Official One-and-Only "What I Got" / "My BF Experience" Thread

[rjones2615]

OMG This year was the WORST I have ever seen BF at Walmart. I wasn't able to snag any 4GB MCs or Flash drives, but I got the picture frames and portable dvd player. They only let you get 1 dvd player. There were a TON of people waiting for Wiis and I never saw any Leapsters. I also PMed TRU for the EyeClops. The person didn't want to do it since it was $40 difference but a manager finally pushed it through.

 

Then I went to Target and stood in a line of maybe 50-60 people before 6am. I got the fly pen, the 16 in 1 game table, a 2 gb card, disney movies, another portable dvd player and pet shop things. The GH Wii pack was sold out which I was kinda bummed about. Target was 100x more manageable.

[EmConMom]

WOW! What a Black Friday. 1 hr of sleep, at walmart at 3am, shop and out by 5:15, target by 545, out of target by 630, acmoore(craft store), breakfast, kmart, gamestop, target#2, walmart #2 and home! Whew, Now I"m off for a nap!

[hockeyfanamo]

There wasn't anything that I had to have this year so I headed out to Walmart at 8AM. I figured by then some of the initial crush would be gone. I was suprised that there were still a lot of big items (tv's) and most of the little items (dvd's, games) were gone. I picked up some dvd's and pricematched the ones that I could with Target. I was disappointed to see an employee walking around with sales ads pulling dvd's that were in other ads. When I asked about one particular dvd they told me to check back on Sunday. Spoil sport. The only thing I wanted and didn't get was the Namco Wii game for $16. I will just order it online at regular price.

[pottsie66]

WooHoo!!!!! Got everything on my list and then some. People were friendly and the lines were not long. I am soooo excited!

[xoxodashmax]

I have work at 10a at VS and that's basically peak hour for all the customers to show up so I went to the mall when it opened & surprisingly I was the 1st customer at BBW, I casually took my time and was able to find the $3 lambies, $5 aloe socks, I even casually took my time browsing the scented wallplugs. The $15 tote after you spend $40+ was a great deal!! The tote has so many items, can you say "stocking stuffers!!" I then hit VS, thank god for associate discounts! We get 50% off giftsets! Overall, I got all my shopping done and I'm VERY pleased.

[xoxodashmax]

Also, the best part about the $15 VIP tote at BBW is, they have a sku on them so u can exchange the Black Amethyst scents if u have a preferred scent from the signature collection =]

[nmiracles]

The best experience I had today was at Sam's Club. They had an abundance of TVs, Wii bundles in stock (36 left when I left at 8am) and Wii Fit (6 left) plus anything else you could have wanted. There was no crowd, no cars in the parking lot, and a great free breakfast. It was so calm in there. Definitely on my list to hit again next year!

[friholic]

We did the outlets @ midnight. The traffic to get there was like a parking lot. I had mapped out some back roads and was able to bypass the traffic and make it to the outlets. Finding a parking spot was a bit harder. Did KB, they were organized, many employees on hand, long line to stand in, but it moved quickly.

 

Went to Limitedtoo, for more BIGI sale. Finding a parking spot at Tanger was a bit harder, took about 1/2. Long line to check out. We did a few other stores and headed home for a short rest.

 

Headed back out to Walmart for the 5 am sale. Out smaller, local Walmart, not sure what was going on. The line to get in went the entire length of the shopping center. A line formed @ the front doors and @ the garden shop entrance. I guess a few mintues before 5 am, they told the shoppers standing @ the garden shop they had to go to the main entrance. What resulted was a huge crowd infront of the doors (the line that had been @ the garden shop) along with the other line of people who waited @ the front door. The mob (um, crowd) grew deeper as more and more people came up to the doors. Must have been 200-300 people in the crowd plus the line. 2 cop cars, it was past 5 and the doors not opening. Had a feeling that it was not going to be a good shopping experience. So we left, drove about 8 min. to a Super Walmart, and got most the items on our list. The employees didn't really know where the items were, as the pallets had been brought to a center isle and stacked. We manged to find everything.

 

Thanks to Gottadeal info, I was able to bypass TRU (online order) and Kmart (online order).

 

A few stores in the mall to round out the morning and we were home by 7:30.

[elena_398]

My Walmart let me put anything in my cart when I got there at 3am. Only items that you weren't allowed to take was the tvs and blue ray players and video games.

