2016 - Black Friday (day 1)

Another year, another Black Friday! We will be going to our usual area, Michigan, which has two big outlets, Great Lakes Crossing and Birch Run. As usual, we started shortly after lunch and left at around 1:30pm with us arriving at the border in Sarnia at roughly 5:00pm and there was no line. Off to a good start!

For this trip, we will be going on Thursday and returning to Toronto on Saturday since we normally run out of things to do, the deals don't last until the end of the weekend and we figure that the border won't be as busy when we come back.

This time, we will be staying at Hawthorn Suites in Auburn Hills, the same area where we normally do. The exterior is alright, with the interior being a bit nicer. We got to the hotel at roughly 6:00pm, however, the first room that we were given did not have heat and so with a quick phone call, we got relocated to the next room over and we were good to go.

Dinner was at the nearby McDonald's which we where also had our dinner at last year. And again, this McDonald's only had the drive-thru open, so we ate in the car, nothing exciting here.

We made it to Birch Run by around 8:30pm and it wasn't too busy in my opinion. Parking was easy to find, and I think like always, I mention that we should just eat here since it seems like things are actually open, but always forget.

Shopped here until 1:00am and left for Great Lakes Crossing and arrived at roughly 1:40am, but, it was actually closed! It closed at midnight, which seems odd since we were sure that we came here last year with no issue. I guess we need to plan a bit better next time and check when things open AND close. So that meant that we just went back to the hotel and rested with the plan to continue tomorrow.

By the end of the evening, we got various clothes from Banana Republic, New York and Co, a winter jack and boots from Columbia (which gave us a $30 USD gift card that was good for December). Not too bad for one mall and we got a few items from our to-buy list.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, we didn't take a day 1 loot picture. Tomorrow, we will visit Great Lakes Crossing, and visit Crossroads Village.

2015 - Black Friday Day 1 (Michigan)

This year, we will repeat our outing last year where we went Black Friday shopping in Michigan and we plan to visit Great Lakes Crossing and Birch Run. The initial plan is to go on Thursday afternoon and return on Saturday unless we find more to do in the area and return on Sunday.

Blue Water Bridge is the border crossing that we go to this year which is the same border that we went to last year. While the border took us about 30 minutes to cross, it seemed like they were checking a lot of cars now (possibly due to what happened in Paris). We saw a lot of cars where trunks were checked which didn't really happen in the past. However, by the time we were up, the officer must have been bored because when Allison drove up, he asked what we were doing, to which Allison said we were going to Great Lakes Crossing and Birch Run, he swiped the passports and let us go. He didn't even look at me at all (the passenger). Odd...

We checked in at our hotel which is Sonesta ES Suites this year which is a short drive from the hotel we stayed at last year (Hyatt Place) and I would say, I think I like the Sonesta ES Suites more. While the Hyatt Place hotel had a bigger TV and the room seemed a bit larger, Sonesta ES Suites had a small kitchen which had a full size fridge, a two burner induction stove, and full set of kitchen appliances and cutlery (pots, pans, utensils, etc). There is a full sized tub, and what seemed like a slightly larger queen sized bed even though on hotels.com it said that this is a king. Breakfast, parking, and WiFi is included.

After we checked in, we went to the local McDonald's which we went to last year and it turned out to be closed today except for the drive-thru. We sucked it up and went through the drive-thru and just ate at the parking lot since we didn't want to fight the crowds at Birch Run since we were certain that the restaurants would be open. This year, we noticed that they had different deals (for us Canadians). $5 gets you two Big Macs, Filet-O-Fish, or McChicken (we opted for the Big Macs), $2 gets you two small fries and a large pop cost us $1.39 (or was it $1.29). All in all, it cost us less than $10 USD for two big macs, two small fries and a large pop. They also had a peel-and-win style game for football (I believe) and we won a small coffee, bonus!

Our first stop is Best Buy where I hoped to get the Lumia 640 for $30 and we got it! Actually, they had a few left when we got there at around 7:30pm. We spent about 30 minutes waiting to pay and then headed to Birch Run.

We got to Birch Run at around 9:00pm, and it didn't seem as busy as I remember it. We ended up going to our usual shops (Banana Republic, Nike, Ann Taylor, Gap, Columbia and a few others) and we finished at around 1:00am and go back to the hotel at around 2:00am and called it a night. Our damage at the end was 3 cardigans, 3 tops, 1 jean skirt, 1 pair of Nike runners for Allison and 1 Lumia 640 for Wai. The phone cost $32.37 USD after taxes and the total for the clothing was $113.85 USD.

Day 1 results, 1 phone for Wai, the rest for Allison.

Tomorrow, we go to Great Lakes Crossing after checking out the breakfast at the hotel in the morning.

2014 - Black Friday (Michigan)

After several changes to the itinerary, we settled on driving to Michigan to do some Black Friday shopping this year, leaving Thursday afternoon and returning on Saturday.  We decided to go to Michigan due to the snowstorm in Buffalo and the fact that the borders there would be very busy.

This would be my very first black Friday experience and I basically expected to be at awe at how long the lines are and just leave and go to the hotel and sleep.  Luckily this was not the case.

