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Nope, not me I will shop (maybe) on an off day middle of the week. I do alot of shopping on line and gift cards are always good. Besides, alot of companies offer free shipping so that elliminates driving etc. Not going to do too much anyway. And I am making gifts this year also.

thanks for the web site. The ones I read about have black friday online sales...nice

About 3 years ago I was wanting to check a local department store on black Friday---knowing full well that in retail they have limited numbers of their "specials" on black Friday---but living alone figured what the hell....got up--hit the store at 4am--actually did find a couple bargains(wrapping paper, bows)--but when I rounded the corner to head for the check-outs and found them lined up the length of the store at 430am!....put the bargains back in their respective places and left empty handed.....now I sleep in on black Friday---just as I did years before...

The one and only time I braved the lines -- queuing up at 3:30 am, no less, to stand out in the cold to get a deal on a Tom Tom gps, although I charged to the aisle where they were kept, they were gone. When I was standing in line to pay for the laptop mouse I bought, $20 saving, I saw two of those GPS's that people managed to scarf up. They must have had only two. So when I realized I had stood in line for an hour in the cold to save just $20 -- and not on the item I came for, that was it. First and last time I will spend time, gas and energy on 'door buster' Black Friday sales.

A lot of companies are now making their Black Friday specials for online and think that's a good idea. The death of the WalMart security guard last year, trampled by shoppers who rushed the doors -- for TV's and crap like that -- perhaps was a wakeup call to merchants to quit the madness.

Black Friday is called black for the mood you leave the stores in, after you are dumb enough to stand in line for hours. I'm one of the stupid ones, because I forgot what the day after Thanksgiving can be like. I went out for something I could have waited on, and got caught up in all those lines at the checkout and also trying to get out of the parking lots. Actually, some people like that mania, but it's not for me.

As far as toys for the great grandkids, I go early in the season and buy presents that cost around $20. Those probably won't last long in the stores and they probably won't see any fantastic sales anyway.

I have never been at a store at 4 a.m. and I never will be unless forces me at gunpoint. And they'd best also have thermos of coffee to go with that gun.

Wild horses couldn't drag me to the stores on black friday. I absolutely detest shopping especially when there are crowds like on black friday.

Where did this black Friday stuff come from anyway. I never heard of it until about four years ago.

As for me, I haven't ventured out shopping the day after Thanksgiving for forty years. I took my older daughter (then age two) to get her picture taken in New Haven in 1970 and was stuck in the Edward Malley garage for an hour in stop and go driving up and down the ramps. Also, thanks to the Web, you can now do your specials shopping on Black Monday in your jammies and bunny slippers without ever leaving your house.

About the loss leader specials - one year, my husband and I were running our church table at the Community Fair. We had to set up at 7:00 am. He told me that he wanted to take a run at the local big department store because their ad showed that they had a dozen London Fog short coats at half price. We went and stood at the door of the store at 7:45 am and were the first ones into the store when they opened the door. We went to the men's department, and he asked to see the LF coats on special. The clerk had the audacity to look him in the eye and tell him that they were all sold out. Needless to say, he raised the roof, and he got his coat. Beware Black Friday - you may have to bunk down in a store dressing room so that you are in the store when the door opens just to get past their frauds.

I had a friend in Seattle I used to go with when I lived there. We would hit the first sales at 5:00am and usually started at Fred Meyer; they had free donut holes and coffee that they came out and distributed to us while we were in line. They actually made it fun. There 5:00am-8:00am sale included half-off socks and pajamas. Then we would head over to the mall and get in line at J.C.Penney's to get our free miniature Disney snow globes; got one each year for four years. Then it was off to Walmart of Kmart.

When I lived there, three years in a row there were big problems at Walmart, followed by a couple of arrests. The first year a gal got knocked down in the doorway, and trampled by several people. The next year, two gals got in a fist fight when one rushed the door without being in line. The police came to that one. That same year they had a bunch of HP laptops at a really good price (they are cheaper today) and a few large teenage boys rushed the door, ran back and started grabbing the laptops and throwing them over the heads of the crowd to waiting buddies. Many were missed and crashed into other displays, and beaned a few shoppers.

The next year, the Walmart gave out 'tickets' to people in line and only admitted 50 or so at a time. When they got safely in, they let more in another bunch. It was slightly better, but that year they had 32 inch TVs at a really low price and the fist people tried to get multiple carts and drag them to the checkout like little wagon trains, only to find out that it was one-per-customer. A guy on a cell phone had three carts with TVs in them and was guarding them while on his cell phone trying to get two friends to hurry to the Walmart so they could get the other two TVs. The security cameras filmed the comedy as it unfolded. While he was guarding cart number one, somebody rushed up and grabbed cart number 3 and headed down the aisle; when he yelled and started to go after that guy, another guy grabbed cart number 1 and headed the other way. While he was yelling and carrying on, a gal dumped her stuff in cart number two and claimed that they cart was hers cause her stuff was 'always' in it. Ha ha ha ha ...he left with no TV. When the local TV station interviewed him, he said he could not believe the 'greed' of some people.