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Business & Tech

An "Insider's Look" at Black Friday at Albertville Outlets

So the "general information" is out there about the big Thanksgiving Weekend sales at the "outlet mall." Here are some tips they don't tell you.

Just about the time some of us are returning home from Thanksgiving dinner Thursday evening, some will be driving over to the either to wait for the midnight opening or the extra ambitious stores opening at 9 p.m.

Erin Byboth of St. Michael is one of those people. “I go just about every year. There is a group of about six of us,” she said earlier this week.

And what is it that brings her out for the middle of the night shopping? “It’s kind of fun to shop in the middle of the night,” she said. It is a change of pace.

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The sales she’s found in the past have been great as well. “A few years ago I was able to find all my teacher’s gifts. This year I’m hoping to find some deals at Gap and Columbia.”

Byboth will only stay at the outlets a couple hours so that her husband, Jeff, can get up and do some Black Friday shopping of his own.

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“He likes to get up around 3 a.m. and go out and get some deals himself at stores like Walmart and Target,” she said. 

As for some of the stores opening earlier than midnight, Byboth “doesn’t like it.”

“The fun of it is taking the people who aren’t willing to get up out of [the equation],” she said. True shoppers are willing to rise and shine, she said. 

Another outlet mall Black Friday shopper is Nicole Olson of St. Michael.

“I’ve been doing this every year since the outlet started doing the midnight opening,” she said. She reminisced how the mall had no idea the amount of people who would come out at midnight that first year, which created quite the chaos–some of which is still local lore. 

Olson said she typically spends between $300 to $500 on Black Friday shopping just at the outlet mall.

“I try to scope out the deals ahead of time by talking with employees and finding out just which stores I want to hit. I park as close as I can and get in and out of there. It can be a little crazy,” she said.

While she hasn’t found a lot of deals this year, she’s still planning on being there in the middle of the night.

“I like the tradition of it all,” she said. 

Kayla Ende, an Albertville mom who used to work for one of the stores in the mall, shared these tips for Friday shoppers:

  • Many times, if you are at the mall by 10 a.m. Friday, you can get the same deals as those who were there at 10 p.m. or 2 a.m.
  • If it’s crowded and busy and it’s a sweater or sweatshirt you’re going for, grab one in any size and color and go back on a less crazy day and exchange for the size and color you want. Stores do re-stock inventory.
  • Park your car early in the day near the stores you want to go to and have someone drop you off later, when the mall opens.
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