The holidays are the most expensive times of the year. Shoppers start in October with costumes for Halloween, then they swing to November with Thanksgiving, and before long December arrives and the Christmas season commences. Many companies take advantage of the income that a good sale can bring, and the infamous Black Friday is born. Over the years, Black Friday has migrated earlier and earlier. What used to start at 5 a.m. then became 4 a.m., then 3 a.m., soon changing to midnight and has now actually creeped into Thanksgiving with stores opening as early as 5 p.m. on the holiday. This can be unfortunate for those employees who have to leave their families in order to prep the stores for the mayhem that is to happen that night and throughout the next day.

  Kohl’s is one of the stores that participates in what they call “Gray Thursday.” Opening at 6 p.m. and running through midnight the following day, the store had people lined up as early as 2:45 p.m. in order to be first in line for some of the most featured and hot ticketed items, including: PlayStation 4 Bundles, Xbox One bundles, Samsung smart TV’s, Fitbits, sound bars, Nest home security cameras and thermostats, and even the new Apple Watch Series two. Kohl’s only had about 14 watches in stock.

  One of the best bonuses with shopping at Kohl’s is that one can receive “Kohl’s Cash,” which is money to only be used at Kohl’s. For every $50 one spends, they can receive $10 in Kohl’s Cash. Yet on Gray Thursday and Black Friday, Kohl’s offered a whopping $15 for every $50 spent. This was a huge deal for many loyal Kohl’s customers and made Kohl’s one of the hot destination for the shopping event.

  When the doors opened, customers actually ran into the store in order to be one of the first to get their hands on any of the products on their wish lists. Over 200 people came rushing into the building and the chaos officially began. The lines at the cash registers were running about an hour and a half long wait and wrapped itself throughout the whole store. One of the employee jobs was to be line holder, and they stood with a sign that read “Line starts here” so no one had a valid excuse to cut the line. Luckily, there were no brawls and everyone, for the most part, was well behaved.

  Overall, if one is interested in the best past time of people watching, loves a great deal and crowds, or is just looking for something to do after Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday shopping is for you. If not, stay home and wait for the very calm Cyber Monday.