 

People were grabbing portable dvd players by 3:am too... A lot of people were made as they would come in, see everything in everyones cart and none left. It was NUTS this year.

Thankfully I got everything I need. Love those fleece lined clogs. My daughter got the pink ones w/ leopard trim, the black w/ zebra trim, and army green ones.

[billcsho]

I finished my BF shopping by 8am this morning. This year, I only shopped at 5 stores (vs over 10 last couple years). I got everything on my list. I used coupons, gift cards, and rewards without any problem. My first stop was Staples at 4:45am. Although I was 45min earlier than last year, I ended up at #17 (vs #6 last year). The good thing is most of the people in front of me are high school kids coming together and only need one item in the whole group. Scored the WD 640GB HD, 4GB thumb driver, NIS2009, and TurboTax and left the store at 6:06am. Then I went to Office Depot which was already opened 15min before my arrival. I can still find the printer on the front page but the check out line took me over 30min. Hit the road again for InkStop, Walgreens, and ACE Hardware and everything were on the shelf waiting for me.

There were quite a few police car issuing speeding tickets this morning. that would make their shopping cost really high.

 

I also did some early online shopping within the past week to get a 22" monitor, a GPS, and microSDs that all were better than BF price.

Edited November 28, 2008 by billcsho

[alleyc]

arrived at 245 to Walmart- line was fairly short at that point..was TONS of line jumpers!!!! OMG Well let me tell you we ALL threatened them and it was sooo funny..Thankfully they had great Walmart Associates that only let 20 in at a time and then made a small wall so that they couldnt do it.. some tried and the whole crowd busted them....

 

I got the Emerson 32" for 388$ and some toys ( Hanna Montana Slumber Party Sets-10$, Barbies got 4 for 20$ HSM3 and Hanna Montana) the Samsung 69$ Camera .. Towels yay I found them!...Flannel PJ bottoms for 4.00 got 6 pairs ... total at walmart was 621.00 not bad....

 

Went to Best Buy arrived at 600 got Acer 19 " LCD for 99$ and Simpson Season 5 Set for 15$...

 

Came home by 800 and just did my VS shopping spent 76 shipped and got the free filled Tote- free perfume gift set(49 value) a bra , Flannel jams and free slippers...

 

 

A great shopping day.. will do more online but now onto a much needed nap!

Happy Shopping Everyone!

[nef]

I got most of the stuff I wanted on line, but there were a few items that you had to go to the store for.

 

I'm not sure about everyone else, but there the longest line I waited in was the one at Target to use the ladies room. The stores were like a busy saturday in terms of crowds

 

I started out at Kohls and got there around 4:30 got all the stuff I wanted and was out by 4:50(no lines) Walmart is next door which is a new 24 hour one. We walked in at 4:55 stood in front of the stuff we wanted and was done out by 5:25. Could have gotten all of the doorbusters with the exception of the 50 in plasma if I wanted to, however all the tv's with the exception of the 19 inch were gone by the time I left. Than I went to Circuit City which is a store I stay away from like the plague on Black Friday, but my friend call me and said they had plently of the 32 inch Toshiba that I wanted. I drove their and had tv in the car with 20 mins of arriving. They had you go around the back of the store to pick up Tv's and they had stacks and stacks of them. Then went to Target to pick up a few odds and ends and they had the longest line by far. We waited about 15 mins. Then went to Lowes who actually priced poinsetta's with home depot's price of .99. Droped off my girlfriend at home ate a sandwich while there and was done by 9:30. I have NEVER in the years of shopping on black friday have gotten home that early.

[shhimundercover]

I wasn't able to find the X-Box 350 Bundle at Walmart, so I just turned my attention to the DVD's and a digital camera. So, I grabbed a bunch from the $2 bin, and so on. I then drove a minute or so to Target and eventually got a portable DVD player, and a bunch more DVD's. (Psych Season 2!)

