okay."
Pshaw.
Well, sort of pshaw. We did get the special, special, super deep discount prices and I did find (more or less) everything I had thought about looking for. And, because it was Kohl's, there wasn't much pushing and shoving or fist fights over who got the last shopping cart.
On the other hand, I think we spent more time standing in line waiting to check out than I spent wandering the store looking for the stuff on my list. The checkout line made close to complete circle around the perimeter of the store. When the S.O. and I attached ourselves to the end of it, it was close to 3/4s of the way around and still growing. People were joking that Kohl's should have the equivalent of flight attendants serving snacks and beverages so people wouldn't keel over from hunger or thirst before they got to a register.
Then, to make that wait a little more annoying, we learned that anyone who didn't have a Kohl's charge card but was willing to apply for one got pulled out of the line and moved to the front. The grandson and his girlfriend had gotten into the checkout ten minutes or so after we did, but not long after we saw them trekking to the back of the store looking for the end of the line they came back to tell us they were done. Those of us who have been loyal Kohl's customers and already possessed the plastic were left shuffling slowly along, quietly despairing as we passed cheerful signs advising us that we were "30 minutes from the registers." I think some people actually cheered when the line rounded the last corner and we could see the sign saying "Checkout" in the distance.
In short, never again.
This was the first year in a long, long time that I've succumbed to the advertising for shopping on Black Friday. It's also the last. Next year I'll either do most of what little shopping I do online or everyone's going to get the equivalent of home-made pink bunny suits.
Don't have a Kohl's here, just a Walmart, went there on Thursday and the store was jam packed with lots of extra stock and I wondered if they thought people were really going to buy all that stuff. Went there on Friday for some fruit and the parking lot was pretty full so I didn't bother to go in. But the True Value store had just one electric smoker in stock at a good price so I bought it.
ReplyDeletedid almost all of my shopping on line this year..tada
ReplyDeleteShopping on line is easier and safer than joining to mobs. Never been tempted to join the black Friday crowd to end up impulse buying something I probably don't need. It is probably a generational thing - younger people then me seem to view it as a sport.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard