The women in my family have a tradition.  We wake up in the middle of the night on Black Friday and hit the stores.  It’s crazy and it’s fun.  This year was no different.  We woke up at 3:30 AM so we could leave the house around 4 AM.

The men in J’s family have a tradition as well.  They go to the Orlando Auto Show the day after Thanksgiving.  Since we went to Orlando for Thanksgiving this year, J decided to spend the night at his aunt and uncle’s house and join the menfolk at the auto show.  The boys spent the night too and were so excited to check out all of the cars.  It worked out pretty well since I was not going to drag our kids out of bed in the middle of the night to shop and J wanted to introduce the boys to the family tradition.

I left Orlando after Thanksgiving dinner and made it home in time to hit the sack by 9 PM.

Steph, my mom, my aunt, Jo (Steph’s sister), and I hit Wal-mart first.  My mom wanted to purchase Nintendo DS’s for her friend and Wildman.  We stood in line in the windshield wiper section of the store waiting for 5 AM when they started handing out the merchandise…  A nice lady, who was probably on meth given her crazy, erratic behavior and bloodshot eyes, took this photo for us.

That’s my retail warrior face…

Let me just say that Wal-mart had the organization going on this year.  There was no chaos.  No one got trampled.  No fights broke out.  It was very calm and very orderly.

We hit Target next.  It was still pre-dawn when we arrived in the Target parking lot.  It seemed like a good photo op to me.

By the time dawn broke, we were headed to Michael’s to buy some crafty things for Christmas projects.  From there we took a breakfast break at the Cracker Barrel.  Yum!  Fried apples never tasted so good. 

It was on to Toys R Us after breakfast.  Here is what Steph’s car looked like after all of our shopping!

We were doing our part to stimulate the economy…

We dropped off all of the stuff from Steph’s car at my mom’s house and hit the stores again.  It was a long, exhausting day. My Christmas shopping is almost complete.  Woo hoo!

On Saturday, Nicholas will be eight months old! I can hardly believe it. He’s getting so big. He got his second tooth yesterday, so now he has his two bottom front teeth. So cute! He won’t let me take a picture of it, but I tricked him Sunday into getting a picture so you can at least see the one.

My baby with his first tooth.

I’ll try again to get a picture that shows both of his new teeth. He likes biting our fingers now, but not his toys as much.

So, remember way back when the Simplicity cribs were recalled? Well, we had one that came in the furniture set from ye old Wal-Mart. It’s a cute little set, but we should have know the $200 price tag was too good to be true. Anyway, they recalled the crib, and we were going to just basically permanently attach the drop-side to the crib so there wouldn’t be any problems. Of course, we never got around to doing that. We still didn’t think much about it as our crib seems really sturdy. However, Nicholas now moves all over the place, and at night when we are trying to put him down to sleep and he gets mad because he doesn’t want to be in his crib, he tends to kick the crap out of it. He also rolls all over the place in his crib at night.

Thus, Bryan and I became paranoid, Nicholas ended up sleeping with us more, and well, we decided to spend money we really don’t have and buy him a really awesome crib that’s never been recalled (actually, the company itself has never had a recall). It has no drop-side. It’s made of solid wood. It’s sturdy. It matches everything else pretty well. And, it converts into a toddler bed (without having to buy anything else) and a full size bed (with buying a conversion kit…but most are like that). See, to get a refund on the original crib, they wanted us to take everything back, not just the crib. So, it’s actually cheaper to shell out the $159 (yay Cyber-Monday sale and free shipping) than it would have been to take the other one back and have to buy a new dresser and changing table too. I’m not sure when it will arrive, but I’m guessing within two weeks.

We went to Target to look at their cribs before I ordered this one. They had only three in the store and didn’t have much information about them at all. Target, I’m really disappointed in you. I looked online at Wal-Mart (yes, I know) to see what they had in the store here, and it wasn’t much there either. I usually don’t like Toys R Us much because they tend to be overpriced, but this time they really came through. The shipping would have been $42 for this monster of a crib, so Cyber-Monday was a great thing for me this year.

Ok, I’m done blabbing about the crib. We just can’t wait until we get it. I’ll post a picture once we get it all set up.

Have a great Tuesday!

Taken after he got caught rummaging through his diaper bag.

Yes, I know that is not really the song, but it is kind of catchy, don’t you think?

I don’t know about you but Black Friday always seemed to sound like such a creepy day it needs something like a theme song.  I’ve never quite figured out why a day that kicks off the holiday shopping season has such a dreary name.  Black Friday… it reminds me of a day that we should either be in mourning or scaring the living daylights out of each other… “Move over Halloween, it’s Black Friday… Bwahhhahahaha….”.

I realize that the whole “Black” thing has to do with some accounting term about being on the good side of the economic table, but even having to explain the term “Black Friday” is so boring…. It seems like they could have created a name that is a bit more appealing to the laypeople.  Maybe they could have named it- “Really Big Sale Friday” or “Crazy Standing in Line Friday” or “Fight for your Deal Friday” or “Be Kind Friday”(Sending out a subliminal message, of course) or “Spend Lots of Money Friday” or “Camp Out Friday”… Do you realize how hard it is to convince a 7 year-old that you don’t have to dress in black on Black Friday??  Let’s just say that she now has a new black T-shirt….

Regardless of why it is called what it is, I have never really been a fan of it.  I have gone out a few times during the early morning hours but I will have to say that each time was only because my sister-in-law was at my house and I went to keep her company.  I’m more of a 10:00am, catch the mid-morning deals, type person, but when I’ve gone with her I admittedly have found a bargain or two.