 

My full list of DVD's I bought today:

 

Psych: Season 2

Gremlins

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch, Wardrobe

Happy Feat

The Notebook

Walk The Line

August Rush

Across The Universe

The Devil Wears Prada

Night At The Museum

Knocked Up

Rush Hour 3

Juno

Oceans 13

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

I am Legend

Indiana Jones And The Raiders of The Lost Ark

The Forbidden Kingdom

Romeo & Juliet

Beetlejuice

Once

Speed Racer

The Simpson's Movie

End of Days

Get Shorty

Grumpy Old Men

The Kingdom

The Fallen

The Departed

Michael Clayton

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Mystic River

Domino

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Avaitor

A History of Violence

Syriana

Taking Lives

Rocky Balboa

A Time To Kill

Last Man Standing

Devil's Advocate

The Negotiator

March of The Penguins

XXX

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Kung Fu Panda

[Ginny123]

My morning at Wal-Mart....

 

Got up at 4:00, arrived at WM by 4:30..my WM is a 24 hour so I don't know about these lines that everyone is talking about. I just walked in with my cart, found out where the stuff is that I wanted and went and stood by it.I was out of there by 5:30 AFTER they let the shrinkwrap go right at 5:00.

 

Not to belitte the employees, but they all had a big power trip going on...I guess this was their 15 minutes when they could tell customers what to do.

 

Employees kept announcing to people to put things back under the shrink wrap over the intercom..my basket was stolen that I had set out of the way. It had a coat in it but I was able to find another one I liked.I figured once the shrink wrap went flying I could scram easier by walking away. People in electronics were leaving their carts all over the place and you simply could not walk for anything.I found a line no one else discovered and got out of their quick.

 

For $135 I purchased for my son: a coat, 4 pairs of jeans, 3 track suits (top and bottom), 8 underwear, 3 pajama sets, 5 long sleeve pull over shirts, and 5 hooded sweatshirts, 1 track suit for my DD...many of these items @ $4 each.

 

People were acting nuts. Ya know, I can imagine it being crazy when a lot of people are under one roof...but these trashy people that go in there acting like they were raised in a cage astounds me. I feel really embarrassed for them. It must be hard living like an animal. But such is Wal-Mart.

[dad2trips]

From BB(1st in line - in the store at 5:00 AM); Three dektops - one for wife, one for my triplets, and one for my sister. Two laptops - each for neighbors. Camera for daughter, video game for son, MP3 player for wife, and finally for dear old self; 320 gb HDD and a new router. - My neighbor joked (in reference to Charlie Brown Halloween - 'I got a rock') "I got a laptop, I got a desktop, (and referring to me), " I GOT A ROUTER". Ha Ha

 

So ten items in all at a total savings of $1,910 (retail savings and fuel perks). So after 41 hours of being in line I could have paid myself $46.30/hour. Was it worth it? Sure, my friends and family get some nice products at a decent savings and best of all, "I got a router"

 

Left store at 5:41 AM. Back home at 6:00 AM, shower and nap!

 

 

Thanks for all the hard work you folks do on this site. It really makes prep work much easier.

 

Happy Black Friday All,

 

Dad2trips

[dad2trips]

My full list of DVD's I bought today:

 

WOW! What a list! Excellent!!

[amyaj]

I shopped in my pj's from home. It was 20 some degrees this morning and there was no way I was venturing out. I got the Wii games I wanted from Amazon, including the Wii City Folk /w Wii Speak for $39.99 and 10 pairs of pj's for the kids from Walmart. I got those before the site problems. I wanted to buy Legos from TRU, but the site was not working with the Paypal code and I wasn't going to pay full price for them. Oh well. I'm sure there will be even more deals in the next month.

 

As someone who does a lot of online shopping, especially for Black Friday, I couldn't believe all the website problems people were reporting. Walmart's site was fine at 3 am but TRU's was horrible.

[lelalenore]

Well, we have a new store in our small town and arrived at about 1:00pm yesterday to sit in line. We were the first, which suprised me because our neighboring big store always stays very busy with lines forming very early. At about 5pm our next neighbors showed up, who had been tot he bigger store and turned around when they saw the line, lol/. At 10 pm when we started the "I was in line first" list there were only 18 names on our list!

 

I id speak to a manager at about 10 pm who eluded to the idea of secret desktop and laptop deals but would not comment further.. I was sadly dissappointed when none showed up by 4:45am

 

Anyway... The night went smooth, 70 degrees and no rain (Thank goodness). Tickets were handed out at 4 am as planned, doors open at 5. Got everything I went for and then moved on to my next destinations, final destination - BED.

 

Hope everyone else had as great a trip as I did!

