Midnight at the Mall: Our guest blogger lives to tell the tale

Photo credit: web.appstorm.net

By guest blogger Will Watkins, 21, a college senior home for the holidays who hit Montgomery Mall's midnight Black Friday sale

Thanksgiving is one of the few days my friends from home ever feel too tired and full to go out, and so we found ourselves with a Thursday night and no idea what to do.  The night quickly took a turn toward the aimless nights of high school, with a group of guys piled into my car and no destination in mind. We headed to the Shell station next to Montgomery Mall—yes that was our best idea—and on our way we noticed cars streaming into the mall parking lot.

“Should we check out Black Friday?” I asked the group.

“Nah, there’s no reason to go.”

“Dude, we’re actually hanging out a gas station.”

After the aforementioned argument quickly took care of itself, we pulled into the mall and miraculously found a spot on the first floor of the jammed garage adjacent to the movie theater. We entered the mall--it was packed. As we walked into the food court, we were instantly brought back to our days of Walter Johnson open lunch: high schoolers were everywhere. 

Even so, we took note of the surreal nature of being in a crowded shopping center at 1 a.m. on a holiday. Hollister and Abercrombie had their half-naked models out in full force, and a DJ near one of the cell phone stands was blasting Miley Cyrus for the whole mall to enjoy. 

I realized I could pick up some toys for my sister. The gym where she works, CrossFit Done Right, was hosting a 5K race in support of Toys for Tots. After  stocking up on Matchbox cars and Batman action figures at Smart Toys, we were back in the food court waiting for my friend Tom to get Chik-fil-A (I guess Thanksgiving wasn’t enough?).  While we were waiting--and waiting--I realized that I needed a new pair of jeans. Tom echoed my sentiments. 

Our first destination was Old Navy, which promised all adult jeans at only $15 a pair. This was enough to get us into the store, but the line stretched from the cash registers all the way to the back wall. Given the fact that the Old Navy checkout lines are dreadfully slow when the store is empty, I decided that the savings were not worth the time.

Our next stop was American Eagle, which offered 40% off all purchases made before 9 a.m.. This too was attractive, but once again the line was too much for us to handle. 

Just as we were ready to leave, I spotted the sale advertisement at Aeropostale: 50% off everything in the store, with an additional 20% off before 9 am. I sped into the store. After some initial puzzlement about whether or not I was looking at men’s jeans, I found a pair that looked good and was roughly my size. It was marked at $49.99, and with the discount and tax they came to about $20, a great deal for good quality denim. As were waiting in line, another friend, Kyle, suddenly decided that the deal was too good to pass up. He went back for a pair and handed them off to Tom with some cash. Kyle needed shoes too, but he decided that DSW on a regular day was cheaper than anything in the mall on Black Friday.

We left the mall feeling satisfied with our purchases. I am definitely planning on returning to Black Friday next year.