I love camping out for Black Friday! I started five or six years ago out of necessity. I worked for a medium-sized company that had a really awesome Christmas party. The main focus was the gifts you could win, so we BF shopped for those gifts in order to stay in budget. My first BF I shopped at Best Buy. I showed up 2 hours before the store opened and was so far back in line that I didn't get a ticket to get exactly what we set out to get. It was so cold that year. The store wall blocked the wind, but the concrete was too cold to sit on - still I made friends in the cold misery. I drank nothing so I wouldn't have to pee. In the end, I drove to Walmart because it opened two hours later than Best Buy that year. Walmart had made lines in the store aisle and we were warm and cozy, if not bored, but I found exactly what we needed. As the stores opened earlier and earlier, I found that I needed to get in line earlier as well. In 2013 (I didn't shop last year), I was too anxious to sleep the night before Thanksgiving, so I packed up my Black Friday camping gear and went to Target at 11pm. I was the first in line and it felt so good. The second person came an hour later, but the third person didn't show up until 6am Thanksgiving morning. So, I'm guessing that 14 hours out is a good start time for camping, unless your goal is to be first. I've been first...I felt like I won! As long as I get what I came for now, then I'm fine.
