Black Friday this year lands on November 29. It’s no secret and no surprise that Black Friday has been a little different since Covid. Stores don’t open as early and there isn’t as much of a rush, but you can still take advantage of all the sales and find what you need.

The most important thing is to have a plan and be able to mostly stick to it. Obviously you still have to be able to go with the flow. But having a plan makes your day much easier and much less stressful.

So to start off it’s easiest to find all the stores you want to go to and figure out when they open. I have hopefully made that job a little easier for you by getting some of my favorite stores and their opening times together.

5 am
Old Navy
Kohl’s
Academy Sports
JCPenney

6 am
Target
Ulta
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Walmart
Bath and Body Works
Marshalls
Lowes
Home Depot

7 am
PetCo
T.J. Maxx

9 am
Hobby Lobby
Scheels
Costco

10 am
IKEA

So as you can see the bulk of stores open at 6 a.m. So it is important to know what you want to get, what store it is at, and where that store is located. This is very much an opinion based thing and you need to decide what you want the most versus how close that store is to other stores opening at the same time. To help you out with this I will share my plan as of now.

I am going to start my day at Kohl’s because the lines there get long pretty fast. It also can be necessary to have someone waiting near checkout and ready to hop in line either when everyone else is close to being done or when the line starts to get long enough to where you’ll be in line waiting as long as the rest want to shop.

Then I plan on making my way to Old Navy in New Market Square and will likely shop there until 5:45. After that we will have a 4 minute drive to Target and will shop there quickly. Mainly shopping for things we know we want that we think have potential to sell out. After we are done there, we will make our way to Ulta which is only a 3 minute drive from Target. Later after Ulta, I am hoping to stop at Walmart, Marshalls, and Bath and Body Works, all in New Market Square.

Depending on how long all those stops take we will either revisit any store we were trying to be fast at or stop at PetCo. Then around 8:40 will head to Hobby Lobby which is around a 4 minute drive. Then maybe go by Scheels and stop in a couple stores in the East Mall. To end the day we will go to any stores we wanted a little longer at and then get lunch and go home.

To be able to get the most out of it and have the most fun possible there are extra things we like to do. This includes getting some caffeine in you early on, making sure you dress warm, maybe bringing some hot chocolate, bringing snacks, listening to Christmas music, and it’s always fun to go home watch some Christmas movies and take a good nap.

There are many really good deals this year at many different stores. One of the easiest ways to find good deals is look them up on social media. For me I like to look on TikTok because there are already other people who have done research and figured out where and what all the best deals are. So use the internet and social media to your advantage.

Lastly, when you are driving make sure you leave with extra time so you aren’t trying to speed or drive unsafely to get anywhere. There are 34% more wrecks on Black Friday than the average day. Make sure you get plenty of sleep too, so you aren’t falling asleep behind the wheel. It can also be helpful to have a couple different experienced drives so you can take turns driving and maybe getting a quick power nap in. Along with Black Friday having a higher percentage in wrecks the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving also have a higher wreck percentage. So make sure this holiday season you are driving responsibly.