The line of humanity stretched from the Nicholasville Kohl’s front door all the way to the Sam’s Club gas station as hundreds of Black Friday shoppers sought to find early Christmas season deals.
“I’m looking for toys, clothes and sheets,” Wilmore’s Ashley Gill said around 11:40 p.m. “This is my second time ever; two years ago, I went to Old Navy and Walmart.”
Gill along with Tabitha Hill, Sandy Key and Betty Stinnett arrived at Kohl’s around 8:30 p.m. Thanksgiving night.
Some folks like Nicholasville’s Stinnett was simply along for the fun of it.
“I’m with them,” she jokingly proclaimed. “I’m along for the ride. I’ve never done this before, so I’m just here for the ride.”
While the crowd waited for midnight, many in line were hatching out a plan of attack once the doors opened.
“We have a game plan,” Nicholasville’s Margaret Shields said. “I’m going to get luggage, she’s (Susie Cunningham) going to get a shaving kit, and he’s (husband Joe Shields) going to get a camera, and we’re all going to meet in the middle.”
The target for the Shields family was luggage.
“I’m looking for luggage for our Christmas trip to Vegas,” Margaret Shields said. “It’s Prodigy five-piece luggage set. It’s on sale for $49.99; it’s regularly $229.”
Cunningham said the group had already been to Nicholasville’s Walmart to pillage and plunder the early-bird bargains.
“We got movies, blue jeans and sheets,” she said.
The Black Friday experience comes down to one word, according to Joe Shields.
“Insanity — plain insanity,” he said. “This is something I’ve done the last six years with my wife.”
And finally, after hours of waiting, the management team opened the front doors as the shoppers poured through in hunt for the Black Friday deals they sought.
