Do you go Black Friday shopping?

Before I had kids and bought for a ton of people I would go every year.  I love it!  Now that we have the kids and we have cut waaaaaaaaay back on my spending I probably won't go.  I love the rush of the people and all of the sales.  I was never crazy to wait on line or anything - I usually would wait and go out around 6 am... that way most of the crazy sales (and people) are done

As a person who has spent years in retail, HELL TO THE NO!!!  

We usually spend Thanksgiving back home in a small town in Northern CA where the shopping literally consists of one Wal-Mart, so I've never really participated.  Last year I did go while we were there and got a portable DVD player system for our vehicle, but the stupid thing ended up breaking within 6 weeks... I digress.

This year I think I'm going to go to Toys R Us at least and maybe a couple other places just for fun. I don't like the idea of going with specific purchases in mind. Figure I can go and if I see anything cool for cheap, I'll get em. If not, so be it.  It looks fun to be around all that craziness.   

 i have NEVER and will NEVER.

i dont like to go shopping on a normal day this time of year. it makes me cranky. if i can identify what gum you're chewing by smell you are standing waaay to close!

i am more than willing to pay full price for the priveledge of not having to endure all those people. holiday shopping turns people into animals. it's worse than the gorcery section at walmart on a saturday, and that's pretty freakin bad.

I've gone a few times. I swore years ago I never would, but that was also when I never started shopping before the second or third week of December. Now, I'm all about getting it done early! 

I took a break from it last year and shopped online instead. I'm about 97% sure that's what I'll do this year too. I've been resisting temptation and haven't looked at any of the ads yet, so that may change. But it's difficult for me because my husband is a retail manager, so he has to work on Black Friday and I have to find someone to watch Morgan.  And I'm not sure I have the strength to deal with the craziness this year. 

Depends on what you want, and looking for!  Big ticket items you do need to be there early!  Some items like vacuums, and last year within the first 15 minutes Walmart ran out of their 3 slow cooker units for $20!  Luckily I got one!  I refuse to stand in line for more than an hour to wait for an item to be available though!  My sister although stood in line from midnight to 5 AM a few years ago for the Nintendo DS for $89!  I also had three other people stationed in different areas to get stuff I wanted!  My sister inlaw stood by the pajama's (my daughters sizes go quick because there are alot of kids here wearing the same size it was a big girl year for our area in 2008!), my sister stood by the bikes (they only had 3 to 5 of each size bike and we needed one girls and one boys), My niece stood by the towels at 1.50, obviously I had the slow cooker rubbermaid containers and vacuum which conveniently were rather close together! 

One thing I will say though, see if the store you are going to shop at has a map for where the special items are placed!  Walmart here puts the items on sale for black friday in different areas than where you would normally find them!  Like laptop was in bathtowel area, towels were where greeting cards, etc....  it certainly makes it easier to find what you are looking for!  By having the size group I had we were done getting what I wanted in 30 minutes after the sale started so the lines to check out was not so LOOOOONNNNGGGGG!  I also advise, if you can, do not take little little kids with you, it is extremely crowded!   It can be fun, you just have to make a plan, and carry it out!  Now later in the day it may not be so badly crowded!  Just during the big ticket time slots! 

NEVER!!!!!! LOL I can't stand it when the stores are crowded. Ok so yeah I can't stand shopping around Christmas time at all. I usually try and go during the week in the daytime to do any shopping that needs to be done.