This year there was a twist to our experience.  There was no 4:00am alarm.  Nope.  Toys R Us opened at midnight and we were going to get a deal.  We figured there wouldn’t be much of a crowd.  After all it was Thanksgiving evening and most would be gearing up for the next morning.  My two oldest were ready for their Black Friday initiation and at 11:50pm, off all four of us went to get bargains at the toy store.  As we got closer we began to see that traffic was pretty heavy for a midnight… and as we got even closer we found that it was pointless to take the front roads but instead cut to another road and slyly worked our way up from the back.  Apparently we weren’t the only ones who had that thought and we were in total disbelief…

Though there was no way to count, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.. hundreds, maybe even thousands of people…. there was a line that stretched amazingly around the whole mall building.  I couldn’t imagine that this could be the line for Toys R Us.  (Apparently, Zhu Zhu pets had gone under my toy radar and I was oblivious to the Zhu Zhu pet craze that allowed parents to actually get their child a clean smelling hamster..not a real one but close enough)…….As it turned out it was the line for the toy store or at least that is what we were led to believe.  We walked to the back of the line and answered as cars passed by and asked us if we were in the Toys R Us line.  We would nod our heads and shrug our shoulders at the same time because we, just like everyone else, just went to the back of the line without checking to see where the line went.  So, our assumption was that we, along with everyone else in Lexington, were waiting to go buy toys.

After a few minutes and a dozen or so cars asking if we were standing in line for the toy store, I decided to be bold and venture to the front of the mall area to just make sure that we weren’t standing in line for the makeup or furniture store. (I know, I know… no one would stand in line for a furniture store…makeup maybe but not furniture)  What do you know, we were in the correct line. But there is a catch to this…. it wasn’t the only line.  There was another line that was about 1/20 the size of the other line.  I got in the short line and called my sister-in-law to come join me and we giggled the rest of the time at our Black Friday maneuvers.  Oh, the memories…..

Well, our night didn’t stop there… one hour in line outside (yes, in the short line), two shopping hours and one more hour in line to check out…. it was now time for other stores to open.  Walmart had better watch out because the Hall ladies were tired, slap-happy and hungry…. Oh, the memories

We tackled the Walmart bargains and again went to get in line to check out.  I double checked my basket to see if it was worth the wait…. the line stretched completely from the front of the store to the very back of the garden center (for non-Walmart consumers, that is a long line) and yes, my goodies were worth the wait.  So we started walking to the back of the long line and it hit me… we were just assuming that this was the only line… while my sister-in-law waited in line, I again took off and navigated to the front of the store to scout out the line construction…. little surpise to find out that there were plenty of two to three people lines but those in the long line had no idea.

I hopped in a short line, called my sister-in-law and we once again giggled at our little Black Friday maneuvers.  Oh the memories…

I’ve thought a lot about those lines since Friday.  I think I was amazed at how easy it is just to get in line and not really know what lies ahead.  Everyone else seemed so confident and patient in those long lines… as if it was inevitable that the long line was the only line available… looking around at the confidence and patience it seemed as if it was the natural thing just to fall into that line, no questions asked… How easy that is with a spiritual walk as well…we know the relationship we need to have with God but then we look around and everyone else seems to be heading for that big long line… they talk the talk, whether it be faith filled or anti-faith filled talk, and seem very confident so we tend to just get into that line because it seems to be leading in the right direction.  We have no idea where it really leads but we scoot along blindly missing so much because we didn’t venture away.

I’m wondering how many people live their daily lives thinking that they are in the best line… maybe they are longing for something different, knowing that there is a shorter line out there just waiting… or maybe they are content to find out that others passed them by….I’m not pointing a finger a any one group of people…there could be many.

What line are you in? Are you tired of living in the long line? Have you stepped away to find the short line?
It is out there… seek it, you’ll find it.

After my Black Friday adventure I went home, fixed some breakfast and fell asleep.  Pretty sure now that the whole Black Friday name is because of the sleep you have to catch up on when you get home… well, deserved name then, I guess.  My father asked me if I enjoyed myself and I believe I said that I would never do that again…. well, at least until next year.

2 Peter 3:17-18

¹⁷ I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. ¹⁸ Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

Today is Cyber Monday- the day retailers cater to their online shoppers with special deals like free shipping and discounted items.

Have you done any online shopping? Have you taken advantage of any deals, and if so, where did you hear about them? We loved this Newsweek article about Cyber Monday and the growing influence of social media in online and traditional shopping. Enjoy!

Let the (Online) Shopping Begin

Black Friday is old news. This year, the real retail boom will arrive on Cyber Monday.  By Nancy Cook | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Nov 25, 2009

Forget Black Friday. The real bargains this year are showing up on Cyber Monday, the first work day following Thanksgiving when people return to their offices, ignore the tasks at hand, and begin to surf the Internet in earnest for this year’s holiday gifts. Roughly 45 percent of online retailers expect their holiday sales to increase this year by at least 15 percent compared with 2008, according to the industry group Shop.org. “People view the Internet as the place to save money and find the best prices through comparison shopping,” says Scott Silverman, Shop.org’s executive director.

Online sales may be the lone sweet spot for retailers in this otherwise dismal economy. With double-digit unemployment and a foreclosure crisis that just won’t quit, consumers are expected to spend even less this season. Overall, the National Retail Federation expects consumers to spend an average of $682.74 on holiday-related gear, food, and gifts, compared with an average of $705.01 in 2008.

