If you know me, you know I am all about a good deal!
Black Friday = right up my alley.
Growing up in small town South Dakota, I never had the opportunity or exposure to a true Black Friday experience. When I moved to Rochester in 2008 it was here that I convinced my new husband of less than a year to do a true Black Friday shopping experience with me.
On Thanksgiving morning in 2009, we got a newspaper from the convenience store, marked our deals, and planned our route. The first stop? Menards.
At 3 a.m., we rolled into the parking lot on Black Friday to find that we were almost late to the game with a store opening at 5 a.m.. As Black Friday rookies we panicked a little as a winding line through the parking lot was already formed and growing quickly.
Dressed in layers, we got out of the car with coffee cups in hand and braved the cold for over two hours for a the best deal of all time on……..a Shop-Vac.
As we neared the opening time for the store a group of those waiting in their nice warm cars encroached on the winding (now very, very long) line from the side. Some hostile words were exchanged amongst the crowd encroaching and those that had been waiting in the line in the cold.
The doors opened and the crowd converged.
The store had set up a barricade to help “funnel” people in the door. That barricade was bags of softener salt that some shoppers decided to hurdle to try to beat the crowd to those unbelievable deals. Unfortunately, some shoppers were not athletic enough to clear that hurdle and resulted in face planting on the other side. Thankfully, they all got up to continue their quest through the store.
My husband and I split up once in the store to run up and down the aisles scouring for the Shop-Vac. With only two left on the shelf, we snagged one and celebrated our thrill of a deal on Black Friday.
Now again if you know me, I am very competitive. Add that characteristic to the love for a deal and I was hooked to say the least. That experience of running through the store amongst others made me want to always participate in this day.
However, time changes everything. Job commitments and young kids at home made this desire of running through the store the day after Thanksgiving less and less of a reality with each year that has passed.
Luckily as the years have passed, the evolution of Black Friday has also changed. More people take to their phones to do their shopping versus running through the stores. Black Friday has turned into Cyber Monday. Shopping in person versus shopping online is different. Not bad, but different.
So again this year as I took to my phone to do a little Black Friday shopping I was left wondering if I was getting that “best deal.” The online ads versus circling them in a paper make it hard for me to track all the best prices. I find myself waiting to hit “buy” on an online lightning deal and then disappointed later that I can’t find the same price.
To my advantage, Black Friday has now also evolved into Small Business Saturday. My love for a deal has changed to the love of the convenience of shopping close to home and supporting my small town. I don’t have to fight big crowds or spend time scouring online for a deal. Instead, I just walk into a local business, shop some great deals, and leave satisfied with my thrill of a deal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)