Black Friday (the last story, and a long one)
Here's a last Black Friday story for you, courtesy of Noah Dullis.I've never gone shopping on Black Friday before this year. Ever. The only time I've ever stood in line for a product release was the midnight sale for Halo 2, and even with that I'd already pre-ordered the collector's edition, so I was gaurenteed a copy and I had to wait maybe an hour, tops. So, this past Friday also had the distinction of being my birthday as well, and seeing as I knew that most of my presents would come in the form of money and checks from friends and relatives, I decided to treat myself to a birthday gift. I had my eye on a 32" LCD HDTV at BestBuy, which was going to be on sale for $480 until noon. The closest BestBuy to where I live is about 45 minutes away, so I figured I'd drive up there sometime between midnight and 1:00 AM. Being young and stupid, I assumed no one else would be as crazy as me about this sort of thing and I'd be able to sit in the comfort of my car until around 3:00 or 4:00 AM when the crowds would start showing up.
When I got there at one in the morning, there was already a line 100+ people deep. The best part is that BestBuy didn't have their lot lights on, and everyone was lined up in this driveway that loops around the parking lot before emptying out into it, so I and everyone else who pulled in until around 2:30 when someone finally decided it would be a good idea to turn the lights on, almost plowed into this huge line as I was driving in. Being pretty surprised and kind of annoyed at how many people were already there (I hadn't seen another car in a little less than an hour of driving until I got there), I got out of my car and went to wait in line for the next four hours, with only a light jacket and some gloves (I live in Pennsylvania; needless to say, it was cold). By 2:00, I'd lost all feeling in my feet, and by 3:00 my hands had that burning/numb sensation that tells you you're in trouble. Luckily the guy behind me and I had engaged in some mutual griping while waiting, so he was cool enough to save my spot while I ran to my car to grab some oversized headphones I'd brought to use with the portable DVD player that I had been planning to watch in my car, which doubled nicely as impromptu ear-muffs. The whole time, all I could think was "If I lose a frickin' toe on my birthday over a TV that's sold out, I'm going to be pissed."
Around 4:00, some of the employees started coming out to hand out reserve tickets for "hot items" that you would be unable to buy without one. I should mention that while I was about 100 people deep in the line, at this point there were at least 400 people behind me, so I wasn't that bad off. I find out that the TV I want is one of the ticketed items and the guy appears to have handed out the last of them about five people in front of me. At this point, I'm trying to get his attention to see if there are any more tickets coming, but he and two other employees have both been wrangled by a guy who's complaining that the laptop in the ad (which he was, of course, prepared to pull out and point at vigorously for them) was already sold-out. By now I was cold, tired, and pretty annoyed/angry, so I'm literally screaming at one of these guys to answer my question. One of them finally is able to get away from the irate ranting gentleman and lets me know that, no, there are no more tickets for the TV I want. I'm about to leave when another employee comes jogging up with a stack of tickets, and the employee I was just talking to comes back to me with the last ticket for the TV.
So now I'm set, and it's just another hour on blindingly-painful cold to endure before I can get my TV. When they finally open the doors (not a minute before 5:00 AM), there is a literal stampede to get into the store, with threats of "Line jumping equals an automatic ass-beating!" resounding through the parking lot. I'm able to run to the back of the place and get in line for the TVs, at which point about five different lines all start to form behind me. They were supposed to have some area taped off for the line to go around, but it was set up to run behind the service counter so everyone thought that was where they were supposed to stay out of, and it didn't help that four or five different employees all seemed to be giving different directions as to where to stand. I'm just trying to pay for my TV so I can get out of there before a riot ensues, because one floor manager is trying to maintain order and get everyone into a single line, but nobodies moving because "Some guy told us to stand here!" and they're shouting back at this guy pretty aggressively. Luckily, I was able to pay, get my ticket validated, and get out of there before anything happened, and a few minutes later I was the first person to pull my car around behind the store, get the TV loaded in, and drive away from the mob of crazed consumers. I got home at 6:00 AM, slept until about noon, and woke up to hands that felt mildly frostbitten for the next two days (I was pretty worried about one of my fingers, but everything seems to have panned out ok). The TV's great, and it'll be awesome to be able to play the 360 I'm hoping for for Christmas, but I'm never doing that again. I don't care what the deal is, it felt like I'd been to war.
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