Post by TF Admin on Nov 25, 2006 1:21:57 GMT -6
I apologize in advance as this story will be a long, sordid tale. So sit back, relax with a cup of your favorite Joe, and I hope I can spark more personal stories like this about the Holiday Shopping Season!
To understand why I was sitting out in 30 degree weather Thursday Night in front of Best Buy to buy a laptop for my wife, you must understand that I LOATHE the Holiday Shopping Season.
My mother is 100% German. So I grew up dealing with her eccentricities. One of her favorite things to do to me growing up was wake me at 4:00 AM Saturday morning and drag me to every yard/garage sale in and around town. My mother LIVED for yard sales; therefore, she assumed I lived for them as well. Every weekend was the SAME routine:
4:00 AM -- WAKE UP
4:10 AM -- WAKE UP AGAIN
4:15 AM -- Dragged from Bed, Forced to dress.
4:25 AM -- Dragged to Buick.
4:30 AM -- Drive to first house
.......TIME PASSES.........
7:45 AM -- Drive to 10th House
.......TIME PASSES.........
9:30 AM Drive Home in Buick dragging Muffler.
9:45 AM UNLOAD BUICK
10:30 AM Catch last 30 Minutes of Saturday Morning Cartoons
This went on my entire childhood. And if going to every Yard Sale was not bad enough, when my Mom organized one, it was always a one woman comedy show. It amazes me that my father kept buying bigger and bigger utility sheds over the years to accommodate all the crap my mom accumulated at these yard sales. And then when Mom has one she sells the SAME CRAP that has been in storage since she purchased it two years ago at a Yard Sale!
Shewas is a pack rat. To this day she still keeps everything. To my amazement while visiting her on Thanksgiving. She STILL hides things in drawers, behind furniture, in the closet. I mean she hides money, trinkets, FOOD! Yes, food. I will swear it on a Bible.
She has some really nice pantries, but she will go out of her way to hide stuff. This really ticks my dad off. He gave up some 40 years ago trying to stop this behavior, he just ignored it, but you can only take so much.
If something was on sale at any of the stores, my Mom was there. She knew how to save a buck, and when Thanksgiving came, I am convinced it was my mother that coined the phrase "Black Friday", because this was like Heaven on Earth for her. She would cook for a full week for Thursday, and then Friday, it was all about shopping. You have no idea how many Friday's I was witness to sheer shopping hell in the old Tupelo or Downtown Mall's.
So when I got out on my own, I made a conscious decision that I would NEVER get involved in any of the Black Friday mess. And for years, I have followed through with that decision. My shopping gets done after Halloween, and then I pick up anything else after the first week of December, and stop all shopping a full week before Christmas.
I worked at the mall for a couple of years, and once that was over, I added this rule, avoid the BARNES Crossing area like the Plague between November 24 and January 3. The Internet has helped me greatly in keeping these rules in place. Commerce on the Internet has grown exponentially and being able to buy stuff and have it shipped is THE WAY to shop for Christmas!
But something happened to me this year. For the first time, I was breaking all the rules in a big, BIG way. I wanted to buy my wife a laptop. Now, I looked Dell over and was about to pull the trigger until I paid a visit to bfads.net
BFADS.NET lists all the Black Friday ads that will hit the paper weeks ahead of time. I found the perfect laptop on the front page of Best Buy's sales paper. $379.00 for a really nice HP laptop. Perfect for what my wife needed and it was at an outstanding price.
Now, how do I get it? Well, it's one of those door buster items that retail stores use to get people into the store where they can then turn their salesman loose to sell you crap you do not need to go along with your new laptop/computer/whatever, because that is how the big box stores make real money...addons. To get this laptop meant the unthinkable. Stand in line, early and pray I would be one of the chosen few who would be able to get this item.
I had been talking to BSIGrimreaper, and he said people would be lining up at 1 AM to get in the door. At 4:00 AM, Best Buy would hand out tickets to purchase certain items, and THEN the doors would open at 5 AM and that would be it.
