Black Friday in Charlotte (Concord, Speed: sale, house, shopping center)

[FLtoNC]

I just looked at the Carolina Place Mall website and they open at 1AM! I love shopping on Black Friday, but this will be my first time in Charlotte. How crowded are the stores here? Are there some I should avoid? Anyone have any tips to make this a productive day?

[BrianH1970]

I went to Concord Mills last year for their Midnight Shopping at the Mills thing where they opened the doors at 12:01. I had nothing better to do and figured I'd go just to see how crazy the place would get. Speedway Blvd was backed up aways away from the mall after 11 pm. They had to temporarily shut the one entrance for crowd control purposes. The place was an absolute madhouse. I would steer far, far, far away from Carolina Place Mall. That place is tiny compared to Concord Mills. If the crowds are all relative and I can compare it to what I saw at Concord Mills, you wouldn't be able to move if they have 1 am shopping.

[Carolina_native]

Believe there was also a gang fight last year at Carolina Place Mall right after it opened last year. Fortunately police were there and only the gang members were injured.

[CouponJack]

I just looked at the circular for Walmart's sale tomorrow and almost fell off my chair...

$50 for a portable DVD player? Are you kidding me?

$800 for a 42" 1080i LCD HDTV.....reeeediculous.....

all I can say though is get there WAY before 5am!

[cabercro]

I went to the Carolina Place late-night shopping frenzy last year. It was a lot of fun (and very interesting if you like to people watch), but not worth it from a shopping standpoint. All of the department stores, kiosks, and some of the other stores were closed. The stores that were open had amazing deals (Aeropostale's entire store was 50% off), but it was so packed, you couldn't get near the merchandise or the registers. Most of the crowd is teenagers just hanging out. But it's definitely an experience!

[RDH]

black friday is the best, can't wait to hit the shops today

[FLtoNC]

I'm kind of surprised that more people didn't comment on this thread. Anyhow, I did go shopping - left my house at 3:30 AM, and I got some great deals. I went to Carolina Place, and it was crowded, but the lines moved quickly. I then headed over to the Carolina Pavilion shopping center (I think that is what it is called), and that parking lot was ridiculous. I know it is a difficult parking lot to navigate on a typical day, but yesterday - OMG! I couldn't even back out of my parking space. They definitely need another exit out of there. All in all, I had a very productive day yesterday, and I think it was worth getting up so early.