Week 22: Black Friday and Breakfast Television

I absolutely love to shop.  It's kinda an addiction of mine.  However, I'm also pretty tight with my money so when I shop I do it with purpose and a sense of frugality.  Every year I hear about the Black Friday shopping madness down in the U.S., and this year we had our very own Black Friday here in Toronto.  Many local malls were opening extra early at 7am and the Eaton Centre was opening at 6.  I chose the Eaton Centre because it's easily accessible via subway, closest to my home, and the largest mall in downtown Toronto.  So, I woke up at 5am and was on the subway by 6 when it begins running for the morning rush hour.  I've never been on the subway so early and I was surprised how many people travel at such an ungodly hour.  Anyway, I reached the Eaton Centre at 6:30 and had no idea what to expect.  We've all probably seen the TV news footage showing brawls, stampedes, and even babies left in cars unattended.  I admit I really didn't expect any of the aforementioned, but I was quite intrigued.  I walked around the mall to get a feel for things taking various pics to show you.  I was quite surprised at pretty much everything I saw there.  First, many stores weren't even open like Apple, Coach, Lulu Lemon, and Birks to name a few.  Second, I only saw two line ups to get into stores and that was Michael Kors and Forever 21.  Third, the varied sales from one store to the next was strange.  Some stores had great deals like Aeropostale and the Gap with 60% of everything.  American Eagle and Eddie Bauer offered 40% off everything.  I tried on a great white leather jacket at Danier that was on sale from $499 to $199.  That's a great deal.  And then there were stores with, in my opinion, crappy deals like Abercrombie & Fitch and Roots both offering 25% off, and my favourite crappy deal of the day goes to Bench who offered an additional 40% off already reduced items (which means the old ugly stuff nobody wants).  My highlight of this entire experience was running into Breakfast Television's Live Eye in the centre of the mall.  They, like other TV newscasters I saw, were there to capture the whole hoopla of Canada's first Black Friday, advertise, and give away prizes.  I'm a big fan of BT and would watch it every morning as I got ready for work.  I've never had the opportunity to actually be a part of it.  About every 20min. they would draw names and give away prizes.  You know what I realized about some of the people who get up early to attend these BT Live Eye locations?  They smell funky.  I get it.  It's early and your goal is to get there as quickly as possible, worry about showering later.  Anyway, I didn't win anything and I didn't buy anything either.  But, what I did get was my picture taken with 2 local celebrities, Frank Ferragine and Melanie Ng.  They were the Citytv BT Live Eye personalities at the raffle.  Overall, I think the Black Friday sales at the Eaton Centre were OK, but nothing out of this world.  I would never drive all the way to the U.S. to shop there for one day either.  I'm glad I experienced the entire thing but next time I'll just sleep in.

Check out the pics and videos below.  They help give a better feel for my newest adventure.