I’ve been shopping on Black Friday twice - once with my dad, we got an ultra-cheap printer at Best Buy and some other necessary computer hardware for a good deal. Last year, I went to the local mall with my roommate, and it was interesting... I didn’t find much of anything worth buying, except getting a bunch of DVD’s for something like $2 each at Best Buy.
This year, I’m going to be working, and NOT looking forward to dealing with the crowds =( Afterwards, I’ll stop by the only store around that carries jeans in my size (which is uncommon enough that they wouldn’t even sell out on Black Friday), check out any bargain DVD bins I run across, maybe look at the bookstore, and then go home.
If you’re thinking a gift card for anyone, I’d go with Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Target, Disney, or such...
Yes, I saw Disney is closing stores, but they still have the online store and any store that they have in malls, they are still contractually obligated lease-wise, so even if they close soon, they still may have some awesome deals on the closing store ;). Disney is still a pretty safe company...likewise with Target, McD, Wal-Mart (last 2 showed profits the last quarter).
Our local grocery store (Randalls) is running a special on gas if you buy so much in gift cards until 12-31. I would guess others around the country are doing the same thing...I think if we’re prudent with our gift card purchases, we can actually come out pretty well; just be sure to check wal-mart or your local grocery store to see if they have a total sum deal (ours is $100+ of gift cards, but we plan to get a lot of our gifts from stable-major brands and take advantage of the gas special)
~KFFD