As many know, I am a Black Friday Wizard. If you didn’t know, brace yourself for my antics and click HERE. I have been on a blog hiatus due to my overwhelming freelance work. I am a Graphic Designer and shit has been steady lately. I will never complain because it’s greasing my pocket for my favorite day of the year, BLACK FRIDDDAAAYYYYY!! (Sidenote: if you ever need any kind of invitation for baby showers, bridal showers, bach/bachelorette parties, sprinkles, birthdays, etc., announcements, Christmas Cards, flyer, logo, biz card, promotion of any kind, I am your gal! Click to head to my Etsy shop. If you don’t see what you need, I do custom orders all the time.)
Ok, now on to the good shit. Below are my Black Friday Survival Tips and how to plan your trip. I will be blogging all of the ads and documenting the best sales so check back. Everyone who knows me, knows Black Friday is my favorite day of the year and I start prepping for it in September. I found out I have a large following not located in the United States, so for you friends, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving where retail stores run crazy sales and deals. It’s a frenzy to get the best savings. People stand in line for hours and fight each other for a $2 crock pot. I know that because I got one 2 years ago and it’s far better than my $50 one. On this day pregnant women, children, elderly…it doesn’t matter, everyone is fair game.
Your Game Plan.
In September I start working on my endurance and right hook. I need to be able to shop for 10+ hours, knock out bitches trying to buy the same pair of $5 sweatpants as me and do it in record time. My main tip is to pre-shop the stores before Black Friday and know where your items are located in each store. A lot of places in the mall will start their deals on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Express did this last year and saved us a trip to the mall. Last year Target handed out maps while we were in line to show you where the sale items were located in which isle of the store. This was key for my sister and me. We assigned each other designated items to get and when the door opened, we separated and took off running towards whatever we needed. Divide and conquer helped us get in and out of Target in 15 minutes with everything we needed. You also need to map out all of the stores you want to hit and what time they open. We planned it last year so we were in line by the time each of our stores opened and got every deal we wanted. We are professional bad asses and have been doing this for years so don’t expect to have that happen to you right off the bat if you’re new.
Lines.
Lines are a huge contender to Black Friday Shopping. If you’re standing in line for a store to open, shopping quickly is everything. If you can get your stuff and get in line to check out before the masses, you’re winning. We weren’t that smart the year before last and stood in line for over an hour to check out at Target. There were easily 200 people in line to purchase their items. You obviously can’t be everywhere when they open so if you get somewhere after opening, have your wingman (no one should ever Black Friday shop alone) get in line while you shop around. When you’re done, take their place while they go shop. My sister and I do this every year and it works every time.
Who to shop for.
Black Friday is not a time to dilly dally or try shit on. You need to know what you want, in what size and what color. My sister and I don’t shop for other people on Black Friday unless we know the exact item. When you shop for other people, it’s a lot of dicking around and him-hawing about ‘Will they wear this?’ ‘What size do you think they will need?’ ‘Don’t they already have that color or one of those?’ It’s a lot of nonsense that no one has time for.
Clothing. What to wear and how to avoid dressing rooms.
Black Friday is not the time for dressing rooms. You need to wear clothing that you can put pants on over if you really aren’t sure how it will fit. I opt for leggings, tank top with a long sleeve over it and a zip up with pockets. I never bring my coat in a mall-type situation. I sweat like a line backer and I don’t want to carry my mid-western Eskimo parka plus bags plus my snack plus my sodie. It’s imperative that you leave your purse at home. Few things bother me the way it does when someone knocks into my purse. But other than that, my purse weighs almost 15 pounds, yes I weighed it and it will slow me down. All you need is your driver’s license, credit card and cash. Put it in your zip pocket and you’re good. I always make sure my zip up has 2 pockets. 1 pocket is for the mentioned things above and the other for my snacks. Look, shopping, running and watching people be idiots makes me hungry and since all of the stores feel the need to open on Thanksgiving day, I usually eat my turkey on a sandwich while standing in line in 40 degree weather wondering why the joker behind me is in shorts. We addicts bond over Black Friday so you meet some really interesting characters who are equally bargain obsessed. This year’s zip up will be no joke since I need to carry all of those things plus my jumbo-fuckin iphone.
If you’re in a state with outlet malls, always check their deals! Last year was our first year for outlet malls as they were just built. Their website had the list of every store, a map and the sale they were having. Don’t wait until the day before Thanksgiving to scope everything out. You need to start at least a week beforehand. If you don’t know what a sale is going to be, call the store. I am not above going to a store the day before and hiding and item I want if I know it’s going to be on sale and go quickly. The majority of clothing stores run a 50% off sale on the entire store so those lines get ridiculous very quickly. If you need to cut a place out of your list because you have too much, I suggest clothing stores should go first. I say that because they will run the same deal online that day and likely have an even better deal on Cyber Monday. You can be standing in line a Walmart while you’re on your phone buying a sweater from J. Crew. There’s always a way and I find there are more online coupons than in-store coupons which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me but whatever. Online stores also carry different merchandise.
Ad Releases: Mall Stores
Now that I have you prepped, check back for the ad releases. Right now Express is the only major clothing store to release anything and they didn’t release their actual Black Friday deal or their opening time; just deals for the few days before and after. Their Black Friday deal has notoriously been 50% off the entire store so I would expect that again this year. If you want to see what they have before and after, you can find it HERE. NY&C is running a sweepstakes for Black Friday with 1 grand prize winner receiving $100,000 if you’re into that kind of thing. I personally think it’s bull shit. There are other prizes as well so if you want to know more about it head HERE.
