I would like to share my experience shopping at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets on Thanksgiving. Note: Black Friday traditionally is a huge day for retail stores to heavily discount their merchandise, takes place the day after Thanksgiving which is always the last Thursday in November. Over the years stores have opened up earlier and earlier moving back into Thursday or Thanksgiving Day.

I believe a lot of international students are familiar with Woodbury, because it is the largest outlet in the world with hundreds of brands. It is about an hour’s drive from New York City. You can drive yourself or take the Woodbury bus at a cost of 30 dollars for a round trip ticket. Go in the morning and come back in the evening. The tickets are available online.

The Woodbury on Thanksgiving in 2013 opened up at 6:00 pm. A few stores like Levis, The North Face, kate spade, Coach, opened at 6. Others began to open doors later. Most luxury brands opened at midnight, but some, for example, Dior, opened at 5 am on Friday. It would be better if you first decide what brands you’d like to shop and then look up their opening time.

It was pretty crowded that day. It felt like more than half of those present were Chinese! The weather was freezing. Many brand name stores had long queues. You had to line up for thirty or forty minutes for Coach, Gucci, and Burberry, etc. I suggest that you wear a beanie, gloves, scarf and warm shoes. Most of the time, you will be lining up in the snow. Remember, it is going to be very cold! Decide what stores you want to go to, know the opening time, and have a plan. You are very lucky if you get to shop at five or six popular stores in one night.

There are several restrooms so no need to worry. You can get a drink at Starbucks or sit down for a meal at the food court if you get tired. You can ask any questions or grab a map at the two information centers. Don’t buy the small coupon book. It is useless at Woodbury. Rather you might use it for normal shopping.

For the record, Hermes, LV and Chanel are not in Woodbury. Prada doesn’t give discounts on Thanksgiving and you are not getting the best value at Burberry unless you spend more than 700 dollars.

I felt like there was not much of a discount on Thanksgiving. I had previously visited there once before Thanksgiving and another time on Labor Day. A lot of brands did not discount further because of Black Friday. Thus, people who will stay in New York for a while don’t need to go on Thanksgiving. It’s better to go in a warm season, and you don’t even have to line up.