While traditional retailers have had their ups and downs over the last decade, online sales have risen steadily since 1999. That’s when companies such as Amazon.com, Priceline, and eBay first rose to prominence, prompting NEWSWEEK to proclaim that these three businesses had set out to “change the way you shop.” Since then, the sector has grown from a $4.6 billion industry to a $31.5 billion industry. “The story of the last decade is that there has been consistent 20 percent growth,” says Ken Cassar, vice president of industry insights for the Nielsen Co., about online shopping.

That growth may have something to do with online retailers’ willingness and ability to pass on their reduced overhead costs in the form of discounts to consumers. Roughly nine out of 10 online businesses recently surveyed by Shop.org planned to offer some type of promotion for Cyber Monday in the form of one-day sales, free shipping, and “deal of the hour” sales. Roughly 57 percent plan to offer free shipping this year; Target started waiving shipping and handling fees on Nov. 1, a full two weeks before the promotion normally starts. This year, about 15 percent of all retailers will no longer require consumers to spend a certain amount of money to qualify for free shipping.

For their part, traditional retailers are increasingly making use of online social-networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to drive foot traffic and boost in-store sales. Staples and Toy “R” Us are letting followers know about special deals on a daily basis. Toys “R” Us sent its Facebook fans an announcement on Wednesday—a full two days before the “holiday”—that detailed its Black Friday specials. Other stores such as Best Buy, Gap, and American Eagle are using these sites to hand out coupons, much the way they once relied on grocery-store or newspaper circulars. “Social media stimulates sales and creates demand,” Silverman says. “It’s a great way to communicate with your customers.”

From the retailers’ perspective, the best part about online holiday shopping is that its success is not measured on a single day. The results from Black Friday are often used to forecast consumers’ moods about the entire holiday season or, worse, the first quarter of the following year. By comparison, online holiday shopping remains steady throughout the month of December, says Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis for ComScore, a research firm. If there is a peak with holiday online sales, it happens over an entire workweek, usually between Dec. 10 and 15, he says.

Even with this cheerleading over online sales, retail researchers acknowledge that e-commerce will never really usurp Black Friday. Online retail spending year-round—including spending on food, cars, and gas—still accounts for just 8 percent of retail sales overall, says Lipsman. “People like to get out into a store,” he says. “Black Friday is [still] a cultural phenomenon.”

Barbie Glamour Jet Airplane
Product DescriptionTake off with Barbie in this adorable Barbie Glamour Jet! This pink jet comes with Barbie and 40 other pieces. There are ready to serve.

Barbie Glamour Jet Review?
*This barbie glamour jet plane will provide many hours of playable enjoyment for the kids, this barbie glamour jet plane comes complete with barbie glamour jet plane ” accessories (microphone/headphone/2 serving meal trays/2 …

google trends – N2News FTA File Forums
22. barbie glamour jet 23. giinii 8 digital photo frame 24. meijer 25. frys electronics 26. walmart black friday online time 27. bestbuy black friday ad 28. toys r us free shipping code 29. office max 30. hp pavilion dv6 1334 us …

Barbie Glamour Jet
Barbie Glamour Jet at BargainJill.com, your shopping source for Toys deals.

Couponing to Disney: Kohls Black Friday Ad
Barbie Glamour Jet – $29.99 * Card Game Tins – $4.99 * Cars Interactive Game Mat – $14.99 * Crayola Toys – 50% Off * Discovery Kids Adventure Tent – $18.99. Discovery Kids Digital Photo/Video Camera – $24.99 …

Christmas Gifts: Gifts for an 8 Year Old Girl « Grandmother Poems …
The Christmas gifts my granddaughter asked for this year are: Barbie Dolls, Clothes, and Accessories. Barbie Glamour Jet Airplane. Lego Building Sets. Technosource Printies Pets Design Studio. Liv Fashion Dolls. Moxie Girlz Dolls …

Couponing to Disney: Black Friday Deals on Toys
Barbie Candy Glam Styling Head – $19.99 * at Toys R Us Barbie Cash Register – $24.99 at Kmart Barbie Dolls – $5.99 * at Kohls Barbie Dress Up Trunk – $19.00 at Walmart Barbie Fashion Fever Doll – $4.99 at Kmart Barbie Glamour Jet …

My Chicago Mommy: Black Friday Deals and Steals Roundup!
Barbie Dolls $5.99. Barbie Glamour Jet $29.99. Card Game Tins $4.99. Cars Interactive Game Mat $14.99. Crayola Toys 50% Off Disney Dolls And Playsets 50% Off Fisher Price Imaginext Play Set $14.99. Fisher Price Little People Ride On …

Black Friday mega post sticky | Mashup Mom
Kohls: Barbie glamour jet, $29.99. Kohls: Select Barbie, $5.99. Mejier: Select Barbie and Disney Princess dolls, $5.50. Menards: 100 Piece Color Wood Foam Blocks or alphabet mat, $8.88, 6-11 AM. Menards: Pop-up tent and tunnel, …

Barbie doll, black friday, Kohl, Jet Plane, bears, gift set, Black Friday Ads, Toys R Us, holiday shopping, Fisher-Price, Barbie Party, Lasoo, Toys Games, fashion, the Amazon, Jet Airplane,

Nearly every American knows all of the calendar holidays and celebrates them religiously. There’s Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and…Black Friday (before Christmas and Hanukah, of course). Black Friday is every retail owner’s dream, and every sales clerk’s worst nightmare. I made the mistake of going to Target at 2 p.m. on Friday, and was literally whacked in the face by a middle-aged woman’s shopping bag. (I hope it was accidental.)

Black Friday at Toys “R” Us was worse, though: “line-jumping and scuffling” caused arrests early Friday morning at the store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Watch it here.

