a hard look at a "day after thanksgiving day" shopper

this is for you j. b.!

This is a long one, so do not get into it unless you want a hard look of what it is like to be a 4 a.m. after Thanksgiving day shopper.So here is an inside look of what it like to be 'one of those' shoppers who gets up at 4 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping.

Obviously, it starts before the actual shopping day. I had a phone call from one of my sisters about a week and a half ago asking me if I was going to go shopping. of course I am. I have gone shopping for the last 5 years. I am also pleasantly surprised my other sister wants to go shopping. She does not usually partake in this tradition.

I must note here the first time I went shopping so many years ago, I arrived early at my mom's house to go shopping with two of my sisters. One sister did not show and the other had a sick child and could not go. My step-dad said he would go. I am not a morning person so I literally just throw on running pants, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt. I put on deodorant, brush my teeth, put my hair in a ponytail and I am out the door in 10 minutes. When I arrive at my mom's house, down comes my step-dad from the his room upstairs. I look like I got out of the house in 10 minutes, but he has on a blazer, long sleeve button down shirt, pressed khaki pants, and brown loafers. I did not know if we were fixing to fight 20 people for the last Elmo toy or go to church. He was a trooper though, he hung with me the entire time. He even entered JC Penney's twice to get the free ornament they were handing out.

Anyhow, back to 2007. I anxiously wait for the ads on Thanksgiving morning. I look through every one of them, even the Ace Hardware one - even though I know I will not be purchasing anything from there. What if they have a screwdriver that was previously priced $2.50 and now it is on sale for $1.75? I find the ones I know I will purchase something from - Toys-R-Us, Target, & Wal-Mart. From all the previous years of shopping, I know that Bath & Body Works will be having their wallflowers on sale for $5, so there will definitely be a trip there. I go to my mother's on Thanksgiving day and my sister and I quickly plot our strategy. We go through every ad looking at the items we will want to buy, checking out the time they open and how long which particular store will be having their 'early bird specials'. We make a list of where we need to go and what we are planning on looking for.

My sister casually mentions, we could use her husband's handy dandy walkie talkies. This intrigues me. We will be able to stay in touch with each other in the store with the added element of not having to dial a number to reach each other and having a little bit of high tech gear with us. This is probably where we have crossed a line between the casual "I wonder what they have for sale" people to the ones who the "I wonder what they have sale" people look at with a crazy look of "what kind of freaky shoppers are they?" Does not matter, we make up code names for each other. We thought of the most ridiculous code names we could - i.e. drug lord, brainwasher, poopwiper, & gassy man - I said they were ridiculous.

We decide I will pick up my sister at 4:30 a.m. to make it to Toys-R-Us at 5 a.m. I clip all my coupons, finalize all my lists, gather all the ads, put my shoes and jacket by the door, charge my phone, change my purse to a backpack purse (a backpack purse so I can have 2 free hands for shopping bags and it will be harder to mug me - see always thinking!) and put a water in my purse in case of dehydration! I am ready to go to bed. I set my alarm for 3:50 a.m. I went to bed at 12 a.m. I tell myself I am just going to be taking a little nap then I will get up and start my shopping. I just wear to bed what I plan on wearing the next morning. One of my sisters says she is going to 'look cute' to go shopping. Good luck to her, she is young so she can do this with much less effort than I can.

I wake up with the alarm. I got everything ready the night before (or 4 hours ago) so I am out of the house in 5 minutes. I go to 7-11 and buy a cappuccino & chips (great breakfast, but what else is open at 4 a.m. in the freakin' morning) and a hot chocolate & powdered donut for my sister. I pick her up at 4:25 a.m. She is ready to go too and has the walkie talkies charged up and ready to go.

We head to Toys-R-Us. It is very cold outside - below freezing. Toys-R-Us is in a shopping center with 6 other big store fronts. The line to get in is down at least 4 store fronts that I can see. We decide to wait in the heated, warm car and not get in line. We will just wait until the doors open and all the people go in and then we will. We do a final check on the walkie talkies - good to go. We head out of the car toward the doors. We wait like 5 minutes and the line is still down 4 store fronts. We decide to just walk in with the people in line (yeah, I know it is not right). A couple of people make comments but there are so many people doing it now it makes no difference. It is completely packed. The employees are only letting people go one way in the store, so we are herded like cattle around the store. My sister and I make a plan to each look for particular toys. After we find some of the toys that are actually left, we contact each other, via walkie talkie using our code names. I heard some people say, "oh my goodness, that's what we need!" and some people just looked at me like - I can't believe she is that into the after Thanksgiving day shopping. I just think - whatever you are out here at 5 a.m. battling these people for a freaky Bratz doll with their FREAKY big eyes.

Anyway, the walkie talkies are actually great. We are able to say, "Hey go ahead and get in line and I'll met up with you." They worked great all day for someone waiting in line and someone doing the shopping - cuts the shopping time down to half - so it is something to think about. We do find some great deals at Toys-R-Us and now it is onto Target. It is the same process with Target, wait in the car till the doors open then bum rush it 5 minutes later, ignoring all the comments. Split up, find the great deals, and meet up again at certain sections. This is also where we meet up with my step-dad and other sister. They do not purchase anything - which I find a bit odd because it is Target, but hey to each his own. I find some great deals here, one of which is a digital ornament which can hold up to 50 pictures for $20. I have already loaded some pictures onto it and although the screen is small the picture quality is great. I am thinking about buying another one for myself and loading pictures from the last year on it - great way to document the last year. Anyway, we check out and my step-dad and sister decide to go to different stores so we bid them farewell.

We head to the local mall. My first stop is Bath & Body Works. I am right there are $5 wallflowers. I have already prepared my coupons the night before for this store. I will spare you all the gory details of my venture into this store. I had to wait in line a long time and my sister had time to go to 2 other stores while I was actually being checked out - their computers messed up. Again, walkie talkies were great.

We met up again with my step-dad and sister. We head to the Disney store where we find more deals. After the Disney store, my step-dad treats us all to Chic-Fil-A breakfast. He wanted to go to Starbucks but we needed more substantial food to keep us going. By the way, this is my first time to eat breakfast at Chic-Fil-A, but I know it is going to be great because their chicken great! They do not disappoint, their chicken biscuit is awesome. Hits the spot and we are ready to go again. My step-dad and sister leave us again to head to some different stores.

My sister and I head to Old Navy, which we found some great deals at, and then to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is out of the MP3 player I want, but I purchase the rest of the gifts I wanted to buy. We have to go back home to take showers and go to another family Thanksgiving lunch, otherwise we may have shopped longer.I am sure some of you will NEVER do this. I am sure some of you wish you could have. I am sure some of you did do this - did you have walkie talkies???

In the end, I was very glad to be able to spend the time with my sister, it was a lot of fun. She brought the new element of walkie talkies into the equation. I want my own personal walkie talkies now and I see a whole new world opening up to me - husband in the garage, me in the kitchen (not cutting up raw meat) contacting him on the walkie talkie asking him to cut up the steak for pepper steak and I do not even have to leave the kitchen. I enjoyed having breakfast with my step-dad (who has always offered to shop with me if no one else will and has meant it) and my sister (who even though I am pretty sure I am always her alarm clock when I call her cell phone to see where she is on this particular shopping day still showed up looking CUTE!). Great deals on presents for the family and those $5 Wallflowers that will get me to the spring until the semi-annual sale comes in June (more details about that late).

**UPDATE**: 10-13-2008 i got my own set of walkie talkies from my sister for my birthday. she may not be able to go shopping this year because she is going to try to get it all done during fall break. i may just have to take the walkie talkies and talk to myself.