Since he too was buying a laptop for his wife, he invited me to wait with him in line. I'm thinking, there is no way I am going to spend an entire morning in the freezing cold, waiting to see if I receive a blessing from the Best Buy Gods to have the privilege of purchasing a laptop. Why the hell would I want to be a slave?
Then I remembered that my wife wants to help me with our new community site. She will need a laptop to accomplish the tasks I am going to be giving her. So, reluctantly, I tell Grim that I will meet him at 1 AM with the other dim-witted freaks and we could all get Hypothermia together and make a mass trip to the ER.
Little did I realize that this decision would lead to a series of events that would irrevocably prove that which I have always known: People are greedy poohs! And the Reason for the Season is totally lost in 21st Century America!
At 7:00PM, I am at my Father-in-Law's house. We begin talking about Christmas, and the subject comes up about the Best Buy laptop. I tell him what my plans are and he quickly informs me that an hour ago they passed by and saw 15 to 20 people in sleeping blankets out front.
That completely blew me away, could it be true? I called Grim, at first he couldn't believe it either, so he told me that he was going to get ready and just go. Meanwhile, I'm heading back to my house to get ready and await a call from him.
A few minutes later, I got the confirmation I was dreading. The line started at 5:00PM....that's a full 12 hours before the doors would open and the masses would be let inside. Some twerp showed up at 5:00 PM and now Grim tells me that at 8:15 he was number 29 in line! This was not funny.
For the next 30 minutes I cursed and moaned like a madman. I kissed my wife and daughter goodnight and I was on my way to do something I swore many, many years ago, I would never do, participate in, or even think about!
When I pull up at BestBuy around 9:00PM, the first thing I noticed was how everyone planned to cope with the cold all night. Most people had blankets, sleeping bags, Full Head and face hoodies, ski masks, some guys brought Propane radiant heaters, some people used pocket hand warmers, everyone was prepared to cope with the cold, damp night air to have the opportunity to get a good deal on something.
I sat in my lawn chair bundled up in a down filled jacket, 4 layer Cotton Hoodie, Fleece Hunting Gloves, two pairs of socks, sweater, jeans, and a very toasty warm down-filled sleeping blanket. I was SWEATING while it was 30 degrees millimeter's from my face!
Most of the people waiting were looking for one or two of the door busters. But everyone seemed particularly nice, and as the night dragged on more and more came. Grim and I were positioned in the line closest to the corner where Gloster passes. The line stretched down the side of the building to around back and around 3AM was all the way to the back of the Ashley Furniture Store! I'm guessing there were between 400 to 500 people waiting to get in at 5 AM!
Everything was going fine until a rather shady character showed up and began talking to a group of teenagers further up closer to the front of the line. This guy did not feel right and sure enough, his true colors shown when they began handing out those wonderful tickets for doorbuster items.
This guy had worked some kind of deal out with all those teenagers. You see BestBuy allows you to get one ticket for any single door buster item. You can get one ticket for each if you like, and that's exactly what these teens did. They picked out the items they wanted and gave the rest to this shady dude in a brown leather golf hat. He went to the back of the line and began SELLING THE TICKETS for 15 to 20 bucks each!
This just screwed all manner of people out of getting what they wanted, myself included. This is raw, unadulterated greed. To put it simply, it sucked and ruined things for a lot of people. Best Buy should not pass out tickets for items. They should have a lottery for each of the door busters and let people choose numbers from a hat. You have to be in line and you cannot move from your spot. This is the only fair way to achieve positive results. The ticket system is seriously flawed.
So anyway, yes, I got screwed. From there the experience got much worse. Confusion, chaos, incorrect instructions, and after spending 8 hours in the freezing night air, I did emerge from BestBuy with a laptop for my wife. It was more expensive, but in the end, was a much BETTER deal than the $379 door buster model. Grim got one too!
When I got home, all I could think about was sleep. I pondered the nights activities and looked deep inside myself to figure out why I went through all that. I did it for my wife, it definitely was not for me. I did it so she could have something nice for Christmas, something she had asked for.
