Walking through the mall was mellow but colorful.

While I was there, I had to do the obligatory escalator check. Were they all in service? Most were.

Stores were ready for the crowds with stanchions for queues but only a handful of stores had customers waiting at 7:30am.

The Makai Wing had the most customers with people waiting to get in Zara, Uniqlo, and Lululemon. I didn’t really pick up anything this morning other than this Salted Caramel Mocha from the Nordstrom’s eBar.

I did hear that Ala Moana got crowded after lunch. I guess everyone had to wake up from their Thanksgiving meal coma, do some online shopping, then headed to the mall.

In any case, hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

After each error, you need to reload the page, possibly losing that next step in the checkout process. I guess Black Friday shopping has really moved online.

Update 10:17am. After one hour of trying, I finally got a successful charge and checkout. I’m done.

Also, looking out for BF Ads and planning out your shopping doesn’t feel as grandiose. Now stores are voluntarily showing customers their BF ads weeks in advance. No more finding leaked copies to post online. Not so fun any more.

Another contributing fact could be the on-slaught of (online) sales and discounts. Quarterly/seasonal sales are for sure but so many online stores just have so many sales.

Sure, I’ll start looking for the Black Friday good stuff, but for now, it just doesn’t feel the same…

Update: Right after posting this, I saw this list of early BF specials from Amazon.

First Stop, Starbucks

As the norm, my first stop was Starbucks. After easily finding parking (though in the boonies), I had to gear up for the crowds. Luckily, taking the closest elevator to the street elevator placed me nearby the Starbucks Reserve location by the former Sears. I hadn’t been to this location since it reopened and didn’t realize it had the “Reserve” status. Really, that didn’t matter to me. What really mattered was the short line.

After I finished my drink, I went for a free refill and this is what I saw at the other two Starbucks locations.

That Disney Vacation sign and pillar blocks the view of how long the line actually was. Looks like it ended near the escalators. So I kept walking to the Macy’s location which had gotten emptier in recent history. Although the gate was down, they were open, but you had to enter through their doors and get jammed into their small space with everyone else.

The Mess

I don’t know why, but my first shopping stop after getting Starbucks was The North Face. While I love the brand, I had never been to the Ala Moana location. Just no real need in Hawaii, you know. But the place was packed…and in a mess. The entry way display of specials was in a heap.

The store workers tried to keep up with the folding, but the masses undid the orderliness in no time. But now I know where to find Smartwool socks.

To be fair, the mess was everywhere. I went to Banana Republic since they had a hefty 50% off sale but finding shirts like this proved tough. Try finding a pattern and size in this jumble. You needed to make a bigger mess to go through the mess.

The Crowds

So even in the late afternoon, the crowds were still there. Weaving your way to get to your stops was tough with too much congestion and slow moving, bag-laden shoppers.

There was still a line just to enter Prada.

Fun Sights

Even though I had limited time, I did see a few fun things. The Finish Line in Macy’s ocassionally surprises me with their collection. They had an Adidas NMD colorway, but all the smaller sizes sold out earlier in the day.

Deejays were spinning the tunes as you entered Macy’s. If nothing else, the loud performance woke up weary shoppers.

The Vintage Cave has reopened.

I saw a pair of Yeezys and talked to the owner who had won them in a raffle. Instead of reselling them, he decided to rock them. Props to him!

Loving the new holiday decorations.

The Power of the Yoku Moku

The real reason I went to Ala Moana on Black Friday was to buy Yoku Moku at Shirokiya at 20% off. This purchase greatly helped my progress of getting a free Santa snow globe.

So yeah, like I said, a fun Black Friday!

These Tiger Sahara Cool stainless steel insulated water bottles are going for 50% off as a buy one, get one free deal. Either the 0.8L or 1.0L capacity in green or pink ($32.99 for 0.8L and $34.99 for 1.0L). Can’t go wrong for roughly $17 each. Grab bag gift perhaps?

Black Friday Event! 50% Off Hoodies, Jackets & More!

Free Shipping on Orders $75 and more! Use code AFF75NOV!

Boogie Woogie Santa anyone?

In about 2 hours and 40 minutes (12:30 PST) on Thanksgiving Day, Amazon will have a lightning deal on Crumpler’s 6 Million Dollar Home camera bag. A spacious bag to carry all your camera gear, and it’s available in a few colors.

Amazon has this Yamaha RX-V671 7.1-channel network AV receiver as a Gold Deal special for today. At 50%, of course you need one! 6 HDMI inputs, controllable via an iOS app, front USB and HDMI input, 7.1 speaker system, and supports 2 zones – $300!

That’s because her new album released today and is an Amazon Black Friday special before Black Friday. You can pickup (okay, download) Unapologetic for $5.99 for a limited time. The single, Diamonds, is already a hit, so that $5.99 price tag is looking like an even better deal.

Check it out, Amazon has already opened up its Black Friday store with daily specials!

Don’t bother looking at the Missed Deals. You may kick yourself if you see something you wanted.

Wow, is the movie Jennifer’s Body starring Megan Fox that bad? Right now, the DVD version is a Lightning Deal on Amazon, going for 90% off! So you end up paying $1.99, and still the deal isn’t sold out yet. Must be real bad.

Keiki enjoyed the indoor play area which wasn’t as full as I thought it would be, and the mall security did a good job keeping the older, bigger kids out. The most unique item I saw at Windward Mall was this shirt made for true social media geeks. Can you relate?

From Black Friday at Windward Mall 2010

To top off all this shopping was a live DJ spinning some serious tunes at the new Kazu Couture. I didn’t go into the store but watched the music mixing action through the window.

From Black Friday at Windward Mall 2010

Just a warning though, I’m not sure if these are the hours for every Starbucks.

It’s now Monday, November 22, in areas of the world so Amazon’s week-long Black Friday specials are now in session. Kicking it off are select new music releases for only $3.99, and we’re not talking random music. We’re talking the good stuff like Kanye West’s latest, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Get it now since the specials change daily.