ZhuZhu, Box Cutters, And Black Friday….Oh My! *Updated*

UPDATE- Huge Special Thank you to Andrea’s Dad who managed to sit at his computer and conquer the task of finding me TWO Zhu Zhu pets!!

Mega Hugs to him!!!  (He Got Them From Etoys.com)

It came, We Saw, We Shopped..We almost died…….!

When Tina asked me to accompany her to an all nighter on Black Friday, i did not even hesitate. Ha, why would i ever turn down bargain shopping on the worse day of the year? Well for one, i have never been able to go out that day, and two.. a free night away from my girls. Yea, i was totally game. {by the way.. you can meet Tina Here.)

Come Thanksgiving night, her husband was left with 6 kids all tucked in bed.{no need to worry about him.. he survived} We printed our coupons, we readied our clothes, and cash. We left her home at 10pm and made our way to town. We had no idea if anyone else would be there 2 hours ahead of open time, but we hoped we are the only loonies out. {Insert a sarcastic laugh here}. Pulling up at the mall, we saw people camping in from of  Target which did not even open till 5am, great we thought, how bad will Toys R Us be?? Rounding the corner, i think we both peed ourselves at the sight. Not 100, probably not 300, we saw well over and above any human number of people and cars ever.

We could not stop laughing as we made our way around the side of the building…around the next side of the building and finally stopping at our place in line….next to the highway exit, in-the-rain. Now we were prepared for anything another mom would throw at us (hey look, we wanted ZuZu pets too!), but we did not prepare for rain. Sadly the 1.25 umbrellas we had (ya mine was the .25) barely kept us dry when the ToysRUs sprinklers came on. Why they would have them on at midnight we have no idea. But i am sure whatever employee was watching had a great night.

So here we are chatting it up with some other moms, asking if we could totally play pass the presents in the store ( you know, when you find something of each others and they throw it to you?), its dark, its midnight, the line isn’t moving, and we notice something that set the tone for the rest of the night…..Line Cutters!

OHH MYY.. “The Line Cutters”.

Now don’t get me wrong, i want the toys that everyone else has, but that is WHY we got there so early and stood in line for that long. Why these people thought it was ok to just walk up and cut in front of people, i will never know, maybe they were new to the whole BF thing, but either way, I’m sure they have to have heard of  “The BF Mob”. You know, the people who will do everything short of kill you for an Elmo? {For that reason alone, i totally minded my P’s & Q’s.} When we finally rounded the main side of ToysRUs about 12.15, we saw a second line that had formed from the mall over to the main ToysRUs door. Do you even want to know what happened when our line seen that?? Ya, you really don’t. Tina & and I are now physically bruised from the aftermath. And would i have gotten a ZhuZhu pet, i would totally disregard the fact or not even mention how bad ToysRUs sucks at their marketing and organizational skills. I have no idea what the security guards were there for, but it was not to protect the innocent for sure. I was probably kicked for someone to buy a $2 Polly pocket before i did. I would have given them $3 to not kick us, slam us into other people, or trample our feet.

Once inside….i curled into a ball and cried like a baby…{Just Kidding!} Actually i felt as if i was totally invading any personal body parts of Tina because i was clinging to her as if she was my only pass for life. It was a mad house, and i still don’t understand for what. Anyways, we made a mad dash for Nerf, Wii, and several building blocks for her boys. I, myself, gave up on my gifts before we started. The whole idea of cut marks across my face and or more severe bodily injury for a Strawberry Shortcake Sweet Surprise, just made me want to be an accomplice and not a hands on contributor to any massacre. I still have no idea how we were able to hold all the things she bought for her sons. I swear we pulled stuff from every orfus of our bodies when we reached the counter almost 2 hours later. Who knew a scooter fit in an armpit so well?

But, lets back up to the hours leading to the checkout…the ones where we stood, sat, farted, burped, fought, cheered on other fights, burps and farts..etc. Yes, we were in the SAME spot for that long. Why you ask? Because somewhere in ToysRUs management they decided to hire people and not properly train then on ethical standards for BF. They probable said.. ok when they come through the door, just ask like you don’t work here. They had to wait until all out brawling fights happened to finally send a manager out. I’m sure he was all talk and no brains because not even he fixed the problem. The problem? We were told there were 2 lines, one for the electronics, and one to check out. The RED arrow line {which for those who could not follow directions, looks like this.. —> and led to electronics} was for the electronics. The other was for the checkout. Where did ToysRUs mess up then right? Well for one, BOTH lines were RED. Commons sense would tell you to make them different colors that even the color blind could differentiate. Second, try to organize your staff. Don’t have one telling a group to follow one line and then another group another line. It was such a mess, that there was literally probably 5 lines of 10000 people trying to get into the same place. So not only where there fights, but it seemed that no management cared. Their were 3 police cars outside, the fire department came, and they would not let anyone leave to the point they would use the emergency escape. Fire alarms went off and all heck broke loose. It was extremely unneeded and could have been better prepared. {I can say that now because i applaud Walmart for their easy to navigate sales, and how they had specified lines and tickets to buyers}. So back to ToysRUs… I will now forfeit every reality show i watch, and every celebrity magazine i read.. to spend another 4 hours at ToysRUs between a Somalian, and a woman with 4 kids and wide verbal assortment. It was the best night ever..minus my walking out Zhu Zhu less. {but watch for my attorney’s bill for the pain, suffering and band aids.}

