nebraskaparkfan

This is the same system used at our store in nebraska. the stores across the river in iowa were a different set up and were a mad house. We were told at 3 a.m. which doorbuster was in which area. as far as the toys, we were standing by the big piles of toys that were not to be touched til 5 a.m. but we made "deals" with people on the other side of the piles to grab stuff for each other which was fun. I asked an associate by the clothing if I could just check a size before 5 a.m. on a jacket (I'm tall and wanted to make sure of the length) and she said it was ok. She watched to make sure I didn't put it into my cart and I thanked her for letting me do this. A little courtesy with sales associates goes a long way. Whenever someone asked an associate standing by an item first, it was always ok.

Looks like I will have my states to myself - south sioux city nebraska then sioux city iowa.

How do you know what stores will have the stuff available online and when? last year I ordered from old navy and penneys with no problems whatsoever.

thanks for letting me know. The boys have been comparing all the ads to decide which store had the best deal and are now planning their camping strategy. to be honest, teenage boys are probably the least likely people to sell the game systems on ebay. My son sold off a bunch of his outgrown toys, books, and video games to save up for black friday shopping for his xbox.

my son is planning to get one of these. I hope he does or I'll never hear the end of it.

thanks for the info on this. My son and his friends are planning to go to best buy to get the xbox systems. I wasn't sure if they would give a ticket to teen boys (they range in age from 15-18). I will be over at WM so I wasn't sure if there would be a probelm with them getting a ticket without a parent present. Of course, my son is well over 6' and has been known to claim to be 18 if the situation requires it. lol And no, not worried about the cold. All but one of the boys is a boy scout and they do the polar bear campout every year including last year's 25 below zero windchill. They are going as a group for safety reasons and each will have a cell phone. As far as the comments about tickets to kids in general -- if the person with the ticket is the one in line who is paying for it - not an issue to me, but I would hope that no store manager would give a ticket to a toddler or infant b/c the parent has them in line. and you really can't enforce any type of age rule b/c most kids don't have any idea that would show their age unless they are old enough to drive. There are a lot of families with more than one child who are looking to buy identical gifts for their children.

I have the smaller one. I think joanns is going to have it for $75 or something like that on bf. I can't cut the big sizes, but I don't normally do that anyway. There's a few features I don't have, but aren't really that necessary. If I do need something specially cut that requires a expression or the special features, my local store will cut it for me if I buy the paper there. Or at crops many places have them available for free use. They all use the same cartridges. This is an incredible price for the expression. I'm really tempted, but I'm an on the go scrapper myself and don't want to lug the big one around.

My walmart did this last year and it was great. I didn't get tackled by someone grabbing it out of my hands. No claw marks down my hands when someone tried to grab the laptop from me (yes, the person who did that did draw blood). No kids were trampled and pushed around. no elderly people were shoved. It was great. I was in line for one item, my x was in line for another and our teen son went and got all the smaller stuff. (plus we were in the store early to get the stuff that we wanted to price match). It is not screwing people. It is making it fair for everyone not just the biggest and most obnoxious. Everyone had a fair chance to get the item they wanted. I got in line for my item about 20 minutes before 5 and was number 4. Having seen this in action, it worked really well. They actually had 2-3 items per line and you could get one of each item. One of the items was the "really hot" item and the other 2 were "pretty hot" so I think there were a total of 5-6 areas for the lines, so there were chances to get more than one item. There were associates constantly checking on people in line to make sure they were ok or had any questions etc. One of the items in the line I was in was for a DS. The lady behind me wanted 2 and asked me if I was getting one - since I was in line for one of the other items, she asked if I would mind getting one for her. Not a problem for me at all. Other people in line were doing the same thing. Lots of friendly negotiating going on. We were warm, people were friendly, it was probably one of the better BF shopping exeriences I have had. I think we were up to the checkout line within 20 minutes of the official bf shopping time. I then went to target to get a few things just as it was opening. i went in and made my way to the electronics area to get a couple games. It was a madhouse and I was bodyslammed into the glass display area where the games are. I'm still surprised that the glass didn't shatter. So I will take WM's method over the other stores any time.

I am not very happy with his plans since he is 6'4" with long arms and grabs things off the highest shelves for me that no one else can reach. He is so goodnatured and such a goofball at times that he makes the hassles of BF shopping so much fun. They are now talking about camping overnight at best buy - I wasn't sure about that but they reminded me that they camped last winter with the scouts and with windchill is was about 25 below zero.

I only get upset when I see people who are dressed warmly and their small children are not, esp. when we get horrible windchill and other lovely nebraska winter weather. I also get upset when I see people holding small children/babies who are in the middle of the pushing and shoving. I always worry that a baby could get dropped. I got lucky when my kids were smaller. My babysitter hosted a sleepover party on thanksgiving night for the kids and didn't charge for it. Instead, she gave us money to stand in line in the cold and get her stuff while we got our own. We kept in contact with her and the other mothers who were out shopping by cellphone. I don't know who got the better end of that deal. Esp. since she would often have us bring her a coffee or a donut or something on our way back to her house. My son has gone with me for the last 2 years. He's now 15 and is 6'4" tall. He's a huge help. He's really good natured and reaches over people to get things off the top shelf that no one else can get to. I've seen him laughing and enjoying himself and getting things down for other people or looking over the heads of the other shoppers to help people find things. When we are in line, he loves to be around little kids and keeps them occupied while they wait.

