Evil Kohl’s and Black Friday

Wife loves Black Friday mornings. I go along for the thrill of the chase of the incredible bargain.  My daughter participated this year…at least as much as a 15 year old could. 

Kohl’s did everything in their power to ruin Black Friday for us.

Wife had everything planned out for our Flowood trip…Kohl’s at 4am, Best Buy at 5am, and Target at 6am.  Kohl’s wasn’t going to be many purchases, but enough to warrant a trip.  We got there right at 4 so we wouldn’t have to wait outside.  We got in line at 4:20am.  30 minutes later, we had moved about 4 feet towards the registers.  Wife sent me across the street to Best Buy.  As expected, I had to stand outside in line for about 20 minutes while the handful of bargain laptops and desktop computers were snagged.  Once I got into the store, two very helpful Best Buy employees got me the 3 items I was looking for.  I stood at the register line for about 10 minutes, got checked out quickly, and was out the door in 15 minutes.  It would be nice if I could get that level of service the other 363 days of the year.  And forget the Jackson Best Buy…but that’s another story…

Meanwhile, back at Kohl’s, wife and daughter had not even gotten to the register yet.  Finally, at 6:20am, we left the store with our purchases.  For those of you keeping time…that meant we were in line for two hours.  Two hours!  If we were waiting to purchase a $3000 HDTV for $500, I could understand the wait, but this was some frames and some kitchen gadgets. 

By the time we got to Target at 6:30, the good deal on external hard drives was gone.  Our great deal we ended up having to justify our stop at Target for was a $10 vaccuum. You can quit laughing. 

A 25 minute wait in line at McDonalds for a stale McGriddle was next. 

We followed that up at Circuit City.  Another disaster. At the register we were at, the scanner did not work, so the cashier had to key all of the UPC numbers in by hand.  The woman in front of us had 10 different items…not to mention arguing over a Play Station 2 that was supposed to have been $25 cheaper…except that she picked up the wrong one that wasn’t at the cheap price.  Finally, after 20 minutes of intervention with the manager, the correct version on sale was rung up. 

Grand total: 4 stores, 1 fast food stop, 5 1/2 hours.  Oh yes, and then I went to work.

So am I looking forward to next Black Friday? You bet.

I can’t wait to flip off Kohl’s as I drive to any other store but them.

Then I’ll go to Kohl’s on Saturday.