November 29th, 2013 Black Friday
I stayed up pretty late last night checking out various websites that were offering Black Friday Sales for those of us happy to sit in pajamas and shop. I was not going to be one of those people running around from store to store trying to snag things I don't need and deal with people who are only too happy to hit me with their cart.
Oh there have been years that I have participated in the sales...up early stopping for coffee then heading out to parking lots waiting for the doors to open to grab up the toy sales to help Santa out. A few times I have watched the sun come up with my brother as we hit all of the stores finishing out the Christmas shopping in one day.
Today we didn't get out and going until late morning and we chose to go to one of my favorite malls that is usually very quiet. But today it would not be .... and there were a lot of people milling around the few stores the mall still has open and each of the shoppers had at least four bags in their hands....and at least one of those bags was Bath and Body Works.
I made my way into the store through a crush of women and the new sales associate greeted me with a question....asking me if I needed her to explain what today was all about. The stores manager was rushing behind her and upon hearing her say that, she glanced up to see me and laughed....as I smiled and responded to the SA that it wouldn't be necessary. She was eager and that was fine; both that time and the two other times she checked on me. I hadn't planned to buy anything today as my purchases were pretty much done but of course you always find that one thing...or ten, that you think you should get. And I did.
I didn't get candles this trip...I do have some Spring 2014 candles coming so I held off going too crazy. Unbeknownst to me at the time of my ordering, I was told today that I could have someone ( my aunt who lives where they are testing currently) go into the store, pick out all I want and then the store could ship them out to me so she didn't need to worry about it. I of course would pay that $6.00 Fed Ex charge. I guess the look on my face was one of befuddled BS in hearing this now and not believing it to be true...I remarked...that it kind of end runs around the "we can't do phone orders" nonsense that is currently their mantra. It explains a lot of things....but I don't know that I buy it. I may just have her go to her mall and see what they say on that end.
The bad thing about having to go through customer service was not being able to use a survey or coupon to save on that third candle. The more I save...the more I BUY. The good thing is that I told them what I wanted and it seemed pretty easy. Let's see how they arrive and smell.
I was able to stack coupons at the register a bit today, but nothing too crazy like some are saying their stores did. (My receipt reads I saved $144.80). What I would love to see happen regarding BF shopping with coupon stacking is the registers have it programmed inside to have the SA ask if you have " this many" of a certain kind of coupon taking the guess work out of the equation.
I did have a 20% off coupon from a CS call from some time ago so I used that, two free item coupons and a 10 off of 30 coupon.
I saw the store still had a box of VIP BAGS left and the women that were peeking inside weren't quite sure what it was about. And although I said I wasn't going to get it, my purchases did come out to be enough to get that as well for a price of $13.11. I came home and cut that ugly bow off of the bag first thing.
I bought the last VBN room spray and two cinnamon frosting and one twisted peppermint for the price of $3.60 each. I got my little zebra purse scetnportable for $3.28
Some Mahogany Teakwood dual packs of WF for a gift $3.28 and a HFO in the same scent for $3.93
The new Eau De Parfum purse size of the new Forever Red Vanilla Rum were at the registers and I tossed one into my sale for $3.93
This oil burner and candle holder were my free items and both were priced at $8.50 and $9.50
And these little snowman cups (2) were purchased at a BonTon store for 60 % off..($6.00) ..and are much cuter in person.
I am still not sure if they are going to be filled for gifts or filled with cocoa for me. ;)
So I did my share of contributing to Black Friday retail wise... Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday so I will see what I can do to help those folks out too... ;) and then cyber Monday pretty much happened Cyber Thanksgiving. I hope where ever you ended up this morning it was memorable...and fun and I hope that you too had bargains by the bags full!!!