St. Louis Area Black Friday Shoppers Brave Crowds and Cold to Save Money

Several St. Louis businesses were flooded with early, motivated shoppers today. Some of them had been waiting in line for days.

Black Friday Shopping Guide in St. Louis

The stores, sales and strategies you need to optimize your all-night shopping blow-out.

Here’s a new holiday tradition to try: Say grace, eat turkey, head to the mall. Black Friday sales start at midnight this year at some of the regions biggest stores, including Walmart, Target, Kohl’s and Best Buy. We’ve read through the ads and compiled everything you need for the best all-night holiday shopping blow-out possible. And for each sale, we've highlighted the items we think would make the best gifts (at the best prices!) Check back on Black Friday for updates and tips, and if you hit the sales, tag your tweets with #BlackFridaySTL or mention @StLouisLindsay. And don't forget: Black Friday sales are already starting online at popular big box stores. Best Buy said they've already sold out of popular $80 TVs and $150 laptops, but …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (2)

Patch Picks

Patch Picks Five

As the season begins, Patch rounds up five local events that are sure to keep the holiday blues away.

The holiday season is officially here. This week, most schools will enjoy Thanksgiving break starting Wednesday. Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, and Black Friday follows it. Get ready for some feasting, shopping and holiday fun. Here are five events to get your season started right. Monday, Nov 21. Gingerbread houses are a long-standing holiday tradition that first became popular in Germany after the Brothers Grimm published a certain well-known fairy tale collection that included Hansel and Gretel. The tradition was brought to the United States by early German settlers. These days, it’s nearly an art from. Check out the gingerbread house display, sponsored by Lydia’s House, at Plaza Frontenac in the upper level in the mall common area, near…

• Photos (1)

Southern L'Attitudes

Thanksgiving Traditions: Surviving Black Friday

Thanksgiving is about making memories and traditions.

Thanksgiving is a holiday surrounded by tradition, regardless of where you live in America. I imagine that people in Frontenac and Ladue will be with family and friends stuffing themselves with turkey and dressing and beautiful pies, just as my family and I will be in Oklahoma. All will wish for elastic waistbands instead of buttons and zippers, a nap after the last bite of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream and later in the afternoon, round two of the leftover feast that can still feed a small army (even though we ate until our tummies nearly popped the first time through). Football will play on televisions all day in the city as well as the South. But, will city folks do as Southerners and rise before the first sight of dawn to enter …

• Photos (4)

Holiday Sales Review

Ladue and Frontenac stores look back at their sales this holiday season.

Now that Black Friday, the pre-Christmas rush and the plethora of after-Christmas sales, returns and exchanges have passed, stores in the Ladue and Frontenac areas look back on the hectic holiday season. Employees at a lot of stores said their most hectic day was Black Friday. "Black Friday was very busy," said Ursula Pierrejean, assistant manager at Cha Boutique. "There was a lot of traffic in the morning." "They were crazy," Lauren Gaska said of the deals at Marta's Boutique. All of the store's merchandise was marked down 30 percent for Black Friday. The snow and ice didn't keep customers away from the stores in the following weeks, either. "Thankfully, people still needed to get their shopping done," said Colleen O'Neill, marketing …

• Photos (7)