Black Friday Shopping Guide

 

A number of stores will be open today with special hours in order to accommodate anxious shoppers. Please be careful out there! Here are some things to look out for:

 

• Heavy vehicle traffic. Be ready for long lines at stoplights and other drivers who may be a bit too anxious. Just be patient, and do your best to use alternate routes. Need to go clear across town? Try the I-82 instead of Main/182, or 7th St instead of Military or 45.
• Parking. Our malls usually have plenty of room, but be prepared to wait, and watch out for aggressive drivers trying to find juuuust the right spot– especially at busier stores such as Wal-Mart. Be willing to park closer to the street and walk the extra 20 seconds from there – after all, you’ll be spending much more time than that inside! Keep an eagle eye out for the increased pedestrian traffic, too, and remember to ALWAYS yield to pedestrians!
• Other people, both inside and outside of the stores. It’ll be busy! Be patient, be kind, and please understand that the other shoppers AND the store workers are just as anxious as you are to get out of there. Be nice to the workers, especially; they’re gonna be even more stressed out than you are!
• Be ready for restaurants of all kinds to be packed full of weary shoppers. If a venue’s parking lot is full, chances are they have a line out the door, and that there will be a looooong wait to be seated. This goes double from around 11AM~1PM at many “sit-down” restaurants. Consider another places to grab a bite. Better yet, eat at home before you go, and have one less long line to deal with!
• While some places have doorbuster sales, most of those sales – along with almost all of those items – are long gone now. Many of the specials you find today will reappear on Cyber Monday in a couple of days, especially for electronics.
• No matter what you do, stay safe!
• Consider avoiding all of this hassle altogether and simply shopping online at a store’s site, or a place such as www.newegg.com
• The Dispatch has been kind enough to research a list of local vendors  open for extended hours on Black Friday. Most will have sales going on:

 Ashley Homestore: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday

PetSmart: 7a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

GameStop: 5 a.m.- 9 p.m. Friday

It’s Fashion Metro: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

Burke’s Outlet: 5 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

RadioShack: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

Hobby Lobby: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

Cato: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

Cowboy Maloney’s: 7 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday

Office Depot: 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

T.J.Maxx: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday

Mattress Firm: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday