53 replies to this topic

[smangham]

I can remember going in the late eighties and racking UP on the goodies....makeup bags filled with samples, snowglobes, stuffed animals and flashlights (?!) Oh, and free food and cokes, too....especially at the cinnamon bun place. Ahhhh...the good old days.

[jdrd90]

I remember free coffee and doughnuts. Poptarts at TRU lol

[nirvana4all]

*wide eyed kid amazement* wow, and they didn't even have websites like this to tell them about all the deals back in the 80's did they grandpa? WHY NO GRANDSON, THEY REALLY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE AN INTERNET IN 1980...BARELY EVEN COMPUTERS TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH.

[Gumball]

I think Big Lots was the last place that still had freebies on BF. I can remember even the local furniture store had stuff to give away, I think it was a small pocketknife. Big Lots had stuff like crystal & silver candleholders & clocks, Penneys had the Disney snowglobes every year, Kmart usually had crappy freebies (when they even bothered), Best Buy had great freebies but I didn't have one near me. It seemed like EVERYBODY had something to give away every year.

[Miss Star]

I remember the goodie bags, one year Target had a really good goodie bag and we made a trip there just for the bags. Thanks for starting this post I had forgotten all about that lol I'm going to have to ask my mom and she if see remembers? lol

[rbellville]

Yes, I remember my mom would pick the stores with the best freebies to go to. Most offered free $10. My favorite was the Hot Wheels from Target where you won something. I think GC. Paper back then though...

[jellybean051901]

Hills or Ames used to hand out gift cards for various amounts up to like $100 or something.

[shopping4my3son]

In the mid 90's (I think) Shopko gave out a stuffed Tweety bird to the first couple hundred people. I remember they opened at 5 and I was there at about 4:45 and there wasn't much of a line yet. I gave the Tweety to my son who was about 2-3 yrs old. That was my first BF shopping trip.

[wyntyrose]

I remember the popcorn tins I think it was Shopko gave away. We would go in a big group and come home with 15 of those tins then my mom and aunts would use those as teachers gifts.

[Tessangel]

My mom told me that she remembered the year that Cabbage Patches came out it was awful. She said that people got arrested and people got seriously hurt and they had to call the ambulance. I think that is just crazy!!! I do remember however that me, my sister and brother all got one! :lol My brother got the special edition astronaut boy cabbage patch!!!

[bayhaysay]

My mom told me that she remembered the year that Cabbage Patches came out it was awful. She said that people got arrested and people got seriously hurt and they had to call the ambulance. I think that is just crazy!!! I do remember however that me, my sister and brother all got one! :lol My brother got the special edition astronaut boy cabbage patch!!!

My grandmother still talks about the Cabbage Patch dolls and how she had to fight to get me one.

[abentley]

I recall Kmart doing gift bags, one year with 101 dalmations. Seems like over the years, it has lost a lot of fun!!

[MICKEY3601]

It was nice getting the freebies. I remember an Elmo cookie tin from Kmart 1 year. I have a couple of those snowglobes from JCPenneys. I got an ornament from Mervyns 1 year as well. Half the fun of BF back in the day was deciding which store had the best freebie!!

[erh12275]

I can remember going in the late 90's and they still gave away stuff. Also still had lots of stuff left even after the sales were over. Things were not near as crazy as they have become.

[Yakyma]

It was nice getting the freebies. I remember an Elmo cookie tin from Kmart 1 year. I have a couple of those snowglobes from JCPenneys. I got an ornament from Mervyns 1 year as well. Half the fun of BF back in the day was deciding which store had the best freebie!!

LOL I remember those Elmo cookie tins..we ended up with 10 of them, when we opened them up they were the worse cookies ever..dumped the cookies and used my tins for homemade goodies and to wrap up some little things that fit great in there. And you are right about seeing who had the best giveaway and going to that store first. I loved the gift card giveaways the best...free shopping money. One year a mall in Orlando gave away 10.00 mall gift cards every Saturday morning for a month. We would drive over there stand in line and between me and dh had 20.00 more dollars to shop with every weekend. 80.00 worth of Christmas presents that were free. Back then that was some nice shopping cash.

[vonnyb]

I can remember going in the late 90's and they still gave away stuff. Also still had lots of stuff left even after the sales were over. Things were not near as crazy as they have become.

Yeah, it was no where near as crazy as it is now, back then. I also don't remember worrying about whether I was going to get the item I was there for. It seems like they always had more than enough merchandise.

[magickallight]

I was one of the mom's that got beat up over a Cabbage Patch kid... only got one and had to daughters... thank goodness Grandma came through on the other! I also looked forward to JcPenney's anual Paddington Bear... still have a few of them.

[mgmckny]

I remember having to open the store I managed in a mall at 8am and nobody would be around and my employees would take turns going for the freebies from the big stores. Sometimes we even went back later in the morning and got a second round of them... We wouldn't even see customers before 10 am in the rest of the mall and the big stores weren't really busy either. I even stopped at KMART one year for wrapping paper and their giveaways and still when I got to work, the parking lot was empty! When I left retail in 1995, I started doing the Target giveaways and would meet up with the same people from across the border in Georgia each year until Target quit doing the nice goodie bags...

