Black Friday – Story and Giveaway!

I can’t believe the hype that comes along with Black Friday.  I have friends that make a ritual of this famous evening…finishing Thanksgiving dinner early, getting babysitters (a lot of them even bring their kids along!), mapping out their plans of action.  I have to admit that I enjoy the advertisements that come out at about this time of the year, trying to lure you into their stores at 12:01 a.m. to get one of the two 50″ LED TVs that are on sale for $29.99.

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I know that is exaggerated, but really…Don’t worry, you are the ONLY one on that line of hundreds of people that is going for that TV.

As an aside, I read this post to my husband, and he felt it was important for me to be realistic about some of the sales.  Sam’s Club is offering a 60″ TV for $600 on Black Friday.  There, I did my good dead!

I look forward to the stories that I read on FB that day…the deals that my friends scored, what ungodly time they started to wait on line at one of the big box retailers.  I am not one to pass up a good deal, don’t get me wrong!  One thing though – I have stepped away from the philosophy that, “OMG, it’s on sale…I have to have it” when I already have the same thing or really just don’t need it.  I wonder what percentage of sales that occur on Black Friday are truly holiday gifts…I need to look into that and get back to you.  The reason for my slight bitterness…I did Black Friday one time.

Picture this… (lol I am channelling Sophia from Golden Girls now…loved that show)…my husband and I just closed on our very first home together the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  He decides that we need a new television for our new family room and finds out that there is going to be great sales at a local electronics store, Brandsmart.  If you have ever been to a Brandsmart, you know that it is a huge retailer carrying everything from TVs, to kitchen appliances to electric shavers.

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You go in, walk around, get approached by many eager sales people, find one that you like and the process begins.  The sales person, goes into their computer system, circa 1970, finds the item you are looking for, takes down your contact information, and then sends you to the cashiers with a handwritten sales number on a piece of scrap paper.  You then go over to the cashier area, where there are at least a dozen cashier stations, to complete the sale.  Now, normally there is very little wait.  Black Friday, as you probably can guess – INSANITY.  R finds the TV of his dreams, gets the slip of paper, and the three of us (Dad was with us too 🙂 head over to pay for the item.  It is like a cattle corral.  No rhyme or reason, no lines, people being super rude (isn’t it the holiday season?) pushing and shoving, just terrible.  We finally fenagle ourselves over to a “shorter” line.  It’s hot, there is no air circulation, I am getting impatient…do we really need this TV that badly???

Next thing you know, I have a 200+ pound man pass out behind me BUT not really behind me – ON me.  At first I felt a light tap and then was like “WHAAAAAAAA!”.  Poor guy!  We slid him into a seated position against the wall, and grabbed a box from a person next to us to elevate his legs.  I offered him my water, feeling terrible – the guy came here alone probably just looking to cross some people off his shopping list.  He drank some water, and was so sweaty and a bit out of it.  How sad is that?  Finally we got security to come over and move him closer to the bathrooms, so he could get some air.  I don’t know what came of this poor shopper…someone had better of let him cut them in line after that fiasco.

After that incident, I was disgusted.  I would rather either wait for Cyber Monday – online shopping is a hobby of mine – or shop as I go, which I feel I do well too.  No crazy lines, no mean people, you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn (or earlier).  I don’t mean to disrespect the diehards in any way – just sayin’  🙂

Do you partake in the Black Friday “festivities”?   If so, do you have any funny/interesting stories?  Ever score anything AMAZING?  Please tell me about it below.  The person with the coolest story will win a $10 gift card to Starbucks (something to keep you revved up this Black Friday!).