Taking the road to hell to reach shopper heaven

By JAN WESNER, Times Staff Writer
Published November 24, 2007

Spenser Wilkinson, front left, runs arm and arm with new friend Christi Cooksey after the doors to Target in Spring Hill opened at 6 a.m. Friday. The sales force Photo gallery: Black Friday
	[Times photo: Keri Wiginton]

Editors' note: Times reporter Jan Wesner and a group of girlfriends embarked on a Black Friday shopping expedition that started Thursday night and kept them going until the next afternoon. The group included lawyer Kari Brown, her sister Kelly Solomon, a human resources manager, schoolteacher Amy Holmes and Gena Friscia, a Hillsborough County employee. They did, indeed, shop until they dropped.

Just six hours after the last bites of turkey and pumpkin pie, we pile into Kari's minivan and pull out of our subdivision in Brandon.

We pop in a CD I'd burned for the occasion. The first song blares out: Highway to Hell by AC/DC.

We're on a mission: Be at the Prime Outlets in Ellenton when they open at midnight, swing back through the neighborhood a few hours later to pick up Gena, then hit Westshore Mall in Tampa at 5 a.m.

We had planned to make mimosas, but with a long night ahead of us, we think better of it.

I'd already been up since 6 a.m., and Kari and Amy had run the Turkey Trot race that morning. We'd surely fall asleep if we started drinking now.

So we settlefor Coca-Cola and sugar-free Red Bull.

It's 11:35 p.m.

Not 30 minutes later, we sit in standstill traffic on Interstate 75 southbound in Manatee County.

Are all these people going to the outlet mall?

The CD plays on, Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light. Kari and I sing along at the top of our lungs.

From the back of the minivan, Amy says, "I feel like I'm in a National Lampoon movie."

Kelly thinks we should stop for gas.

Another hour, and we've moved maybe a mile. The CD's 19 songs starts over. Highway to Hell, one more time.

We wish we had those mimosas. We wonder if there's a liquor store open anywhere.

Near 1:45 a.m., we call a gas station near the outlet mall and tell the clerk we're stuck in the right lane in front of the sign that says "Ellenton 11/4 miles."

"You're looking at a good 45 minutes or an hour" to reach the parking lot, he says.

We change course, change lanes, pass Ellenton and get off at the next available exit, then loop back to U.S. 41 and roll back to Brandon.

We pull into my driveway at 2:30 a.m., and have yet to buy a single thing.

We sleepfor about an hour.

Up again, we debate the mimosas once more.

Too tired.

We're on the road again at 4:30 a.m., and pick up Gena, who wisely decided to skip the outlet mall excursion. We cackle in delight as we tell her about our night so far.

By now, we really do need gas. The yellow light has been on for the last several miles. We pass three gas stations that are closed - can you imagine?- until we finally are able to fill up.

Half an hour gets us to Westshore Plaza. We find a parking spot right away. No traffic jams, no frenzied mobs of shoppers.

Ahhh.

We hit Old Navy and Children's Place and Macy's, buy clothes and towels and pillows and shoes. Between the five of us, we spend nearly $2,000.

Kelly has a Hanukkah gift for her mom. Other than that, we've shopped only for ourselves and our kids. I finished all my Christmas shopping online a week ago.

We reward ourselves with pedicures at a mall salon and lunch at P.F. Chang's. Then we're back into my driveway at 1:30 p.m., 13 hours after the odyssey started.

And we make our plans for next year.

We'll stay in a hotel near the outlet mall on Thanksgiving night. We'll get T-shirts printed up to commemorate our now-annual shopping expedition.

And, next year, we'll definitely bring the mimosas.

Jan Wesner can be reached at 813-661-2439 or jwesner@sptimes You can read about her life at blogs.tampabay.com/standingby.

[Last modified November 23, 2007, 21:58:30]