Midnight at Forever 21

I've never participated in the Black Friday madness before, but last night I went downtown for the midnight sales.  It was nothing like I had imagined, but in a good way!  ^-^  When I heard that Forever 21 would open at midnight, I really wanted to go, mainly just for the experience.

Just for those who don't know, the downtown San Francisco Forever 21 is no ordinary store.  It is a huge, gorgeous, 3 story building.  I think it used to be a bank or something.  It's so beautiful, with high ceilings and fancy moldings on the gold ceiling.  I used to think it was the biggest F21 in the world, but I met a girl from Texas who tells me that Houston has a Forever 21 that's as big as Macy's and even has baby clothes. O.O  So I don't think San Francisco has the biggest F21, but I'm guessing that it's probably the most beautiful. And not because I am biased, of course!!  :P

My husband dropped me off around 11:50PM and went to look for parking.  I walked past the H&M and Urban Outfitters flag ship stores and there were lines for both.  Later, I found out that H&M wouldn't open until 5:00AM and the people waiting just wanted a scratcher coupon.  Whoa!  When I got to F21, the doors were already open and there were people inside.  Maybe F21 knows their clientele is ghetto and that fist fights will break out if they keep the ladies waiting.

I was excited to see the Hello Kitty stuff.  I read about the line's release party in LA on someone's blog (sorry can't remember who) but I didn't realize it'd be up here yet!

I was a little disappointed when I realized that there was almost nothing on sale.  There were a few select "yellow tag" items around the store for a discounted price as well as 15% off of random items.  On the third floor there were bins of "buy one, get one free" items but they were total crap; there were weird t-shirts with raccoons or other ugly designs on them.  The only thing I got that was on sale was a pajama set for $10 that was regularly $15.

When I was checking out, I was like, "I didn't even save any money... Why am I here?"  But then I got a free bag for spending over $50 as well as a free notebook for buying a Hello Kitty collection item.  Yay free stuff!  Free s*** is good s***.

Next we went to Macy's and then Macy's Mens.  I didn't get anything but my husband got some nice ankle boots for a decent price.  The stores were crowded but not manic.  Starbucks and the few restaurants that were open looked pretty crowded.  I was in the mood for Jamba Juice but the line was pretty long.

I was surprised by how stylish all the shoppers were.  I expected people to be in their pajamas (maybe the Best Buy crowd was!) but people were totally dressed to impress.  Like a dummy, I left my iphone (aka my camera) at home, updating, so I don't have crowd photos.  I was probably the sloppiest person there--in jeans and no circle lenses.  Haha.

The mood of downtown was really nice.  I was worried that every customer would be acting insane and the employees would be resentful.  Instead, there was a happy holiday mood in the air.  Some people were clearly intoxicated but I didn't see any angry drunks.  Everyone seemed to know that it was crazy to be shopping at 3:00AM but it was fun, like being a kid up late with your parents after bedtime.