[amyers12345]

I was just watching the afternooon news, (i've been home since 5:30). They were interviewing the BB manager, and he said they decided to open the doors at 3:00 for the first 'wave' of people. They made their selections, went to the registers, then they let in another 'wave'. He said it worked so well they planned to continue it.

 

Did anyone else's BB do that?

[misshayley]

Got guitar Hero world tour for the Wii! That was the main item we wanted

[singledad]

At Walmart: Got 2 of the Samsung cameras, 2 of the 8" digital photo frames, the Euro VRocker chair, bubble jackets for each of my girls, and some of the sleepers (in a size or two bigger). Went back later and picked up an Xbox 360 Arcade console price matched from Nebraska Furniture Mart (paid $179.00 for the Xbox). I could have gotten the doorbuster deal with the Guitar Hero game but I already have the game and 3 guitars. I was bummed to barely miss the Leapsters...

 

At Kohl's: I got the Leapsters! 20 minutes of looking around netted 2 Leapsters scattered throughout the store. I was asked many times when I was walking around with just 1 of them if I knew if there were any more... I had the 15% day discount at Kohl's and along with the Kohl's cash made it a better deal than at Walmart, at least.

 

I went to Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us, and Micro Center but did not buy anything from those stores. Overall, it was an excellent BF! Walmart, though, was a crazy madhouse!

Edited November 28, 2008 by singledad

[burberryplaid]

Did all my shopping online starting Wednesday with Gymboree. I got the 30% off and had a 20% off coupon on top. Got 3 outfits and had it shipped to my sister.

 

I got my niece's toys from TRU online yesterday, had a free shipping code so they'll go to my sister as well.

 

Bought DH his iPod touch this morning on Amazon (worked out to be the best deal because they were marked down, no sales tax, and free shipping) and I also got his NHL 09 game for PS3 from Amazon.

 

I'm all set for now. I'll buy gift bags and such at Ocean State tomorrow and I need a gift for Toys for Tots and my work's Adopt A Child. We'll probably hit Target tomorrow for those things. If they still have the $3.99 copies of The Holiday on DVD I'll get that too.

 

Hope everyone stayed safe and got what they wanted!

[Allens]

Slept until 9am because there was nothing we REALLY wanted this year.

 

However got some great deals when I got up.

 

Dell (online) = Dell Inspiron 1525 Core 2 Duo Laptop with 3GB $559 (plus other discounts from my work's purchase plan brought it to $547 shipped with tax!

 

Home Depot (In Store) = Shute Fir 7.5 Pre-lit Tree with WarmBrite LED Lights = $49. We walked in and the guy pulled a few from the back, what a deal!

 

Target (In Store) = Western Digital 750GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive $88.88. There were still about ten of these left at 11am! Picked up two of them.

 

No loss of sleep needed for this year's early shopping :)

[fluffkin79]

Where's the people?

 

We got to Shopko at 6:00. out by 6:30 there were tons of people but the lines really moved.

Quick stop at Big Lots (Mom's idea, but I did find a $2 All Dogs Go to Heaven Christmas movie, made the kids happy)

Then it was off to Walmart. We got there at about 7:00. Everyone must have came and left already. There were TVs, lightsabers, big Barbies, Cabbage Patch babies, BlueRay players, SD cards - everything except the Samsung digital cameras (glad I ordered mine online). I have seen Walmart busier on a normal Saturday.

Found a few more people at Menards, but still got everything on my list. DVDs and slippers rang up wrong in my favor and there was a MIR on my lightbulbs, so I ended up spending $6 LESS than I had planned. If I wasn't so tired I would have gone to Kmart too, but I was up late planning then up a couple more times to order things online.

[beeman65]

My wife and I were going to head out to Target this morning to get a lot of the TV DVD's Target had for $13.98.

 

We were online last night to look at Amazon's sales when we saw all the DVD's we wanted were on sale for the same price or cheaper! So we bought our 11 TV sets for $122. Sweet! We avoided the crowds, fighting for a parking space and fighting the shopping carts, didn't have to pay any sales tax. We just have to wait until Tuesday, which is no big deal.

 

We didn't see anything else in the ads we liked. We are getting a HDTV for Christmas from my wife's parents and we don't need any more electronics. Plus I just can't buy things in a store if I know I can get it cheaper online.

