Where to Go on Black Friday
My mom, my cousin Ally, and I are TOTAL Black Friday (or may I say Black Thursday) fanatics! I can’t find hardly any pictures from waiting in long lines wrapped around buildings on Thanksgiving day to be the first to jump into the sales on things I really don’t need! But with my experience, I would love to share some insight on which stores should take priority over other stores, which are the most crazy and you could get killed in, and which you can swing by any time after their opening to mozy on into some good deals.
FIRST! To determine where you would like to go when, you must figure out what precisely you are looking for! So first: if there is a huge item you would like to buy like a pair of limited edition Yeezy’s or massive TV at Best Buy that they are only selling 100 and it’s 80% off, you should probably tell your family that you may be missing Thanksgiving because you may have to go start waiting in line RIGHT NOW! Honestly if you only have one item on your mind and it’s not a huge deal, but a very good one, go there when the store opens and you should be fine. But this guide is more for the “I like deals, I’m not looking for anything in particular, but I want some good deals and some sweet presents for my family and friends” type of Black-Friday goer.
!!!HUGE WARNING!!! IF YOU ARE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR TOYS SPECIFICALLY GO THERE FIRST, THIS SCHEDULE MAY NOT BE AS ACCURATE CONSIDERING THE RECENT CLOSING OF TOYS-R-US, WHICH EXTREMELY POPULAR FOR BLACK FRIDAY TOY SHOPPING. BE PREPARED FOR EXTREMELY AND ABNORMALLY HUGE CROWDS AT ANY STORE THAT SELLS TOYS (IE. WALMART AND TARGET)
So let’s kind of classify the types of insanity in some big-name, common stores for Black Friday from Most to Least Crazy (also their Black Friday catalogs will be linked to the name of the store)
J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Dillard’s, Nordstrom, etc.
Now I may be missing a few, well a lot but I’ll mention some of my favorites that are not even mentioned in that list.
Before we crack down on where to go and when here is a list showing all of the openings times and closing times for (almost) any big-named store you could imagine. I got most of these times from NBC, so if you’d like a prettier version please click on that link!
Some of the times from the NBC website were incorrect, so refer to this chart, because I personally called most of the stores to check!
But on this chart, I also linked all of the Black Friday catalogs to the names of the stores!
BLACK FRIDAY OPENINGS 2018
Barnes&Noble* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 7am-9am
Belk Thursday: 3pm-12am, Black Friday: 5am-9pm
Best Buy* Thursday: 4pm-12am, Black Friday: 7am-9pm
Big Lots* Thursday: 6am-11pm, Black Friday: 5am-8pm
BJ’s Club* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 6am-9pm
Costco CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 8am-7:30pm
Dick’s Thursday: 5pm-1am, Black Friday 4am-9pm
Dillard’s CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 8am-9pm
Five Below Thursday: 5pm-12am, Black Friday: 7am-8pm
Hobby Lobby CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 7am-8pm
Home Depot* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 5am-9pm
Homegoods CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 6am-9pm
Homesense CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday 6am-9pm
J.C. Penney* Open Thursday 1pm-9pm on Black Friday
Kmart* Thursday: 5am-11pm, Black Friday: 5am-9pm
Kohl’s* Open Thursday 4pm-9pm on Black Friday
Lowe’s* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 5am-9pm
Macy’s* Thursday: 4pm-1am, Black Friday: 5am-9pm
Marshalls CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 6am-9pm
Office Depot* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 7am-8pm
OfficeMax* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 7am-8pm
Old Navy Open Thursday 3pm-9pm on Black Friday
Petsmart CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 6am-8pm
Sam’s Club* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 6am-9pm
Sears* Thursday: 5pm-11pm, Black Friday: 4am-9pm
Staples* CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday:
Target* Thursday: 5pm-12am, Black Friday: 6am-9pm
TJ Maxx CLOSED THURSDAY, Black Friday: 6am-9pm
Wal-Mart** Open Thursday 4pm-9pm on Black Friday
So now let’s get down to business. Where do I go and when?
If you’re an eat Thanksgiving lunch then go shopping kind of gal or guy, like myself, do this. This is my list based for people like myself. If you would like to send me a list of what you’re wanting to get and where you would like to go and time frames I will for sure make a schedule for you! Also locations will vary, so that will also play a role (how far apart the stores are from one another)
PRO TIP: If your whole party knows exactly what they want from a store, not just browsing, have one member of the group wait in the long line before you are finished shopping while you’re finishing up your cart, because LINES TO GET IN CAN BE LONG, BUT THAT MEANS CHECK OUT LINES CAN BE LONGER
3 p.m. Thanksgiving day-
Go to Old Navy
They have incredible store-wide deals– their entire store is 50% off and they have smaller deals like socks for $1! For me, Old Navy is the opposite direction from the mall with all of the (JC Penneys, Macy’s, etc)
Old Navy will probably look a little scary all day with large lines out the door, but don’t be scared, that’s only because Old Navy puts a limit on how many people can be inside at a time to avoid craziness inside the store!
5 p.m.
Go to Victoria Secret/ PINK
Victoria Secret Sleepwear is buy one get one free starting at 5 p.m. and if you have any interest in PINK, PINK has $35 Sherpas,$11 Short Sleeve Legging Tees, $20 Fleece Leggings, $25 Bras, 2 for $30 Sports Bras, $6 Mist and Body Care, and BOGO Gift Sets– also if you spend $75 in either store, you get a free tote, and if you spend $150, you get the tote and a sherpa blanket
Now we all know how psychotic people can be on Black Friday, but if you try to stand in between a girl and her Victoria Secret Bras, Leggings, and Sherpas, you will FOR SURE get whipped to the ground, so FOR SURE get there ASAP no rocky! So if you’re not one of the first here, you won’t get anything good.
6 p.m.
Now is when you should go to Targetor Walmart, all of the crazies are gone, most of the door busters will be very limited, but there still will be some extremely good priced movies, video games, toys, etc.
There will be almost no crazies left and an hour after opening will avoid the huge lines to get in and most- all of the deals will still be available!
7 p.m.
Go to ULTA or a store that is like ULTA like Sephora or something that just opens– not too crowded, but still some good deals to get quick!
This is the perfect time to go to a store like this. All of the door busters will more than likely STILL be there and all of the die hard teenage makeup fanatics will have already gotten their deals!
But beware these lines for checkout get HUGE!!
8 / 8:30 p.m.
Now go to any other store at the mall that you want to visit (Macy’s, Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, J.C. Penney, etc.)
My picks are Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 for a brief walk through, get a few $10 or less items.
Charlotte Russe has their entire store under $25!
Forever 21 has deals starting from $1.90!!
You could even go to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and basically any clothing store in the mall will be open for you to go look at!
10 p.m.
This is where I would end the night, and stay there until they close!! Go to Five Below!!
You’ve been shopping for hours upon hours, you have to end on a great note and use whatever energy you have left. Five Below is just a fun store, mostly all of their doorbusters are still there, and you just spend whatever money you have left on gifts you forgot to buy for your family and friends while you were too busy shopping for yourself!
The next day is when you should go- at any time- to the home stores, office stores, etc it will be a much more calming day than the night you had before.
This schedule is completely tentative to your location, how close the stores are you want to go to, how long you want to be out, how many crazies you want to be around I WILL TOTALLY HELP YOU!! Shoot me an email or a DM and I will totally help you figure it all out!
Let me know how your experience goes!