According to the National Retail Federation, consumers will spend 682 dollars this year on holiday-related items, down from 705 dollars in 2008.

But a recent Newsweek article suggests that “Cyber Monday” will soon replace the insanity of Black Friday. Nearly 45 percent of retailers estimate an increase in 2009 online holiday shopping by at least 15 percent from last year. And these corporations are making good on their prediction: in a survey by the Web site Shop.org, nine of 10 online businesses planned to offer a promotion of sorts on Monday, from one-day sales to free shipping. So naturally, they’re not waiting around for people to visit their site. Retailers like Amazon.com are using Twitter and Facebook to point shoppers toward online benefits. Toys “R” Us even sent its Facebook fans an announcement on Wednesday proclaiming Black Friday specials.

So what do you think? Will the hustle and bustle of Black Friday stay strong as ever, or is online shopping the new face for retail? Will you reconsider fighting crowds next Black Friday in favor of your comfy sweats and laptop? I know I will.

Between the two most recent Penny Arcade strips – “Retales,” Part 1 and Part 2, both of which are hilarious and ring true – and Adam’s Black Friday blog entry, I’ve been thinking about the old days at Children’s Palace.

Yes, it’s true, kids: Once upon a time, Toys ‘R’ Us wasn’t the only big-time massively-awesome-to-a-kid all-toys-all-the-time store. Hell, Geoffrey Giraffe didn’t even have turrets on his building, unlike the Fortress of Toyitude that was Children’s Palace. When we got a Children’s Palace in Canton – years before TRU invaded the Belden Village area – it became a freaking destination. Toys and games and bikes and crap just piled to the ceiling. You’d see employees on these towering ladders up among the haze, mining through boxes and descending with treasures.

I think it was the Christmas of 1988 when I started working there, and my perception forever changed.

I remember only bits and pieces from the newspaper ads and the TV commercials, but what I know for certain is that at some point in the early 1980s, all mankind was united in Rubik’s Cubes, Ataris and Star Wars toys. G.I. Joes; Transformers; Barbie’s perpetual tidal wave of pink. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to animation and cinematic tie-ins and toy property empires.

There were piles, endless piles, where Cabbage Patch Kids were no longer sold but ripped from red-vested clerks by bloody-toothed moms. For the longest time, I wouldn’t believe it, and then I saw the towering stacks of The Real Ghostbusters figures brought low in frenzy. Watched shoppers shred the Pee Wee’s Playhouse shelves to reach the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles endcaps where they found no Heroes in a Half-Shell, but only row upon row of April O’Neils mocking their ambition.

Standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth. Children’s Palace was a plastic-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this:

(Apologies to the Wachowskis. Yes, I still love Christmas and no, Children’s Palace wasn’t always that bad. I just couldn’t resist.)

Red and white Santa comes to town…

You wonder how you are going to incorporate mayonnaise into the Christmas menu…

The kids get excited…

You pay attention to celebrities for gift ideas…

The girls come along…

Perfume fills the air…

Sofas get a festive soundtrack…

Even the piano seems like a good idea…

It all gets very sentimental…

There’ll be a few arguments (especially when the cousins from across the pond visit)…

… Marks and Spencer knows what it’s all about…

But hang on a minute there are other ways to spend that cash other than on tat, be a wise man this Christmas…

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.
Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.
Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees have the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday (with the exceptions of those employed in retailing, health care, and banking), which increases the number of potential shoppers.

Retailers often decorate for the Christmas and holiday season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open extremely early, with most of the retailers typically opening at 5AM or even earlier. Some of the larger retailers (depending on the location) such as Sears, Best Buy, Macy’s, Toys “R” Us, and Walmart have been reported to open as early as midnight on the start of Black Friday in localized areas and remain open for 24 hours throughout the day until midnight the following Saturday. Upon opening, retailers offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores.

Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term “Black Friday” has been traced back only to the 1960s.

The term “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. In many cities it is not uncommon to see shoppers lined up for hours before stores with big sales open. Once inside the stores, shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have only a few of the big-draw items. On occasion, injuries and even fatalities are reported.

The Holiday Shopping Season Has Begun!

You all know my feelings about shopping in the first place, and this Black Friday was no exception.  I did get a start on my shopping, but I did it from my couch using the internet!

Amazon.com may seem to be the most convenient “one-stop” shopping solution, but be careful.  They are not always the cheapest on everything.  They did beat Toys R Us and Best Buy on a particular electronic device, but they did not beat Sears on another big-ticket item on my list.

My husband and I did venture out later in the evening to look for our house gift for this year.  Most of the brave souls who gave up sleep in favor of “door busters” had most likely collapsed at home by then!  Believe it or not, we did manage to find a nice home theater surround sound system with Blu-ray that was in Best Buy’s Black Friday ad.

I have always struggled with coming up with ideas for gifts for people that aren’t too expensive but that they will actually like, enjoy, or otherwise appreciate.  For this reason alone, I tend to “bah hum-bug” a lot.  I would be so happy to receive a box full of sugar-free Wint-O-Green Lifesavers, fuzzy slipper socks, and gift cards for Amazon.com MP3 downloads.  My favorite thing about Christmas has become spending a lazy day at home with the family playing games.  It’s not about the presents for me.

I guess since we don’t go overboard on gifts and only buy for immediate family, the mega-sales on Black Friday just don’t make much difference to me.