 

I took my wife to work this morning around 10 and the Wal Mart looked real busy for a normal Friday, but not too busy for BF standards. Granted it was at a "late" time of day for BF sales, but I saw a bigger crowd there last Saturday.

 

Onwards to more online shopping!

[MonsterMutts]

I got sleep :)

[parteejen]

ok, I have NEVER seen Walmart this busy...EVER! Me and my shopping buddies arrived at around 4:00, and everyone in the store was already going through the BF items. I started at the clothing, since I figured we couldn't get to other items until 5:00. Well, I was wrong! There were so many people in the store that they were just tearing open the black packages for the blitz items and takeing what they wanted. I got everything that I needed in my cart by 5:00 am, but I stood in line for over an hour.At about 6:15 we all got out of there and headed over to Menards, which was packed, also (since it opened at 6:00). We had two people who had waited in line and were already shopping for us, and those of us who had just arrived grabbed a rolling storage box to use as a cart and started loading up. The cashiers here were MUCH faster (even though it took us a bit longer to shop). After we left there, we headed to Target to grab a few things and I needed to have a price adjustment done (right up to the counter and got my cash back in less than a minute...great service there!)

 

Just want to say thank goodness for cell phones, because without them I don't know if me and my group would have ever found each other at any of the stores! I did end up with everything that I needed (after waking up at 2:00am and ordering a portable DVD player from walmart.com). It was still a great year...and a CRAZY year. Can't wait for next year...

[ObiRich]

My hits and misses....

 

Started off bad...up and online at 4:25 AM (ET) to try and get the 19" TV and mixer on Walmart.com. Their customer service had told me earlier in the week it would go live at 5:00...but surprise! Both were already sold out by then.

 

Got dressed and went to Sam's club. Was about #20 in line when I get there about 3:30. About 4:15, an employee came out with a container of hot chocolate...very nice since is was 38 degrees and raining. A few minutes later the manager came out and let us into the cart area...hooray! Heat and dry! Best news...they had a 24 Wii Fits, so SCORE!!! :D

 

Then called DD who was at Walmart. She'd snagged me a TV, so beat feet there to replace her in the line. Got the TV and a couple other items, but what a madhouse! Got there @ 5:20, didn't get out the door until 7:00! So far, two out of three!

 

Radio Shack still had 1 set of the noise cancelling headphones ($9.99) SCORE AGAIN!

 

Next, Office Depot...scored some of the cheap DVD-R and DWD+R DLs. Paid for with one of their reward cards:D

 

Harbor Freght, here I come... got DW one of the solar house number lights she's wanted for a long time, and of course, can't walk out without some toys for me...

 

Strike out at Home Depot...all the 18V tool sets were gone... But it gets better...

 

Staples for some lightscibe disks...last 2 packs of the CDs they had:D

 

Home about 10:00AM...got online, and checked Lowes just for giggles and grins. They had a 24 volt tool set (Black and Decker) for the same price as the Home Depot 18V. Free shipping, so another SCORE!!.

 

So wallet is a little thinner, but got everything I was after except for the mixer...another successful BF!

[mommiemel]

My 10 year old niece called yesterday to ask if she could come shopping with me and my friend because her mom was working, so she couldn't go shopping. So we took her along. I had loads of fun!

 

We tried to get some McDonald's drive thru breakfast at 4:45 am, but they weren't open yet. We went to Walmart where we had a VERY good experience - polite customers, helpful employees, doorbusters in stock, and quick moving lines. (I got the trampoline I wanted! Yay!) After that, we went to Target where we had a very opposite experience - rude customers, nothing in stock, no employees in sight - we didn't even get a chance to try the lines! The two things we picked up we put back and we just left. I will never go to that Target on a BF again....

 

After Target, we finally got our McMuffins then headed to the mall where I picked up a couple things at Sears and Boston Store. Then we went back to the awesome Walmart where we got the things we couldn't get at Target and got price matched, then we came home. Now I'm doing a little more shopping online and I have something to go pick up at Circuit City in a little while. All in all, it was a fun morning (except for the crappy Target experience.)

[Tommytuna34]

Went DVD shopping mostly....and some sweaters... got about 25 dvd's...2 seasons of weeds (which i price matched at walmart)....some sweaters...a book...and my aunt a purse...for about $100...wasn't really many interesting deals unless you wanted a tv or xbox...and i just got a tv...