Black Friday Blogging

I hit up a bunch of the stores for Black Friday sales. Here's how my day went:

4:30 AM - wake up to alarm. Shower, dress, check w00t. Note that I didn't get my target wakeup call from Heidi Klum

5:30 AM - arrive at Circuit City, which opens at 6. Line stretches from doors in middle to end of bulding - not too bad. Opens at 6, they are very well stocked, get everything I want, get in line - 2nd in line at the register. Out by 6:20.

Items purchased:
Samsonite camcorder bag - Free after rebate (FAR)
Targus DVD bag - FAR
Philips 100 pack CDR - FAR
Belkin G router - $8 AR (after rebate)
Belkin G PCI card - $5 AR

6:30 - Arrive at OfficeMax, which opens at 7. Line at the shopping center they are at stretches two stores down.

7AM - OM opens. Bedlam. Tons of people pushing, poking, ect. Line at customer service for small items, like the FAR flash drive and SD card. Decide to grab big stuff first, then wait in line. Rush for stuff - there were cd's and jewel cases everywhere from packs broken open in the chaos. Get most of what I want, wait in the customer service line to get flash drive (out of sd cards). Lines to check out stretches to middle of store. Takes an hour and a half to check out. Since customer service was being used to hand out items, they are processing returns at the registers, and not making people returning wait in line - so I finally make it to the register, and have to wait for some guy to exchange a mouse.

Items purchased:
Khypermedia 100 CDR- FAR
Value Disk 10 DVD+RW - FAR
Northwest Bell cordless phone - FAR
64mb flash drive - FAR
SD Card reader - FAR

9AM - finally get out of OM. Go to Barnes and Noble, pee.

9:05 - Go to PC Richards (local chain). Nobody there and plenty of the CD-R's I wanted, but no rebate forms. Put CDR back, leave

9:15 - Radio shack. Tons of CD-r's, no line. Out in 5 minutes.

Item purchased
Ridata CDR 50 pack - FAR

9:25 - ACE hardware

wander around, find what I want, get checked out by a cheerful woman who asks what number store this is and is surprised when I say "5"

Items purchased:
tape measure 99 cents AR
Christmas cards FAR
Flashlight FAR

9:40 - staples. Out of everything I wanted

9:50 - home. Drink coffee, eat donuts, take a 3 hour nap. Wake up, nuke some turkey and stuffing, start filling out rebate forms.

I realized that Circuit City stiffed me on the forms for the Belkin wireless card. Guess I'll be back there tomorrow.

Not a bad take, but not as good as previous years - and unless they are handing out free plasma TV's, I think I'm skipping OfficeMax next year.