1.  You And Your Kin

2.  Kindred Spirits

3.  King Pin

4.  Next Of Kin

We were up early, again.  Heading on out to the Big City to see Lazy Town Live. Son 1 aged 5y 2m was in charge of costumes, and trashed his room with his dressing up box, pulling it apart to find all the bits of Sportacus and Robbie Rotten.  There was no question about who was going to be Sportacus.  All very different from another trip to Lazy Town way back when I started writing this: lazytown live.  In the kitchen,  Son 1 danced to the tunes that blare out from the Sportacus music box in his costume; Son 2 aged 2y 2m, wearing a Robbie waistcoat, bounced around with him. They held hands, stomped their feet and laughed their heads off.  The Man and I flew about like bats in a barrel.  Dress the boys, feed the boys, washing on, teeth, clear up, food for the theatre, swimming kits, food for after swimming, load the car… The Big City is a two hour drive away. Son 2 sat pressing the buttons on the Sportacus music box again and again and again and again. “Wel-come to Lazy Town, the place where you wanna beee!” “You’re so strong!” “Someone’s in trouble!”  The first time he dropped it, I gave it back to him. The second time, it stayed on the floor.     

The Show was great.  I loved the number of two-boy families with First as Sportacus, and toddler Second as Robbie.  I loved the fact that we’ve escaped pink wigs.   Son 1 – who refused to dress up, leaving his costume in a carrier bag -  danced, shouted and yelled “Behind You!”  Son 2, in his waistcoat and tricorn pirate hat,  sat on my knee and never took his eyes off the stage.  The Man stayed awake.  Sportacus could do one handed cartwheels.  Robbie Rotten stole it.  Ours has been a Pirate House for nearly three years, so  ”Yo Ho Fiddle De Dee, Being A Pirate Is All Right With Me” has been part of our world since before Son 2 was born.  And boy, am I on Robbie’s side. What’s not to like about someone who’s exhausted,  and only wants the children to give him peace and quiet so he can have a sit down in a comfy chair?  Stephanie broke into “Bing Bang” and Son 1 said “Good, it’s the last one, let’s go.” “Go where?” I said, baffled.  “Swimming,” he said. 

We have been to the Big City Theatre twice, first to see the wiggles, and then to see scooby doo. Each time, Son 1 has pressed his little boy face against the viewing glass of a big Fun Pool, looking and longing.  My pland was to watch Lazy Town, have lunch and then have a swim.  Son 1 wanted to go Straight There. We went. There was a snake flume and fountains and a pirate ship and a baby pool with a slide and both boys walked in delight from jet to spray to gadget. I was with Son 2, and he played and played with the fountains and showers and bubbles and waves. He swam, he jumped, he slid, he smiled. He found if he stuck his fingers in the pipes he could spray Mummy.  Fantastic. The Man chased Son 1; Son 1 chased The Man. ”I wan’ ge’ changed” Son 2 said.  Son 1 wanted Mummy to stay. We played hide and seek, crocodiles, Son 1 went on the flume. Eventually I got him out . “We’re going to come back here every day.”

Then we went to Toys R Us and the boys agreed to share a toy sweet shop with real sweets. It was a beautiful piece of collaborative  working. But they’re not allowed it till tomorrow. Everything else was Ideas For Santa. Lego for Son 1, and it has to be Scarey. Not interested in vehicles or traditional brick sets. Back in the car we drove in a rainstorm. It was 4pm and The Man and I had eaten nothing all day, so we stopped off at a Burger King. Son 1 slept. Son 2 was awake all the way home.  I am now blogging on the sofa. The Man is watching The X Factor.  I feel like I’ve staggered across the finishing line in a marathon, and I want someone to give me a medal and a goody bag, and wrap a big sheet of aluminium foil around me.

“Hey. You there,” the message on Facebook begins.

The casual style might make it seem like something written by the pal of a Facebook user, but it’s from Staples advertising a sale.

About two weeks ago, Staples sent its Facebook fans and Twitter followers a sneak peak at some of its Black Friday deals.

This is the first year the office supply superstore has used social media to advertise during the holidays and not the last, Staples spokeswoman Amy Shandler said.

“This is where people live and spend their free time, and it’s a more conversational medium. It’s a two-way dialogue,” she said, noting that Facebook and other social media users often give their feedback on the ads.

Other chains, including J.C. Penney, Best Buy, Home Depot, Toys R Us and Sears, are embracing social media during the holidays.

Advertising on social media during the holidays — or at any time — “is very cost-effective,” said Scott Testa, professor of business at Cabrini College near Philadelphia, whose research includes retail and social networking. It is also a way to differentiate yourself, especially for the early adopters — those retailers that are among the first to have a presence on social media, he said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6739734.html

Toys R Us and Babies R Us have NEW COUPONS and DEALS available (valid 11/29/09 – 12/4/09)! Some of the coupons / deals are only available to “Rewards Members” – if you are not currently a member of this free program, you can enroll online, here. Some of the current offers include:

• Save $10 when you buy ANY two Pampers value boxes of diapers (92 – 252 ct.)
• Save $50 on select Shermag glider & ottoman combos (390340, 390337, 390303)
• Save 20% on Medela Pump in Style Advanced tote, backpack, or metro
• Save $3 on Dr. Brown’s 8-oz. bottle 3-pk. with bonus
• BOGO ALL Annie’s Homegrown products
• Save $10 when you buy any two Baby Einstein DVDs
• FREE $10 Gift Card when you buy ANY three cans of Enfamil powder formula (23.4 – oz. or larger)
• And More!

