Braving Black Friday

Did you brave Black Friday this year?

I’m not a big Black Friday shopper. Honestly, I shop enough the rest of the year that I’m not about to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to run to Target. In fact, not a whole lot can get me up at 3:00 a.m. to go anywhere.

Backing Away from Black Friday

I just don’t get it.

Why would anyone want to shorten their Thanksgiving to camp outside a store just to get a good “deal”? The only deal that could ever make me camp out anywhere would be a "free" deal… on Jimmy Choo’s (which we all know will never happen, so thankfully I won’t be loosing any sleep anytime soon. Phew!)

Normally I stay home on Black Friday. I don’t brave the traffic, the crowds or the sales. But this year, I happened to be driving past my Old Navy and saw throngs of people coming out with bags and bags of… stuff.

I was curious.

I thought to myself, "If I get a parking spot in the next two minutes, I’ll just run in and see what they have on sale." Needless to say, I got the parking spot, so I went inside.

Big mistake.

I could not believe the crowds. The line for the dressing rooms wrapped all the way around the store and intersected with the check out line somewhere in the back of the boys’ department.

Really, People? Really?

What could possibly drive you to lose at least two hours of your life waiting on line? Five dollar t-shirts that are normally $7.50 any other day of the week? Fifteen dollar cargo pants that you probably have hanging in your closet?

I couldn’t believe it. And to think unemployment still hovers around an unprecedented 9% in this country.

At the end of the day, is it really worth it? Worth the stress? The frustration?

Not for me.

You know what I did on this Black Friday? I went home and did laundry. And it didn’t cost me a thing.