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People these days aren’t just waiting to fill their bellies with turkey on Thanksgiving, they are also anxiously awaiting to fill their vehicles with the best sale items they can find on their Black Friday adventure.
For one Evangeline Parish resident the madness of one of the busiest shopping days in the country begins as soon as her eating ends.
Kayla Guidry, of Pine Prairie, said, “This is an all night event. We will start shopping Thursday afternoon and we won’t finish until Friday afternoon. It’s almost a whole 24 hours of shopping.”
Guidry first learned the tricks of the trade as a teenager shopping with her stepmom, and it was then that the 22-year-old learned that if you want something bad enough, you can get it.
Guidry said, “When I was a teenager going with my stepmom there was one year where they had came out with this new chair that you could plug your Playstation or Wii into and they had speakers on the chair which allowed the game you were playing to be heard through the speakers. There were only a select few of them though, and we wanted one so me and my stepmom waited in line. My stepmom ended up having to fight with one lady that was trying to get the chair, but we ended up with it.”
Although fighting over an item to buy might scare some shoppers away, for Guidry the awesome deals you may get on the Christmas gifts you have to buy as well as the potential rewards you may earn makes the fight and waiting in lines worth it.
Guidry said, “I always try to get where I am going an hour before the doors open because a lot of stores will do gift certificates for like the first two hundred people in line. You could get a gift certificate for $10 or $20 off. JC Penny’s actually gives away a $200 certificate, but you have to be there early because there are only a few to give out. That’s actually one place I don’t ever shop unless it is Black Friday because their deals are so good on that day.”
Finding the stores that offer rewards to shoppers and the best sales like JC Penny’s is something that Guidry says takes planning and research.
“Some people plan, and some people don’t. I am one of the people that prefers to plan,” said Guidry. “So, when it starts to get closer I get online and map out what stores are opening first and that’s how I make my order of where I am going and what time I want to be there. Since I have two children, Toys-R-Us is always a must stop for me, but before the day gets here I look at the hot toys list that Toys-R-Us comes out with every year. I figure out exactly what I need at each store and then I start making my list.”
Some stores won’t be open to shoppers until Friday, so after hitting all of the places she needs to on Thursday, Guidry and her girlfriends refuel with food and rest while they wait for it all to begin again. Having her girlfriends by her side for the craziness that can happen on Black Friday is an important part to the process according to Guidry.
The long time Black Friday shopper said, “I always go with somebody because things can get a little crazy. I feel like it is safer to go with someone. For the last three years my friend Kari Hogan has come with me, and we are excited about this year because we were able to convince one of our other friends, Kristin Rider, to come with us. This will be the first time Kristin ever does this so we have been helping her get ready.”
Although some people skip out on Black Friday because of how wild things can get, for the die hard Black Friday shoppers, even if they come home empty handed they still have enjoyed themselves.
Guidry said, “The best part about it is the adrenaline rush that I get doing it. I get so amped up and ready to go that even if I didn’t buy anything I just think being there with your girlfriends and just going from store to store is just that fun.”