No Shopping, but How about Desserts?!

My Black Friday experience was quite different from many others. My family and I didn't go to shopping until around 7:30pm at our local mall. My cousin worked at Aeropostale in the mall earlier that day and said that the parking lot was so full that people parked their cars on the ramp off the highway exit and walked to the mall. When I heard that I was convinced that I would not go shopping that day.

However, my family went out to eat that night and after we ate we wanted some dessert so we decided to go to the mall because they have 5 or 6 good dessert choices such as Cheryl's cookies, Cinnabon, Marble Slab Creamery, Auntie Anne's Pretzels, etc. When we arrived at the mall we were surprised that the parking lot was not much fuller than a normal night at the mall. We figured that 95% of the Black Friday shoppers had already finished with their shopping for the day, so we lucked out.

The stores were surprisingly not crowded at all as we walked by them. Many shelves and racks in every store were totally wiped clean, and several employees were beginning to take down signs advertising special deals on clothing, entertainment products, and shoe stores. The only place that was crowded in the mall was the food court. I expect that all the shoppers were getting a late dinner after a full day of shopping. We ventured into two different dessert shops, and to our surprise, there were no deals or specials on any food. We assumed that since these stores were in the mall, regardless of the fact that they sell food, they would have a sale on Black Friday. I was a bit surprised, but nonetheless, we bought what we wanted and were satisfied with our purchases.

My family was probably one of the few who went to the mall without going into any stores other than food shops, but "Black Friday" did it's job by getting us into the mall to purchase. Several other dessert suggestions were brought up before we decided on going to the mall that night. I would say that the normative influence of Black Friday pulled us in to deciding on the mall. We were curious to see the craziness and join in the fun atmosphere of the informal holiday.