Some how, my dad talked me into going with him to Toys R Us at the midnight opening on Black Friday. We left the house at about 11:30 and arrived at the store parking lot just after 11:45. It was hectic just getting around to the actual parking spaces, but we managed. Dad let me and my girlfriend out to go ahead and secure a place in line. All was looking good when we realized our spot in line was only about 100 feet from the door. Midnight rolls around and the line starts moving. Everything is looking good until we get close to the door. We then find out that the line we are in goes past the door, around the side of the building, into the Toys R Us parking lot, past the back side of Beauregard’s, all the way to the Starbucks then raps back along the previous path back to the door. Here is where I started to question if there would be items left on the shelf by the time I got in.  So the line slowly moves. Now the time is about 12:30 and we’re barely passed the u-turn at Starbucks ( oh could they have made a killing, 38 degree weather with people standing in line outside). Now the store is at its capacity, so they have to wait for people to come out of the building before they can allow more people in. By 12:45 I’ve only made it to the Joes Mugs Coffee Shop patio outside Books-A-Million. The line continues to slowly move until shortly after 1:00 in the morning, I finally make it thought the sliding door into the building. The heat hits my face and I rejoice, so happy to be warm once again until I open my eyes to see just how many people are in this building. Now I’m debating on whether I really want to deal with this or just go hang back in the cold (trust me the cold looked a lot better). Since we had not been in Toys R Us in I don’t know how long, any relative knowledge of where the stuff we were looking for did not exist. After running around and squeezing through holes I did not even realize I was capable of squeezing through, we finally got the 3 items in which we were looking for. On now we go to the checkout line. It turns out that the checkout line ran down one isle around another and back up another isle parallel to the original isle. While I am standing in line with my girlfriend and these 3 decently sized items, I get hit on the butt. Being as packed as it was, I just brushed it off. Shortly after that I was hit two or three more times. Now I was curious as to the cause, once or twice is an accident but 4 and 5 times gets you wondering. I turn around to find a woman balancing like 10 items on top of a longer item that she is holding in both hands like a two by four. While standing in this line, I did like most people in today’s modern society would do. I Hit Facebook. I found out while posting on Facebook that one of my friends was working at this Toys R Us. While talking to him I asked if he could get a hold of a buggy for me. This woman behind me was having an awfully hard time and had even more shopping to do. I went to look for the doors my friend told me to meet him at, only to find that they were blocked off by another line to get to the electronics section of the store.  I find out after a quick post that he’s now moved to the front. I head around to the front before the cashiers looking for my friend so I can get this woman a cart. A manager steps in front of me and tells me I cut in line and need to turn back (I have nothing what so ever in my hands so I find it hard pressed to say that I was cutting, rather then, I don’t know, looking for someone). So being that I had the card I turned away instead of picking the battle like my instincts told me to do. This time I went around to the exit of the store, where my friend just happened to be unloading items. I go to speak to him about getting a buggy and the same manager interjects himself telling me and my friend that he needs to get to work unloading these boxes and that I was slowing him down (never mind the fact that my friend had not missed a beat on unloading since I had arrived). This time my temper rose a little. This man was literally stopping me from helping out one of HIS customers. Words came to my lips, but I bit my tongue because I still had the card and the last thing I needed was to be removed from the store for making a scene. I rejoined my girlfriend where shortly after my arrival, we checked out at 2:00. Upon review with my dad, we discovered that we had been over charged on two of the three items. Once again we referred to the Toys R Us add from the paper to be sure we did grab the right item. Upon further review, we found that those two items didn’t officially go on sale until 5:00 that morning.  This lack of respect or concern for their customers tied in with their cheap gimmicks to get people to stand in line for hours for sales that don’t exist has convinced me that I have no reason what so ever to do business with Toys R Us any more.

Here’s a map to give those of you who dont know the area an idea of what I went through. Where the red line starts on the left is where I first got in line. Exuse the map as it seems to be a little old. Starbucks had not been built at the time of this snap-shot.

Here’s just another example of gross consumerism gone awry:

Gainesville police arrested a man at Toys R Us before its midnight opening on the famous day for gluttonous shopping, Black Friday. Police say the man threatened to “bum rush” the door if the toy store employee didn’t open it exactly at midnight. A woman was also arrested for interfering with the man’s arrest.

This is exactly why I avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague, instead choosing to participate in “Buy Nothing Day.”

last night, i made a terrible mistake: i convinced josh that we should accompany his mom to a doorbuster sale at toys ‘r’ us at midnight, to find a christmas present for his little sister. i just thought it would be a nice thing to do so that his mom didn’t have to endure the madness on her own. my good intentions were repaid with extreme physical discomfort and a good deal of rage. we got there at 12:15am. we got home at 3am.

it took us about a half hour to find the three items we were looking for, solely because the mass amounts of people there made it impossible to maneuver. once we had everything, we entered the line, the end of which began right before the checkout lines and wrapped around the entire perimeter of the store and came back to the checkout lines. we had barely gone fifty feet when we saw that the end of the line had been pushed back even further, so that the people in line next to us who were moving the opposite direction were looping around and up to where we had started. a lady with a cart full of toys tried to go under the rope that separated our line from the checkout because her “friend” was already in line, blocking both lanes in the process. a toys ‘r’ us employee stopped her, and she just stepped in line behind us instead of looping around like she was supposed to; about ten people behind her followed suit until they closed the gap between the two lines, and everything went on as it had before.

we stood in line for two hours. the first hour wasn’t that bad because we were still in decent spirits; we made jokes about the people around us and the dumb slogans on the front of board games, and we pushed buttons to make toys light up and to activate their automated voices. it was when my heels and back and shoulders started cramping up and sleep started making my lids heavy that my good attitude dissipated.

