It’s what they call the Friday after Thanksgiving which marks the official start of the Christmas shopping season which means stores put lots of stuff on sale and shoppers line up at dawn, go wild inside the store once it opens and kill each other to “get it while supplies last”. It’s like Greenhills during the Christmas season though there, it happens every day until December 26.
Before this, Jaye and I would like to sincerely thank Bruce and Ethel for hosting the pre-Thanksgiving dinner at their apartment unit and then Rian and Trisha (and family) for hosting the actual Thanksgiving dinner at their house. After co-hosting Thanksgiving back in 2007, it was only then I realized how tough it was to host the event, cook the food, don’t screw anything up and have enough energy to enjoy the party (and clean up afterwards). So again, thanks guys!
Jaye and I had lots of fun shopping and basically enjoying everything that came with it! Here are a couple of Black Friday thoughts:
1. It pays to know the reputation of the stores when it comes to putting items on sale. Some stores honestly do try to empty their inventory and give decent to good deals for almost all items (like say, Old Navy). Some “scrooge” stores are just forced into the whole black Friday thing and put minor items on sale or just give you additional useless stuff (like that store along Michigan Ave with the big apple logo outside). Some stores are just jerks by pretending to put items on sale by raising their prices then “reducing” them back to normal (too many to mention).
2. Two ways to do black Friday shopping: online or going to the actual store. Online is fine but you tend to go overboard because it’s easy to “overclick”… you know what I mean. I want to go to actual stores since the Pinoy in me wants to smell, touch, feel the actual product before purchasing it. This year, we got a car (a really cool Dodge Charger) and drove all the way to Kenosha. We woke up really early and arrived home late and exhausted but there’s a certain feeling of accomplishment that comes with it.
3. Driving here in Chicago is weird. I use this thing beside the steering wheel which lights up the left arrow on the dashboard and the car on my left lets me pass. I saw this bus and it didn’t try to sideswipe me. The pedestrians were all crossing this path with all the white striped lines. Cars stopped whenever this thing above us had a red light on. It's like everyone was following some sort of traffic rule. Weird.
4. Unlike Los Angeles, Chicago is not overrun by Pinoys. There are only a handful if Filipinos around here and only 2 events force us into one place: Pacquiao fights and outlet malls. For some reason, Pinoys really love outlet malls… outlet malls and stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx.
5. I learned that outlet malls are different from tiangge stands. I grabbed a jacket I wanted then went over to the check out counter. I asked if it was the last place, they said yes. I asked if they didn’t have any more discounts, they said that was it. I asked if it came with any more freebies, they said no. I asked if it came with a discount coupon, they said no. I asked if they can give me the hanger where the jacket was. They gave it to me.
It was really a fun day and Jaye and I were happy with our purchases even though our expense metrics indicate that we spend almost 500% more than our usual expenditures. Home metrics suck.
