At promptly 7 p.m. on Thursday, my companion and I exited the house, armed with sweatshirts, snacks and money. We were determined to conquer Black Friday shopping, and this year, we were starting early.

Our first destination was Best Buy. Usually, I would never step foot in an electronics store on Black Friday, but my partner, a pre-business freshman named Kyle Douglass, needed to get his camera from the store, so there was no choice.

The parking lot was chaotic, filled with people who were lugging around three television sets and attempting to shove them all into their SUV. We followed a family down the row to their car, and claimed the parking space as soon as they began backing out. Goal number one was complete: Find a parking spot.

We readied ourselves to enter the unknown and stepped out of the car into the havoc of the night. People were walking in all directions through the parking lot. Some were loading up their items before going back in for round two, and others were still attempting to carry their purchases through the war zone.

Finally, we made our way to the entrance of the store. Police officers stared us down as we entered, eyeing us as if we were going to hold the entire place hostage and steal all the electronics. We beelined to the camera section to see if any of the doorbuster items were still in stock but had no such luck.

After browsing the other wares for several minutes, we decided it was time to head out. Before we could leave, we had to go pick up the camera Douglass had previously ordered just in case the doorbusters were out of stock. Thank goodness we were able to check out in the customer service line, because the normal line for purchasing wrapped around half of the store.

Now it was time for destination number two: Target. We did not really have any particular items we needed to purchase there, but it always seems to have good deals, so why not check it out? After parking what seemed to be a mile away from the entrance, we took a deep breath and set out to conquer.

There were no carts left in the store, which shows just how many people were already running through the aisles, grabbing every item that had a sale sign above it. We began wandering through the crowds of people, stopping every once in a while to peek at the deals throughout the store. There were a few things both of us were eyeing, but after seeing the checkout line — which ran the length of the entire store and weaved in and out of every aisle — we decided it would be better to come back later in the night when there would be less people.

Our evening was only just beginning, as we had yet to stop at Chandler Fashion Center, the Phoenix Premium Outlets and then finally go back to Target to purchase the items we wanted. It was a night filled with adrenaline rushes, pushing our way through a jungle of people and sore feet — but, somehow, it was still all worth it in the end.

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