I'm hoping for some really cheap cricut or slice cartridges - but nothing I really want. My teen son is looking at xbox 360 bundles, but nothing really great there either. He's planning to go with a group of other 15-17 year old boys and hopefully a couple of them will get them. Which means I lose my shopping buddy.

My 11 yo daughter wants a sewing machine for Christmas. Any ideas for a cheaper machine that would be a good deal? I want it to do both the regular and zigzag stitching. I'm not sure if she will keep with sewing, so I don't want a spend a huge amount.

another site is www.shopgoodwill.com. I've bought some things for AG on there.

My 15 yo son. He loves getting up early and going (although 364 days a year he would sleep til noon). He's not shy so he has no problems going into the store and hustling around to get the stuff. He's also 6'4" so he reaches right over people to get the stuff on the top shelves. My 11 yo daughter is begging to go this year, but not sure I'm going to let her since she still "believes" in santa this year.

My daughter plays with her moon sand in the kitchen or the patio - no problems with it. She hated the feel of play doh. Any music that I hate. The kids always want to listen to it in the car when we're driving and some of my sons CDs make me want to drive off a cliff. Anything remote controlled. My son never plays with it. He's 15 and he just sold 3 totes full of remote controlled toys. No stuffed animals. No rated M video games. My x-inlaws think I'm too strict about this, but I have an issue with video games with profanity and certain other things. There are more than enough other games that my 15 yo can play with and he can play those games at his friends' houses if their parents allow them.

I did it both times. The big advantages - when it's cold, I had extra body weight to keep me warm. LOL The other big advantage, when you're in line at the bathroom and your tummy is really sticking out, I have had other women tell me to go ahead of them b/c a pg woman just can't wait for the bathroom. I would wait and go into the store after the rush when the door opens just to avoid being pushed or slipping. Your center of balance will be off and you would be more likely to fall is shoved.

Well, so far I'm the only Iowa shopper. I'll be in Sioux City but will be connected by phone to my sibs in Vermillion SD (or maybe Sioux Falls) and in Omaha and Lincoln. the ex took the big screen tv that we got last black friday in the divorce, so I'm in need of a new one.

I vow to resist buying everything for my kids so I can buy some great things for myself!

I need to buy my rapidly growing son some jeans, but penneys never has his size in stock in the store (32x34 or better yet 32x36). does anyone know if I can order the doorbusters online on friday morning? it's a good price for jeans in that size range, but I have always had to order from penneys rather than buy in the store.

1. ads with number of items available, or at least the minimum number since it is difficult for stores to plan this far in advance 2. don't shoot me for this one - no babies in strollers. It's plain out dangerous. B/t getting rammed wtih them and people tripping over them. and if it's below 0, don't wait in line with them! 3. price matching 4. roping off the area to stop the line cutting. 5. WM needs to do something different with the big tickets item. last year, our store had 3 different places to stand in line. 4 items had lines in the tire area (the tv we wanted was one of them), another in personnel - nintendo ds, ipon and 2 other items, and a third area for yet different doorbusters. I understand how it reduces the number of people in line, but we had to take 3 people last year to stand in line for what we wanted. 6. more check out lines!!!! -- I don't even go to menards anymore b/c it takes close to 2 hours to check out. 7. express checkout for those of us who have either under 10 or under 5 items. Lots of times, I go into the store just to get a couple things, but it isn't worth it for the wait in line. 8. goodies in line is great. I've been to stores wher they pass out candy canes.

I'm starting out at WM in South Sioux City, nebraska then heading across the river to shop in Sioux City Iowa.

I do someo f the shopping for my sis and my parents. My sis has 4 kids and lives on a farm over an hour from any larger town so she is a little more limited. They drive 30 min. to a small wm to try to get stuff, but the smaler stores really don't get as much. So we do a lot of phone calling that morning to check on each others' purchases and they look for stuff for me too. We do a a lot of swapping throughout the year, so I don't mind this. My parents are getting older and this isn't a fun thing for them, so I usually have them go through the ads and I get what I can. And as for being on a cell phone - i get bored and cold and it helps to keep me awake.

I've never brought my kids. Too early, too cold (I"m in Nebraska) and too pushy. Last year, my son who was 13 tagged along b/c he's taller than most adults. (He's now 14 and 6'2"). My babysitter had a sleepover on Thanksgiving night for all the kids. They had an air mattress and movies and popcorn and we got our kids the next morning after shopping. She didn't charge much if you were willing to grab some items for her while shopping! and the kids loved it.

I'm not looking for any big ticket items, so don't have any real feelings one way or another. The b-bratz doll is only $3 less than their regular price. I'm going for the movies and the Nintendo DS pack that my son is buying for himself. Actually, I go there to price match the BB ad for the movies and CD's. BB is way to crowded and WM isn't. I figure if they aren't going to have anything good, I'll try to get them to match everyone else's ads. Target will be my next stop for the pokemon toys and movies. I'm disappointed that no one has any decent deals for legos. Buy 2 get one free at KM is NOT a good deal - that works out to 33% off each one. not a deal and it forces me to buy 3 when I only want 1. My favorite stop? Bomgaars, get a 20% off coupon in the a.m. and shop at any point in the day with it. Second favorite stop? Michaels. michelle

Thanks! I am definitely going there for the Hannah Montana dolls, the littlest pet shop and a few other things. DD saw the aqua dots and i had to tell her that they've been recalled. Always go there for the movies.