My Black Friday Adventures '06
3:16am
Alarm goes off and I proceed to get ready, dressed, and brush my teeth before heading out.
3:24am
Start the car and pull out of the driveway
3:45am
As I drove past Best Buy and Circuit City, I noticed there must have been at least 300-400 people in line already at Best Buy. Since Circuit City is where I really needed to go, I made an executive decision to head on over there and get in line. As I got out of my car and approached the front of the store, I was amazed that their were only 70-80 people in line. I just thought it was because I was so early (they were to open at 5:00am). So I took my place in line. That's when things got weird. In less then 10 seconds after getting in line, I heard a mob of people behind me. I turned to see a few hundred folks walking up the sidewalk to get in line behind me. I immediately turned and faced straight ahead trying to figure out what just happened. How did I get in the middle of all these people? I tried to listen to the conversations around me and from what I could gather 1) I was in between people that had been there since 1:00am. Somehow I had fronted 3 hours worth of shoppers and 2) Circuit City employees were moving people up closer to the door in groups and I just happen to walk up and not be noticed as they were in between moving groups. Whatever the case may have been, I was up front and that's all that mattered.
5:00am
The doors open and we all hurry in. An employee had come by handing out maps to the store so I scouted out where I need to go to get what I had on my list to purchase. I made sure I prioritized the items so I wasn't missing out on what I really wanted.
5:20am
My shopping was complete and now came the daunting task of waiting in line to check out. I had ended up in the back corner of the store by the home audio equipment. There was a cashier there with only 2 people in line compared to the other registers which had at least 50 people in line. I asked if I could check out there and she said yes, but don't tell anybody.
5:30am
I took my gifts to my car. The place was such a mad house I decided I would walk to my next destination, Target.
5:45am
I arrive at Target to see a line of at least 500 people. Since there was no real item I was dying to buy there, I decided to wait by the doors until everyone had gone in instead of walking to the end of the line then following the crowd.
6:00am
Doors opened and the crowd rushed in. I will say that the people at Target (mostly women) were a lot more hateful and pushy then the crowd at Circuit City (mostly men). I'm sure there is a great social experiment in there somewhere. I hung around the doors until most of the crowd was in then I stepped up and went on to buy my gifts.
6:30am
After walking around the store and gathering what gifts I needed, I made my way to the check out. The lines there were almost as bad at Circuit City. At least 30-50 deep on 15 registers. As I turned to see which line was the shortest, I noticed that there was no one at the jewelry counter. I walked over to see if they could check me out and she said she already was (lol) Seriously, she said I could check out there if I had 6 items or less. I had 7 items so I set the one down for the person I cared least about and proceeded to check out.
6:50am
I made my way back to my car and finally got out of there.
7:00am
Stopped by the Family Christian Book Store for there door buster sales. They had a ton of great deals but none that made me want to buy anything extra. I was going to stick to my list no matter what.
7:30am
I arrived at Ashley Furniture to take a look at their big sale. Everything was 20% off until 9:00am. We had been looking for some end tables for our living room for a while (as in 2+ years) We had found some we liked by Ashley a few weeks ago so this sale came at just the right time. I found the tables we wanted, ordered them, paid, then headed home.
8:45am
I arrived home safe and sound. Another great Black Friday in the books.
My Black Friday Observations:
- When approached with the right attitude (Jesus makes the season not the stores) then the shopping experience can be very enjoyable
- There are a lot of angry people out there. They show up and wait in these lines and just boil. I don't get it. You know what you're getting yourself into when you get there. Truthfully, I think their anger goes deeper then standing in lines.
- If stores sell out of an item someone wants, most people will buy something else just to fill that desire to make a huge purchase
- I did very good this year in my purchases. I bought only the items on my list and did not buy one thing for myself.
- Every year I go out by myself. I think it would be fun to go out with someone next year. But they'd have to be able to keep up!
Alarm goes off and I proceed to get ready, dressed, and brush my teeth before heading out.
3:24am
Start the car and pull out of the driveway
3:45am
As I drove past Best Buy and Circuit City, I noticed there must have been at least 300-400 people in line already at Best Buy. Since Circuit City is where I really needed to go, I made an executive decision to head on over there and get in line. As I got out of my car and approached the front of the store, I was amazed that their were only 70-80 people in line. I just thought it was because I was so early (they were to open at 5:00am). So I took my place in line. That's when things got weird. In less then 10 seconds after getting in line, I heard a mob of people behind me. I turned to see a few hundred folks walking up the sidewalk to get in line behind me. I immediately turned and faced straight ahead trying to figure out what just happened. How did I get in the middle of all these people? I tried to listen to the conversations around me and from what I could gather 1) I was in between people that had been there since 1:00am. Somehow I had fronted 3 hours worth of shoppers and 2) Circuit City employees were moving people up closer to the door in groups and I just happen to walk up and not be noticed as they were in between moving groups. Whatever the case may have been, I was up front and that's all that mattered.
5:00am
The doors open and we all hurry in. An employee had come by handing out maps to the store so I scouted out where I need to go to get what I had on my list to purchase. I made sure I prioritized the items so I wasn't missing out on what I really wanted.
5:20am
My shopping was complete and now came the daunting task of waiting in line to check out. I had ended up in the back corner of the store by the home audio equipment. There was a cashier there with only 2 people in line compared to the other registers which had at least 50 people in line. I asked if I could check out there and she said yes, but don't tell anybody.
5:30am
I took my gifts to my car. The place was such a mad house I decided I would walk to my next destination, Target.
5:45am
I arrive at Target to see a line of at least 500 people. Since there was no real item I was dying to buy there, I decided to wait by the doors until everyone had gone in instead of walking to the end of the line then following the crowd.
6:00am
Doors opened and the crowd rushed in. I will say that the people at Target (mostly women) were a lot more hateful and pushy then the crowd at Circuit City (mostly men). I'm sure there is a great social experiment in there somewhere. I hung around the doors until most of the crowd was in then I stepped up and went on to buy my gifts.
6:30am
After walking around the store and gathering what gifts I needed, I made my way to the check out. The lines there were almost as bad at Circuit City. At least 30-50 deep on 15 registers. As I turned to see which line was the shortest, I noticed that there was no one at the jewelry counter. I walked over to see if they could check me out and she said she already was (lol) Seriously, she said I could check out there if I had 6 items or less. I had 7 items so I set the one down for the person I cared least about and proceeded to check out.
6:50am
I made my way back to my car and finally got out of there.
7:00am
Stopped by the Family Christian Book Store for there door buster sales. They had a ton of great deals but none that made me want to buy anything extra. I was going to stick to my list no matter what.
7:30am
I arrived at Ashley Furniture to take a look at their big sale. Everything was 20% off until 9:00am. We had been looking for some end tables for our living room for a while (as in 2+ years) We had found some we liked by Ashley a few weeks ago so this sale came at just the right time. I found the tables we wanted, ordered them, paid, then headed home.
8:45am
I arrived home safe and sound. Another great Black Friday in the books.
My Black Friday Observations:
- When approached with the right attitude (Jesus makes the season not the stores) then the shopping experience can be very enjoyable
- There are a lot of angry people out there. They show up and wait in these lines and just boil. I don't get it. You know what you're getting yourself into when you get there. Truthfully, I think their anger goes deeper then standing in lines.
- If stores sell out of an item someone wants, most people will buy something else just to fill that desire to make a huge purchase
- I did very good this year in my purchases. I bought only the items on my list and did not buy one thing for myself.
- Every year I go out by myself. I think it would be fun to go out with someone next year. But they'd have to be able to keep up!
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