I did it remembering all those early morning Saturday yard sale ventures with my Mom. I did it to remember. I'm glad I did it, but I'm glad it's over, because now I remember why I made those rules in the first place!
TF
To understand why I was sitting out in 30 degree weather Thursday Night in front of Best Buy to buy a laptop for my wife, you must understand that I LOATHE the Holiday Shopping Season.
My mother is 100% German. So I grew up dealing with her eccentricities. One of her favorite things to do to me growing up was wake me at 4:00 AM Saturday morning and drag me to every yard/garage sale in and around town. My mother LIVED for yard sales; therefore, she assumed I lived for them as well. Every weekend was the SAME routine:
4:00 AM -- WAKE UP
4:10 AM -- WAKE UP AGAIN
4:15 AM -- Dragged from Bed, Forced to dress.
4:25 AM -- Dragged to Buick.
4:30 AM -- Drive to first house
.......TIME PASSES.........
7:45 AM -- Drive to 10th House
.......TIME PASSES.........
9:30 AM Drive Home in Buick dragging Muffler.
9:45 AM UNLOAD BUICK
10:30 AM Catch last 30 Minutes of Saturday Morning Cartoons
This went on my entire childhood. And if going to every Yard Sale was not bad enough, when my Mom organized one, it was always a one woman comedy show. It amazes me that my father kept buying bigger and bigger utility sheds over the years to accommodate all the crap my mom accumulated at these yard sales. And then when Mom has one she sells the SAME CRAP that has been in storage since she purchased it two years ago at a Yard Sale!
She
She has some really nice pantries, but she will go out of her way to hide stuff. This really ticks my dad off. He gave up some 40 years ago trying to stop this behavior, he just ignored it, but you can only take so much.
If something was on sale at any of the stores, my Mom was there. She knew how to save a buck, and when Thanksgiving came, I am convinced it was my mother that coined the phrase "Black Friday", because this was like Heaven on Earth for her. She would cook for a full week for Thursday, and then Friday, it was all about shopping. You have no idea how many Friday's I was witness to sheer shopping hell in the old Tupelo or Downtown Mall's.
So when I got out on my own, I made a conscious decision that I would NEVER get involved in any of the Black Friday mess. And for years, I have followed through with that decision. My shopping gets done after Halloween, and then I pick up anything else after the first week of December, and stop all shopping a full week before Christmas.
I worked at the mall for a couple of years, and once that was over, I added this rule, avoid the BARNES Crossing area like the Plague between November 24 and January 3. The Internet has helped me greatly in keeping these rules in place. Commerce on the Internet has grown exponentially and being able to buy stuff and have it shipped is THE WAY to shop for Christmas!
But something happened to me this year. For the first time, I was breaking all the rules in a big, BIG way. I wanted to buy my wife a laptop. Now, I looked Dell over and was about to pull the trigger until I paid a visit to bfads.net
BFADS.NET lists all the Black Friday ads that will hit the paper weeks ahead of time. I found the perfect laptop on the front page of Best Buy's sales paper. $379.00 for a really nice HP laptop. Perfect for what my wife needed and it was at an outstanding price.
Now, how do I get it? Well, it's one of those door buster items that retail stores use to get people into the store where they can then turn their salesman loose to sell you crap you do not need to go along with your new laptop/computer/whatever, because that is how the big box stores make real money...addons. To get this laptop meant the unthinkable. Stand in line, early and pray I would be one of the chosen few who would be able to get this item.
I had been talking to BSIGrimreaper, and he said people would be lining up at 1 AM to get in the door. At 4:00 AM, Best Buy would hand out tickets to purchase certain items, and THEN the doors would open at 5 AM and that would be it.
Since he too was buying a laptop for his wife, he invited me to wait with him in line. I'm thinking, there is no way I am going to spend an entire morning in the freezing cold, waiting to see if I receive a blessing from the Best Buy Gods to have the privilege of purchasing a laptop. Why the hell would I want to be a slave?
