2nd Annual Black Friday Report from the Front Line

I plan to shop on neimanmarcus.com. Free bow + ornament, free shipping code*.

Such fun again. Drove Fig and her friend Caroline to Garden State Plaza in Paramus, about 15 minutes from Montclair. This year we didn't get there till 7:45 A.M.

The girls dashed off to Forever 21 and PacSun. [Sis kindly gave Figgy Christmas gift money yesterday and I paid Fig $10 to clean the bathroom. Proposed $20 but she only did it half well, so we settled on $10.] I popped into Lord & Taylor on the way in. Immediately saw shoppers wielding $20 doorbuster gift cards. Turns out the first 500 people lined up got them, but I think the line started @ 5 A.M. Twenty bucks is great, but not worth ungodly start time.

Almost got waylaid at Kiehl's, b/c I had gotten a card in the mail for $20 off  $75 purchase. Almost, I say.....the shampoos and body lotions are rich, but truly, I don't need them. Decided I better get to Neiman Marcus, my main destination b/c when you spent $100 on anything in the store [single purchase or combined, full price or sale], the payola was a red cardboard $50 NM gift card. It expired in a week, on November 30, and did have many exclusions, such as couldn't use it on beauty, intimate apparel, sale items, gourmet items, toys, restaurant and more. So that left full-price items. Last year I used it on a gift for H. but this year I got stylish designer reading glasses.

For the initial spend, I combed the reduced racks for my beloved Tory Burch, but nothing was a good fit, literally or stylistically. The Tory camel sweaters I had my eye on from a while ago were gone already. Damn, why did I dawdle @ Kiehl's?

Still, from 8 to 10 A.M. @ NM, all reduced items were another 33 percent off. At 10 A.M., it switched to 20 percent.

"What time is it?" women were asking one another, so as not to miss the wire.
 
I love skirts--they're feminine, look good with heels, show off trendy tights and make me feel more professional and pulled together than jeans. I found three great ones on sale--a chocolate Eileen Fisher pencil skirt, an Eileen F. knit skirt and a black kind of swingy knee-length Missoni skirt, marked down from $245 to $98.49 after the discount. Then, of course, got the $50 gift card.

Another perk: Free coffee, served from a silver urn by a gorgeous young guy near the shoe department.

On the way out, Hanky Panky underwear on sale and marked down again and....at Neuhaus chocolate store, where a single piece can cost $2 or more [$57 per pound], they had a big platter of free samples!! I had a luscious hazelnut one, and sent Fig and Caroline in for samples, too. Score!!!!

"Do you have any Black Friday specials?" I asked the young woman @ Neuhaus as I eyed the chocolate-covered marzipan. "No, just that our dipper was here this morning dipping chocolate for samples," she said. Well, that sounded pretty darn good to me. Wish I had witnessed the dipping.

That one free chocolate was such a treat. Oddest thing: Ate a steak burrito bowl for "lunch" in the crowded food court @ 9:48 A.M. according to my Chipotle receipt. Believe me, I wasn't alone; there was a long line. When you rise early and shop, you work up an appetite.

Good night.

TCOY

1. Mall walking burned some calories--especially b/c I got lost and took a couple extra loops.
2. Private Benjamin with H. Seems promising.
3. Gave blood @ Montclair drive. Felt helpful and good.
4. Walked Sug and Kel around block once.
5. Nap.
6. Went to our friends' for dinner & good company.

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