Black Friday is when the savviest of shoppers flood malls, stores and retail shops to get those “hot deals” on coveted holiday items.

As an annual Black Friday shopper myself, I decided to take part in the infamous day at the mothership of all malls, Mall of America.

I go Black Friday shopping every year with a group of friends from high school. This year, my friends and I decided it would be fun to experience what would probably be the

craziest Black Friday of our shopping careers.

Around the country, many retailers made changes to the busiest shopping day of the year. Rather than opening at 4 or 5 a.m., many stores opened their doors at midnight on Friday. Of the 458 stores in MOA, 112 opened at midnight.

My friends and I began our journey to Minneapolis Thursday evening in order to be there for the midnight grand openings. I’ve been to MOA before and know it is usually busy, regardless of the day or sales going on. I knew Black Friday would be beyond hectic.

The first thing we saw in the mall was the long line of people waiting outside Urban Outfitters. There had to have been more than 75 people sitting in a line against the wall.

It was only about 10:45 p.m., so the stores wouldn’t be open for more than an hour.

We didn’t really have a plan of action for shopping. One of my friends, Laura Hanson, said she wanted to go to Best Buy to pick up some video games. As we came around the corner to BestBuy, all of our mouths dropped. We stood there in awe of the hundreds of people in mob formation waiting to be granted  entrance to the electronic store.

It wasn’t long until police arrived, attempting to control the mass amount of people. They pushed everyone back against the wall and told them to form some sort of line.

Not wanting to get trampled, we decided to come back to Best Buy later, hoping it would calm down after a few hours.

Victoria’s Secret was another stop my other friend Analisa Elkjer wanted to make. In MOA, there are two Victoria’s Secrets, one on the north side of the first floor

the other on the south side of the second floor.

We headed to one of them a little after 11 p.m. and found a spot on the floor right next to the Plexiglas wall closing off the store.

The longer we waited, the more people began flooding the store’s entrance. Most of the people in the mall were younger girls, probably 15 or 16 through mid-20s.

So as the countdown to midnight grew closer and closer, I found myself more and more claustrophobic. Since we were right next to the door, people began pushing and shoving to get as close to the door as possible.

A few of young girls next to us were working out their plan of action and I coul

dn’t help but laugh.

The smallest girl was going to roll under the door as it opened so she could run in ahead of everyone and grab what she wanted, while another girl held back the rest of the mob. I laughed and thought “yeah right.”

Five minutes past midnight, then 10 minutes, and Victoria’s Secret’s was still closed. All the other stores were open, but not Victoria’s Secret . We then heard a girl behind

us say it said on

Twitter that Victoria’s Secret wasn’t opening until 4 a.m. We had waited there for an hour for nothing.

Then someone else said the store on the second floor was open. Seconds later, hundreds of young, screaming girls sprinted towards the escalator. It was as if someone had spott

ed Justin Beiber; it was pure madness. We gave up on Victoria’s Secret, not wanting to run to the ot

her side

of the massive mall. We found out later the other store didn’t open until 4 a.m. either.

So we trudged back to Best Buy and by then it was 100 times worse than before. Now police officers were blocking off the entrance and only letting 10 people in the store at a time.

The mob was pushing and shoving and the officers were pushing back and yelling at the crowd.
One officer kept telling my friends and I to get in line, but w

e had no intentions of joining the crowd. After surveying the scene, we were just there to watch this mass of people act like animals.

We decided to stop at the Best Buy near home on our

way back. We went in other stores but the check-out lines wound all over the store, so we decided to hit Macy’s and go to the mall near our hometown.

Madness and masses aside, my Black Friday was a success. One thing I noticed was that most of the stores didn’t have deals that were any different than everyday sales. If you were buying a TV you might get a good deal, but most other stores didn’t have anything special. Most people, including myself, only go Black Friday shopping to say they did it. In my case, I can now proudl

y say I went Black Friday shopping at the largest mall in America. Go big or go home, right?