Sears posted their ad break HERE. They don't have a free doorbuster but their doorbuster sales consist of appliances, shoes, a drill and clothing.
I’m not into toy books but if you are, everyone pretty much has theirs released and you can see them HERE. just browse over to the bottom left sidebar.
Ok, now on to the good shit. Below are my Black Friday Survival Tips and how to plan your trip. I will be blogging all of the ads and documenting the best sales so check back. Everyone who knows me, knows Black Friday is my favorite day of the year and I start prepping for it in September. I found out I have a large following not located in the United States, so for you friends, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving where retail stores run crazy sales and deals. It’s a frenzy to get the best savings. People stand in line for hours and fight each other for a $2 crock pot. I know that because I got one 2 years ago and it’s far better than my $50 one. On this day pregnant women, children, elderly…it doesn’t matter, everyone is fair game.
Your Game Plan.
In September I start working on my endurance and right hook. I need to be able to shop for 10+ hours, knock out bitches trying to buy the same pair of $5 sweatpants as me and do it in record time. My main tip is to pre-shop the stores before Black Friday and know where your items are located in each store. A lot of places in the mall will start their deals on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Express did this last year and saved us a trip to the mall. Last year Target handed out maps while we were in line to show you where the sale items were located in which isle of the store. This was key for my sister and me. We assigned each other designated items to get and when the door opened, we separated and took off running towards whatever we needed. Divide and conquer helped us get in and out of Target in 15 minutes with everything we needed. You also need to map out all of the stores you want to hit and what time they open. We planned it last year so we were in line by the time each of our stores opened and got every deal we wanted. We are professional bad asses and have been doing this for years so don’t expect to have that happen to you right off the bat if you’re new.
Lines.
Lines are a huge contender to Black Friday Shopping. If you’re standing in line for a store to open, shopping quickly is everything. If you can get your stuff and get in line to check out before the masses, you’re winning. We weren’t that smart the year before last and stood in line for over an hour to check out at Target. There were easily 200 people in line to purchase their items. You obviously can’t be everywhere when they open so if you get somewhere after opening, have your wingman (no one should ever Black Friday shop alone) get in line while you shop around. When you’re done, take their place while they go shop. My sister and I do this every year and it works every time.
Who to shop for.
Black Friday is not a time to dilly dally or try shit on. You need to know what you want, in what size and what color. My sister and I don’t shop for other people on Black Friday unless we know the exact item. When you shop for other people, it’s a lot of dicking around and him-hawing about ‘Will they wear this?’ ‘What size do you think they will need?’ ‘Don’t they already have that color or one of those?’ It’s a lot of nonsense that no one has time for.
Clothing. What to wear and how to avoid dressing rooms.
Black Friday is not the time for dressing rooms. You need to wear clothing that you can put pants on over if you really aren’t sure how it will fit. I opt for leggings, tank top with a long sleeve over it and a zip up with pockets. I never bring my coat in a mall-type situation. I sweat like a line backer and I don’t want to carry my mid-western Eskimo parka plus bags plus my snack plus my sodie. It’s imperative that you leave your purse at home. Few things bother me the way it does when someone knocks into my purse. But other than that, my purse weighs almost 15 pounds, yes I weighed it and it will slow me down. All you need is your driver’s license, credit card and cash. Put it in your zip pocket and you’re good. I always make sure my zip up has 2 pockets. 1 pocket is for the mentioned things above and the other for my snacks. Look, shopping, running and watching people be idiots makes me hungry and since all of the stores feel the need to open on Thanksgiving day, I usually eat my turkey on a sandwich while standing in line in 40 degree weather wondering why the joker behind me is in shorts. We addicts bond over Black Friday so you meet some really interesting characters who are equally bargain obsessed. This year’s zip up will be no joke since I need to carry all of those things plus my jumbo-fuckin iphone.
If you’re in a state with outlet malls, always check their deals! Last year was our first year for outlet malls as they were just built. Their website had the list of every store, a map and the sale they were having. Don’t wait until the day before Thanksgiving to scope everything out. You need to start at least a week beforehand. If you don’t know what a sale is going to be, call the store. I am not above going to a store the day before and hiding and item I want if I know it’s going to be on sale and go quickly. The majority of clothing stores run a 50% off sale on the entire store so those lines get ridiculous very quickly. If you need to cut a place out of your list because you have too much, I suggest clothing stores should go first. I say that because they will run the same deal online that day and likely have an even better deal on Cyber Monday. You can be standing in line a Walmart while you’re on your phone buying a sweater from J. Crew. There’s always a way and I find there are more online coupons than in-store coupons which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me but whatever. Online stores also carry different merchandise.
Ad Releases: Mall Stores
Now that I have you prepped, check back for the ad releases. Right now Express is the only major clothing store to release anything and they didn’t release their actual Black Friday deal or their opening time; just deals for the few days before and after. Their Black Friday deal has notoriously been 50% off the entire store so I would expect that again this year. If you want to see what they have before and after, you can find it HERE. NY&C is running a sweepstakes for Black Friday with 1 grand prize winner receiving $100,000 if you’re into that kind of thing. I personally think it’s bull shit. There are other prizes as well so if you want to know more about it head HERE.
Sears posted their ad break HERE. They don't have a free doorbuster but their doorbuster sales consist of appliances, shoes, a drill and clothing.
I’m not into toy books but if you are, everyone pretty much has theirs released and you can see them HERE. just browse over to the bottom left sidebar.