Happy Thanksgiving (a few days late)!
We had our usual spread of tidbits from Trader Joe's (in lieu of the 100 piece Indian Party Platter we used to get in Scotland).
Watched the parade.
Watched (and fell asleep during) the National Dog Show.
Watched Muppet Christmas Carol (instead of Miracle on 34th Street).
Didn't get out for a walk - we both had a serious case of the lazies.
Had a nice pot of chai tea with nibbles from Marks & Spencer (Target is carrying a small selection of M&S Christmas stuff this year).
It was a lovely day, all-in-all.
Got up at 5 on Friday to get the daughter up and out to be at a store at 6:00am when they opened. We had expected huge lines, but there were literally none. She got some fabric for half-off, which was good - she had been coveting it for a dress for months but it was just too expensive. We went next door to Target, who seemed to have been expecting crowds. (Seriously, nobody there but us and some cricket noises.) There were people barricades up on the sidewalks to deal with lines that weren't there. We went in and they had extra rent-a-cops ready all over the place. There were arrows (etc.) taped on the floor to show where the lines for the cash registers were to be. And there were maybe a handful of customers in the store. It was really, really disconcerting. We took our time looking around (we had just gone in to see what the sales were, as we didn't need anything from Target). Didn't see anything we needed or wanted. There were more people coming in when we were leaving, but not even as much as would be expected on a typical Saturday.
That was seriously disconcerting - made me wonder how bad things actually were as far as the economy around here. We learned later that the crush hit after 9:00am and they were showing lines outside the doors on the evening news that night, so it appears to be just that the people in this area are lazy wimps who don't brave the pre-dawn hours!
Then again, the sales weren't that great in Target - I didn't look in the electronics section, which is probably where most of them were. Things I would have expected (from prior years) to have incredibly deep discounts were only marked down 20 or maybe 30%. We decided to wait - if the crowds weren't going to pick the shelves over those prices, Target will have to drop them further later on to clear them out. We'll buy when they are on clearance prices.
The mall was not crowded when we drove by it, either. Most of the shops there didn't open until 8:00am. The TV news showed the usual Black Friday chaos elsewhere in the country, so I don't know if it was just here where it was subdued or if the TV News is just going for the dramatic.
I did manage to get 30% off a big grocery shop at Vitacost.com, with free shipping, and stocked up on things like dishwasher powder, toilet paper, laundry soap, etc. Plus Bob's Red Mill Flour (net price around $3 for a 5 pound bag) that I'll be keeping in a plastic beer cooler out on the balcony (works like a freezer in the winter!) and a lot of herbal teas that already had a manufacturer discount, with a Vitacost 20% off on top of that, and a 10% back for using my credit card to buy them. So I feel like I have not lost my "bargain-finding-fu".
We are off to Macy's in a bit. They are still doing Black Friday sales, I get another 20% off by using my Macy's card, and I have a coupon for another 30% off of the final charge. Hopefully it's not too picked over....