once we had made it into the home stretch and were about one hundred feet from the check out lines, we realized that there was a line of about thirty people that was perpendicular to us, and a toys ‘r’ us employee was letting in one person from that line into our line for every three people in our line. people that were still looking around for toys while we were in line on the other side of the store were let into our line in front of us. that’s when i lost my shit. someone behind us in line yelled at the employee that they had been in line for an hour and gone all the way around the store, and the employee said that he was just trying to do his job and get rid of the line that was perpendicular to us. i, and a group of people around me, jumped in and said that was asinine because our line wasn’t even that long anymore and that it would be that long for them to wait if they went to the end of our line. and when i started to ask the employee how his system was fair or even logical, josh started pulling me back and saying “it’s not worth it, it’s not worth it.” i was so livid. and to make it even worse, we got up to the checkout lanes and realized that our line was only being split between two checkout lanes, and a completely separate third line was being funneled straight into the third lane. it had all gone to hell.

standing in line wasn’t upsetting to me, because we were doing it to get josh’s sister a present that she would love, and that made it worth it. what was so infuriating was how machiavellian the entire scenario was, how the people who did the right thing and followed the rules got screwed by the people who deviated from the system and happily took on mild social chastisement in exchange for their own personal benefit, and really did not care that they were screwing anyone else over. while we were in line, josh and i were talking about how black friday sales would be the perfect setting for sociological observation, and what a disturbing documentary it would make. black friday is aptly named, i think, because it shows the blackest, basest, most vile characteristics of humanity in a neat, ostensibly moral consumerist package. i hate it.

Many retail employees are forgoing Turkey Day with their families to offer a jump start on the Black Friday shopping mania.

According to the USA Today, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, and Radio Shack on the West Coast will entertain shoppers who decide to splurge after a hearty meal.

So will Toys R Us, says an earlier Walletpop post and Boscov’s and certain Banana Republic/ Gap stores. These retailers will join Kmart, Walgreen’s and other drug and grocery stores who began the tradition years ago.

“It’s a big trend for retailers,” said Scott Testa, professor of business administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia in a phone interview. “I think a certain percentage of the population will go and shop especially if they can beat the Black Friday crowd.”

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/11/25/many-stores-to-conduct-business-on-thanksgiving-day/

Related articles by Zemanta

• Quoted – This year, holiday trimmings are in spending – Denver Post (scotttesta.com)

Last year, Joo’s designs for a Black Friday outing were foiled by a nebulous fog of apathy which swept through our evening just in time.  No such clouds are forming as the hour draws close for us to embark.  Her enthusiasm is steadfast;  her resolve, bulletproof to any suggestion that we veer from the course to, I don’t know, sleep instead.  Dear readers, we are set. 

First stop, Toys R Us.  I hate Toys R Us.  Let me tell you why.  Nickelodeon would air these Toys R Us shopping sprees back in the 80s, where kids would be given around a minute to tear through the store to satiate their intense desire for all things Mattel and Hasbro.  With the advent of the “videogames aisle,” my friends and I would shout at the television as these stupid kids would fail to capitalize on the fact that they can pick anything in the store.  Finally, someone made a bee line to the Nintendo section and piled their cart with games.  Now, I don’t remember how much games cost back then, because most of the games we played were either borrowed from kids at school for an alternative currency of big metal generation 1 Transformers and some assembly required-grade GI Joe vehicles, or we just rented them from the local convenience store.  However, I think the people running Toys R Us did know how much games cost, as thereafter areas that featured things Nintendo and Sega were cordoned off from the contest.  Sufficed to say, no one cared about the shopping spree anymore, and besides, we were all graduating to MTV with their Milli Vanillis, MC Hammers and what not.  Still, Toys R Us’s actions represented an affront to children’s dreams, as if to say “You can have anything you want, EXCEPT THAT WHICH YOU WANT THE MOST.”  Toys R Us is for suckers.  You certainly don’t shop there for low-low prices on games.

Next, we’re going somewhere else. I don’t remember where, because I ate far too much food this evening and frankly maintaining an upright position is at the front of my concern.  But I do know we’ll end up at Gamestop around 6 to pick up Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for the PSP.  $20 dollars until 1 pm, and they’ve got 4 copies.  Truly, if we fail in that endeavour, the entire thing’s been for naught.  Any rate, Monster Hunter is now playable over AdHoc Party through the PS3, so I’ll be checking that mess out at some point. 

Time to go charge the DS and get some decent podcasts downloaded.

Some brands are getting it right…others on the other hand are still marketing like those dodgy Viagra pills. And just to clarify when I say getting it right, I’m talking about brands not using social media to just pretty much spam a heap of people.

Starting with the ones that are getting it right, Ikea recently used Facebook’s photo tagging function to give away products from their show room. They created a profile for the store manager and he uploaded some photos of the show room. The first people to tag an item with their name on won it. Awesome..the full details are below.

The second is Toys ‘R’ Us who rewarded friend’s of the brand’s fan page by giving them exclusive mystery deals. Simple, but nice and it’s also solicited.

Now for the ones that that don’t. I’ve mentioned Moonfruit before and despite what some people think, it is not a shining example of using Twitter, but Westfield has almost topped it launching its ‘Win a $10,000 Gift Card’ promotion through Facebook. Essentially you update your status by saying ‘All I want for Christmas is a Westfield Gift Card’ and you get entered into a prize draw, whilst spamming your friends at the same time.

The main differences are…

People want the Macbook not Moonfruit and people want the $10K, not the Westfield Gift Card. It’s a meaningless relationship that have got people wanting and talking about the wrong thing, unlike the Ikea and Toys ‘R’ Us examples. The latter’s products and brand experience are part of their communication.