Then I remembered that my wife wants to help me with our new community site. She will need a laptop to accomplish the tasks I am going to be giving her. So, reluctantly, I tell Grim that I will meet him at 1 AM with the other dim-witted freaks and we could all get Hypothermia together and make a mass trip to the ER.
Little did I realize that this decision would lead to a series of events that would irrevocably prove that which I have always known: People are greedy poohs! And the Reason for the Season is totally lost in 21st Century America!
At 7:00PM, I am at my Father-in-Law's house. We begin talking about Christmas, and the subject comes up about the Best Buy laptop. I tell him what my plans are and he quickly informs me that an hour ago they passed by and saw 15 to 20 people in sleeping blankets out front.
That completely blew me away, could it be true? I called Grim, at first he couldn't believe it either, so he told me that he was going to get ready and just go. Meanwhile, I'm heading back to my house to get ready and await a call from him.
A few minutes later, I got the confirmation I was dreading. The line started at 5:00PM....that's a full 12 hours before the doors would open and the masses would be let inside. Some twerp showed up at 5:00 PM and now Grim tells me that at 8:15 he was number 29 in line! This was not funny.
For the next 30 minutes I cursed and moaned like a madman. I kissed my wife and daughter goodnight and I was on my way to do something I swore many, many years ago, I would never do, participate in, or even think about!
When I pull up at BestBuy around 9:00PM, the first thing I noticed was how everyone planned to cope with the cold all night. Most people had blankets, sleeping bags, Full Head and face hoodies, ski masks, some guys brought Propane radiant heaters, some people used pocket hand warmers, everyone was prepared to cope with the cold, damp night air to have the opportunity to get a good deal on something.
I sat in my lawn chair bundled up in a down filled jacket, 4 layer Cotton Hoodie, Fleece Hunting Gloves, two pairs of socks, sweater, jeans, and a very toasty warm down-filled sleeping blanket. I was SWEATING while it was 30 degrees millimeter's from my face!
Most of the people waiting were looking for one or two of the door busters. But everyone seemed particularly nice, and as the night dragged on more and more came. Grim and I were positioned in the line closest to the corner where Gloster passes. The line stretched down the side of the building to around back and around 3AM was all the way to the back of the Ashley Furniture Store! I'm guessing there were between 400 to 500 people waiting to get in at 5 AM!
Everything was going fine until a rather shady character showed up and began talking to a group of teenagers further up closer to the front of the line. This guy did not feel right and sure enough, his true colors shown when they began handing out those wonderful tickets for doorbuster items.
This guy had worked some kind of deal out with all those teenagers. You see BestBuy allows you to get one ticket for any single door buster item. You can get one ticket for each if you like, and that's exactly what these teens did. They picked out the items they wanted and gave the rest to this shady dude in a brown leather golf hat. He went to the back of the line and began SELLING THE TICKETS for 15 to 20 bucks each!
This just screwed all manner of people out of getting what they wanted, myself included. This is raw, unadulterated greed. To put it simply, it sucked and ruined things for a lot of people. Best Buy should not pass out tickets for items. They should have a lottery for each of the door busters and let people choose numbers from a hat. You have to be in line and you cannot move from your spot. This is the only fair way to achieve positive results. The ticket system is seriously flawed.
So anyway, yes, I got screwed. From there the experience got much worse. Confusion, chaos, incorrect instructions, and after spending 8 hours in the freezing night air, I did emerge from BestBuy with a laptop for my wife. It was more expensive, but in the end, was a much BETTER deal than the $379 door buster model. Grim got one too!
When I got home, all I could think about was sleep. I pondered the nights activities and looked deep inside myself to figure out why I went through all that. I did it for my wife, it definitely was not for me. I did it so she could have something nice for Christmas, something she had asked for.
I did it remembering all those early morning Saturday yard sale ventures with my Mom. I did it to remember. I'm glad I did it, but I'm glad it's over, because now I remember why I made those rules in the first place!
TF
{=}http://ww1.pureupload.com/stfiles/1057/moods/happy.gif{/=}