Our next heart stopping try at bargain shopping was Walmart. We did so much better here. For one, i Peed in a toilet which would not have happened at ToysRUs {and yes Tina & I contemplated doing the whole astronaut thing and wearing depends} When we first thought about Walmart, all we could think was “BYOBC” , or ..Bring Your Own Box cutter {Defiantly NOT recommended unless you like to be tackled from behind by a man named Big Lou}. Now we knew everything would be in Pallets and it would be a fend for yourself ordeal. But surprisingly, we arrived at 230am and were able to walk around with almost no one there and gather up things we wanted. You just could not pay till 5am. I didn’t care so long as i saved myself from a tackle and another potential punch from someones grandma. {Cause im a grandma lover i wont fight back..well and I’m a wimp}. So what did we walk out of there with? 2 Kitchens, 1 trampoline with en-closer, 3 fur real pups, 2 transformers, 1 Tinkerbell dress up trunk, 2 barbies, and lots of clothes (im sure i forgot some stuff to mention). Overall it was so easy, painless and fast there. Two thumbs up for shopping at Walmart during Black Friday.  {ps- check out was faster than any normal day..amazing}

Well, sadly we had to stop there because we had no more room in her massive SUV. So we went home and slept peacefully the rest of the morning.

NOT!

Yes, we had no more room, but we didn’t give up that easy! Target was our next disaster area. It received NONE of our money. We did find a few deals but the checkouts were either slow or someone could not count. The lines were wrapped around Target twice. I would rather pay an extra 5$ for my $5 Cootie game on a regular day. We dropped our stuff where we stood, and left.

Surprisingly we were one of the 1st 200 into our mall. We received 2 gift bags each. I got a $5 Gift card to Target (very ironic), and Tina got a Pink Gem from the local jewelers {that she would have to have set herself? weird gift}. Anyways, the line for Old Navy was far too long to stand it so we ventured over to Bath & Body Works, where we scored the best and largest discount of the night. Let me enhance your vision of this sale. Bath & Body Works item run about $7- 15$ (average for lotion, scrub etc). We printed out a coupon for a free item up to $13 with any purchase over $10. When we arrived B&BW was having a B3G3 sale {Buy 3 Get 3 Free}. We asked the manager about the coupons and she said today only you could combine as many coupons as you wanted. JACKPOT!!!!!!

We grabbed 4 products each {yes total of 8 items}. When it was time to pay, our total was 97$, minus our coupons, minus 3 free products…44.27, only 22.16 for each of us. AMAZING SALE. {You can use that discount coupon till Dec 24th and it can be found HERE}. I would like to add that Bath &Body Works workers were professional, nice and overall enthusiastic. The line was fast, and the products are worth the 2 hour shower im about to take in my Coconut Lime Verbena Scrub.

Last but not least, was Macys. Now i love Macy’s. But sometimes i feel they have better sales on a regular day then during a BF sale. I really seen nothing out of the ordinary there. I did buy 2 outfits for my youngest and with my coupon i still poked my eye balls out writing my 62$ check.

7.30am…We are now broke, and heading to my house to fit a mammoth amount of gifts into an ant hole of a closet space. {Glad the girls cant read where Santa stuffs there presents…or why they are dented now}

I was in and out of consciousness as Tina somehow drove us back to gather my children up {now 830am}.

I have no idea how we did it..however i can not wait till next year’s Black Friday…i am totally getting a Zhu Zhu pet in 2010 {Um, That was the whole moral of this story right?}

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Disclaimer:

I do love ToysRUs and no i do not plan on really sueing them.

I would love them to send me 2 {any color} ZhuZhu pets and/or a Fur Real Pony for my time dealing with a crappy store {address can be provided}

This post was not sponsored by any store or received any payments from anyone, however i am open to contributions if you feel needed to replenish my Christmas Funding {for the scars i received to bring you this story}

I have never, nor do i endorse taking a box cutter to any store at any time.

And yes, i really had the best time of my life getting this sore throat from the rain, sprinklers and cold. It was so worth every minute. {Aka- all 10 hours!}

See you all at the next one!!

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An average of about 1,000 people were in line for midnight openings at Toys R Us stores, CEO Gerald Storch said. After setting aside 100 Zhu Zhu Pets hamsters for each location, Toys R Us came back with several shipments of the hot toy for several of its stores Friday. (Read More..)

Ps– How was yours?? What was you BEST deal?

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