[wx4svr]

*wide eyed kid amazement* wow, and they didn't even have websites like this to tell them about all the deals back in the 80's did they grandpa?

WHY NO GRANDSON, THEY REALLY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE AN INTERNET IN 1980...BARELY EVEN COMPUTERS TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH.

[AshJs3]

Even though I am only 23 I remember crazy Black Friday's of the 80s and 90s. Even though I was so young I always always in on the action. My mom always says I was born with a shopping bag in my hand. I remember Montgomery Ward always had something to give away. They also had special edition Rudolph books and stuffed animals. I also have tons of snowglobes from various places around here somewhere. I can't remember much else, but I always remember coming home with tons of stuff. One of my most memorable holiday shopping trips (Can't remember if it was Black Friday or the Day after Christmas) was when Dillards had a huge sale on all of their Christmas decorations. We all squished through the doors and somehow got up the escalators. You could hear the people running on the floor above! It was kind of scary! But anyways we got up there and just started grabbing everything. My aunt found a bed off to the side and we made that our meeting place where we just dumped everything so we could go through everything to get what we wanted. That was a crazy year!

[fairydustcrissy]

Cookie tins, snowglobes, goody bags at Target...ah the good ole days. One year Macy's did fortune cookies with a GC amount in them. I got $50! Yippie! I miss all that stuff. Now its all about electronics, which I usually cant afford lol. But i still get out there every year!

[jellybean051901]

My mom always talks about having to fight for CPK and care bears for my sister and I. It seems like the only things that used to cause mass chaos was the toys. Now it is elecronics and the more expensive items.

[mom8w]

Black Friday was really fun in the 70's! The big deal for my family was the "Santa Arrival", primarily at Wonder World and Vegas Village. Wonder World would have Santa arrive on a fire engine, tossing ping pong balls into the crowd. Marked balls were redeemed for prizes. My Mom got her glasses smashed in the melee one year. LOL! We generally made the rounds to 2 or 3 stores, as the arrival times were staggered throughout the morning. Then, it was on to Vegas Village, at least one, often two stores, in the afternoon. Santa arrived by helicopter, in the center of a large roped off area, and made the rounds tossing out candies. His arrival was preceeded by a Christmas parade. My parents spent many Thanksgiving days involving us kids in designing and putting together mini-floats and other entries, as the winning entries received gift certificates up to 100 dollars. We did really well one year, with my younger brother riding his big wheel with a spiraling Christmas tree surrounding him. We did a chicken wire candle, using tons of tissue paper to fill in color. Many people went all out, and it was a blast! I don't remember a thing about the shopping on those days...but we made lots of great memories participating in these events.

[Uberfemme]

Oh, I miss those goodie bags at Target! Those were the best. That's definitely one tradition Target needs to revive. I think the fights were worse in the 80s than they are now. I can remember incidents like a fight in Belk dept. store over $5 crock pots. One year they knocked all the crock pots on top of my head! I was only 15! I didn't even need a crock pot. I was helping my mom. I remember when Wal-Mart sold things you actually wanted to buy. In college, I'd go there to buy gifts (good prices for my college student budget) then head to Target for my goodie bag. Sears and J.C.Penney giving away gift certificates at the door. Free coffee and doughnuts. Free gift wrapping services. The exhaustion of shopping for 3 or 4 hours is still the same though.

[sigrist_2000]

i remember that Meijers used to giveaway grab bags...usually filled with different sorts of items from various departments...sometimes good thigns sometimes not...but none the less we got something good out of them...(cant remeber what now but...lol) yes, Target and their hotwheels\ giveaways... Ames/Hills....Hotwheels 3/$1...i dont think those days will be back anytime soon i think... i do remember it wasnt about the items at the store to get, it WAS who had the best freebies...and we also always double dip on them when possible...lol..good ole days...they should bring stuff like that back... i think the only ones that still do is Jcpeeney, and big lots...and of course the various gift cards at at various stores... geez...nothing like going back in time....lol

[AndreaInNC]

The good ole days when Target & TRU pricematched their competitors and the phrase open early meant 8am .. lol

[kdaven]

I still have my elmo cookie tin. I use it to store special christmas deco. We use to decide the best freebies, best deals, best prices. Seemed like Target use to always win out. Best Buy did freebies for a little bit. I remember Mervyns having a line wrapped around the building just for the freebie plus you got an extra off coupon of some sort. If you are military....the BX has a free $20.00gift card the day after thanksgiving thru Sunday. The last 3 years I have been there Fri,Sat,Sun for the gift card, plus they price match, plus there is no tax on base. This has really been the best for me. My husband retired this year from the Air Force and we live about 45minutes from the base, so I don't know if I'll make it

[jarerice]

I thought BF was always the way same that it is now. I just started going the past 5 years or so.

[Bunniq]

i do remember it wasnt about the items at the store to get, it WAS who had the best freebies...and we also always double dip on them when possible...lol..good ole days...they should bring stuff like that back...
geez...nothing like going back in time....lol

Maybe goodie bags will come back one day!