We took a half day on Thursday, leaving at around 2pm, and drove to the Hyatt Place in Auburn Hills.  The drive itself on Thursday afternoon was good with no real traffic and the border took roughly 20 minutes only because we picked the wrong line (there were only 3 cars/trucks in front of me).  From Toronto to Hyatt Place took roughly 4.5 hours with the border crossing.

Note that on Thanksgiving, basically everything is closed, even fast food restaurants.  We were lucky and next to where we were staying, Hyatt Place, there was a McDonald's that was open although the workers weren't too happy about it.  For $13 USD after tax we got TWO Big Mac combos, I forgot how much cheaper food is down here.  We chatted with the cashier for a bit and she was very enthusiastic about our Canadian coloured money and we showed her some and it was like someone finding a unicorn.  Her reactions were priceless.

After a quick bite, we went to our first stop, Birch Run.  We arrived at roughly 8pm and the mall wasn't as busy as I would have imagined with parking lines out the mall and people circling for parking spaces, I was able to quickly find parking by the Banana Republic area which is what we wanted to visit anyways.  Birch Run is an OUTDOOR outlet mall, so make sure that you dress appropriately.  With a CAA/AAA/passport, you can go to the information center near Old Navy for your free coupon book!

We shopped until roughly 1am and we got some good deals for an evening of shopping.  The more popular shops like Columbia, Coach, The North Face, all have line ups out the door.  Here's what we ended up with after Birch Run.  The top two pants (one pair of jeans, one pair of khakis) set me back $30 USD, the 3 dresses, 1 blazer and 1 blouse cost Allison only $80 USD!  The black one was a surprising $12 USD!

Black Friday 2014, after Birch Run

By then, we were tired and just headed back to the hotel and we would go to Great Lakes Crossing in the morning.  The room that we got was a bit odd in terms of layout.  It is a good size with a king bed and a sofa bed with a mini fridge and additional sink.  The oddity is that the sofa bed and king bed are on the same side of the room with a 2-foot wall separating the two and the TV is smack dab cross from the wall.  This means that the TV needs to be swiveled in order for one side of the room to see the TV properly.  Also, the washroom was just a shower and toilet, the sink for some reason is OUTSIDE the washroom.  There is probably a reason for this, but I couldn't figure it out (maybe so that someone can groom/clean up while the other takes a shower/uses the toilet).

Breakfast at the Hyatt was a bit disappointing, it is a continental breakfast which is basically a breakfast buffet.  They served eggs and pancakes but no meat (no bacon/sausage/ham), there is cereal, yogurt, various types of bread with a toaster and various types of juice and of course tea/coffee.  For the second morning, there were sausages and instead of pancakes, we got french toast.  Again, it wasn't anything good, all seemed like cheap instant food instead of fresh (our past experiences with breakfast has ranged from good to really good).  Service however was really good, no complaints there.

Onto Great Lakes Crossing!  We probably got there at around 9:30am and parking was easy to find and had no issues doing any shopping since it was still early (or late depending on if people started at 6pm on Thursday).  It was nice to be indoors since it meant we could leave our bulky winter coats in the car.  There were only lines at the big brands like Victoria Secret and Coach.

Here's what we ended up with after our initial run at Great Lakes Crossing and Birch Run.  I have since added a pair for dress shoes, 2 tops and a suit and Allison got a cardigan and another dress.

Black Friday 2014, after our first visit of Birch run and Great Lakes Crossing

We broke for lunch at around 1:30pm and by then, it was getting busy so it was a good time to have lunch and return after a bit of rest at the hotel.  Our meals were at Olive Garden and Applebee's.  I still haven't gotten used to the portion sizes in USA, even our lunch portions had us bringing back leftovers back to Toronto after each meal.  We were eating like kings for roughly $10 USD a person! 

Upon returning to Great Lakes Crossing after our break, it was clear that the madness was over since once again, it was easy to find parking and the lines for the big brands were no more.  We found a few more things and called it a night when the mall closed at 10pm.

The following morning (Saturday), we had breakfast and did a quick stop at Best Buy to get Allison's Canon ELPH 150 which was on sale for only $100 USD and headed up to Birch Run for one final browse before leaving.  I ended up walking out with a set of Columbia winter boots, Columbia running shoes, and Sorel suede shoes for only $81 USD after tax!

Here's our final haul ($570 USD later).

Final haul from Black Friday 2014

Roughly, here are the costs of what was picked up:

- Canon ELPH 150, $100 USD
- Haggar Suit, $90 USD (includes jacket/pant)

- Bostonian dress shoes, $70 USD (this wasn't a crazy deal but I was looking for dress shoes for awhile)
- Columbia winter boots, $40 USD
- 64GB Samsung MicroSD card, $25 USD
- Columbia running shoes (the blue ones), $18 USD
- Sorel suede shoes (the grey ones), $18 USD
- everything else in the picture was $25 USD or under with a lot of it being under $15 USD


Based on this experience, I'd probably do this again next time.

Expenses

- Hyatt Place Hotel was $120 USD a night, the place has free wifi, swimming pool, gym and breakfast
- Gas, we needed two tanks of gas from Toronto to Auburn Hill, Michigan and back (roughly 1,000km)