Black Friday is every Friday in the Brays Oaks District.

In fact, deals can be found six days a week at the store appropriately named Black Friday Deals, located at 9840 Fondren near S. Braeswood.

What you may find and how much it costs, though, depends on which day you stop in.

According to employees at the store, shoppers start lining up in the early morning hours on Fridays, when the brand new inventory for the week is unveiled.

When the doors open at 9 a.m., shoppers head for the new merchandise sorted into piles and into bins, looking for that super saver deal. On Fridays, everything in the store is $8 with the exception of perfumes and other “specialty” items that are always marked higher.

Whatever is left on Saturday sells for $6. On Sunday, it’s all $4. And the prices keep going down, down and down. Monday, it’s all $2. On Tuesday, whatever you can find leftover is $1 and, on Wednesday, search through the remaining products for 50-cent bargains.

Yes, there are still decent items to be found on Wednesdays, but you need to be diligent, work through the piles, get out of the way of employees consolidating items into fewer and fewer bins and, of course — in true Black Friday tradition, beat the other shoppers to the punch.

On a recent Wednesday, we found party supplies, holiday decorations and children’s books for just 50 cents. Also in the bins: lots and lots of unused eclipse glasses. If you’re a planner and have a way to store them until Aug. 23, 2044, it was your lucky day.

As an auntie to two young Swifties, I let out a “woo hoo” when finding not one, not two but three Taylor Swift-themed pouches (clearly Amazon returns) and birth-TAY cards for 50 cents each. I wound up buying 14 items for a total of $7, plus tax.

Money-saver tip: Bring cash as credit card purchases include a 3-percent surcharge.

All of the merchandise, mostly overstocks or returned items, come from other retailers. And, if you are there on Wednesday, you can view from afar the items that will be unveiled on that coming Friday as workers set up the merchandise in an area sectioned off with ropes. The store closes on Thursdays so that the employees can move the items they have been organizing into the main part of the store.

We spotted stacks of brand name blenders, brand new shoes, electronics, power tools and clothes in the “coming soon” area.

As a newbie to the Black Friday Deals system, I was at first overwhelmed with the bins and couldn’t decide where to start or whether I even wanted to start. (Do I really need any of this?) After searching through the piles for a few minutes, though, I found myself wanting to go through every single bin twice — just in case.

From the looks of things, many others in the store were regulars and knew exactly how the store worked. In the parking lot, shoppers could be seen walking out with black trash bags full of items.

For me, I was gathering items to give as gifts or to use for parties. Others, an employee said, buy things to resell at flea markets or online. Everyone though, was in search of deals.

And, if you don’t find any worthwhile ones this week, there’s always next Friday at Black Friday Deals.

Doors open at 9 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Saturday through Wednesday. On Fridays, the store stays open until 8 p.m.

Happy bargain hunting!

Black Friday Deals & Discount Store
9840 Fondren Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079796196594
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackfridaydeals_houston/?hl=en

— Dorothy Puch Lillig