sherndon

1.) In my opinion, Kohl's had the best ad last year. They opened early enough that I could get everything there that I needed and still make it to Target on time. What is great about Kohl's is that they have all of their "'door buster" items stacked in the aisles for easy grabbing. 2.) Chart your course early and stay in touch here. 3.) Target handed out hot coffee, hot chocolate and gift bags for those who were standing outside in line. That was great because it was so cold. But to me, besides the great deals I like stores that have people outside to keep everyone entering in an orderly fashion. I have been stuck in the middle of people pushing and shoving and line jumping before and it is not pleasant.

This will be year 16 for me. It sure has changed!

My absolute worst experience was about 5 or 6 years ago at a KB Toy Store. I had been there the before and got great deals. Because it was inside a mall we were able to wait where it was warm. This certainly beat the alternative. So my mom and I get there at 3:00 am (back then that was early) and hang out inside with the other 3 people there. We are excited and chartering our morning course -- in KB grab the goods and out by 5:30 easily to Target which was in the Mall before they opened at 6:00 am. My mom was in a wheel chair which worked great for us, because she held the items on her lap and I pushed. Well it was opeining time 5:00 and the line was really long by now. We got in, found our items and the store kept filling and filling. By now we were trying to get the the front of the store to check out, but it was grid-lock. Nobody paid any attention to how many people came in the store and nobody could move. There was an argument in the aisle over and you could hear yelling and boxes tumbling down. The next thing I knew there were items falling off the shelf in the aisle we were stuck in. There was an announcement for everyone to leave the store and form a line in front so that they could re-organize. We dropped our stuff off on the counter on the way out thinking we could pick it back up, but the order now was whoever was out last went in first. It was 6:30 and we had nothing -- I have never been back to a KB Toy Store. I did learn to shop alone and be picky about where I went after that.