Moonfruit and Westfield have also got the mechanics wrong. Larger groups benefit with Ikea and Toy ‘R’ Us, not just a handful of individuals. They are essentially marketing to networks of people rather than just applying prize draw tactics learnt in the ‘push’ world. You need to be more inclusive rather than exclusive marketing to networks.

You could argue that Moonfruit and Westfield are playing a numbers game which might be true. These promotions wouldn’t have cost much to execute and less than a 0.5% conversion might make them money, but it is still seen as unsolicited spam, albeit indirectly through my friends. And let’s be honest, if I start getting a friend spamalanche, I won’t be using FB et al that much. This might work for Viagra, but do you really want to market like that?

Unadvertised MYSTERY DEALS / Door Busters, valid Thursday from Midnight until Friday at 1pm:

• FREE 64-ct. Box of Crayola Crayons with ANY purchase
• Buy One Get One FREE – ALL Star Trek 3.75″ Figures
• 50% off select Nintendo DS items
• Buy One Get One 50% off – ALL Totally Me! Crafts
• 50% off ALL Christmas Layettes
• And many more!

With the increasing number of deaths each year at the various Black Friday sales it makes one wonder why anyone of sound mind would go.  Sure there is denial – those things don’t happen here just in high crime areas.  Well, that is not at all true.  Recently a Walmart employee was trampled to death in tranquil Valley Stream, N.Y.  A customer at the same Walmart, Jessica Keyes, miscarried purportedly after being knocked down in another Black Friday melee.

Another rationalization stems from pomposity.  I don’t shop at Walmart, that’s for trailer trash.  Well, your hubris won’t save you either.  In another episode two men died at a Toys “R” Us in chic Palm Desert, California after an argument led to an exchange of gunfire.

I know what you are thinking now, California?  New York?  All those people are crazy.  In Lee’s Summit, Missouri two people were mowed down in a shopping center parking lot.  Need more?  In Roanoke, Virginia a man is caught on video striking another shopper five times at a Best Buy.  Fashion Place Mall In Murray, Utah had to close not long after opening because police had to break up nine different fights.  At the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrece, California and elderly lady and nine others were injured when the mall dropped free gift certificates from the ceiling.

These are not events from several shopping days.  These all occured on Black Friday 2008.  Virtually every store in every town has some issue every year.  Conclusion?  No sane person goes to Black Friday sales.

So don’t go.  Seriously, I know that this is the worst economy since the 1930’s, the last Great Depression but there are other ways to give a gift of the heart without spending lots of money and risking your life.  Salsas.

That’s what I am giving this year.  Fresh, homemade salsas.  Talk about cheap, too, much more budget friendly than Rock Band and a lot less annoying than Zhu Zhu Pets.  Produce and a dozen or so 16 ounce Mason jars.  Fresh salsas are better than any thing you can buy at the market.  All you need is a food processor or blender.  Heck a good knife will work.  A good fresh salsa is like a bowl of summer sunshine but it goes better with tortilla chips.

Canned tomatoes are preferrable to fresh because they are picked at the peek of ripeness and the skin is removed.  Frozen pineapple and mangos can be used instead of canned or fresh but thaw and drain them first.  All other produce is fresh and, if possible, organic.  You can easily control the heat, too.  For mild remove all seeds and membranes from chilies.  For medium remove half of the seeds and membranes.  Don’t remove any for a good hot salsa.  For sissies omit the chilies altogether.

Since these salsas contain no preservatives they need to be eaten within two weeks of making which means they are perfect for you last minute Santas.  Each recipe yields roughly two 16 ounce jars of salsa and here are those simple recipes:

Salsa Rojo (aditional red salsa)

• 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/2 onion, quartered
• 2-3 jalapeños or Serranos, sans stems
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon Cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 cloves garlic
• sea salt

Place onions into a blender or food processor and blend for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and blend another 30 seconds. Add garlic and peppers and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste and cilantro and blend until well mixed. Chill one hour before jaring.

Salsa Verde (green salsa)

• 6-9 tomatillos, halved or 1 28 ounce can tomatillos, drained
• 1/2 onion, quartered
• 2-3 jalapeños or Serranos, sans stems
• 1/4 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic
• sea salt

Place onions into a blender or food processor and blend for 30 seconds. Add tomatillos and blend another 30 seconds. Add garlic and peppers and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste and cilantro and blend until well mixed. Chill one hour before jaring.

Mango Salsa

• 2 fresh mangos, diced or 20 ounce jar, drained
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 Serrano chilies, diced
• 1 banana, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon Jamacian jerk seasoning (optional)
• salt & pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive bowl.  Place 2/3 of the salsa into a blender or food processor and pulse five or six times then fold back into the salsa.  Refrigerate at least one hour before jaring.

Pineapple Salsa

• 1 28 ounce can diced pineapple, drained
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 jalapeños chilies, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon Cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• salt & pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive bowl.  Place 2/3 of the salsa into a blender or food processor and pulse five or six times then fold back into the salsa.  Refrigerate at least one hour before jaring.

Now if you just can’t bring yourself to actually make your gifts but want to avoid the Black Friday free-for-all, buy a copy of Amigeauxs – Mexican/Creole Fusion Cuisine by moi.  They’re only $10!  What?  Friends and family not into cooking?  No problem!  How about a copy of the exciting political thriller A More Perfect Union also by me.  Come on, buy one so my loved ones will get something better than a jar of salsa for Christmas.