Ok, I have never, ever gone shopping on Black Friday. We all know what Black Friday is, it is the day after Thanksgiving that marks the beginning of the Christmas Shopping Experience with exceptional deals on a "limited number" of items. Limited Number is the operative word there, because each store has only 4 of those really cool cameras or MP3 Players you want and oh wait, you have to be there at 5am to get it and pray you are the lucky first 4 in the store... yeah, my definition of fun!
Well my wonderful husband has never, ever heard of orwent or even paid attention to Black Friday in his life. He is one of those sheltered individuals who while growing up never, ever had to work fast food or retail in order to survive in this world, so he had NO idea what implications Black Friday held. I on the othe r hand have had to struggle my way up the food chain and work myself to the bone in retail and the food industry so I know and have worked my share of many, many Black Fridays. Soooo the idea of going out on that day to me is an extreme nightmare that holds and carries a lot of bad memories of miserable , grumpy, rude people. That day is the worst day for any individual who has to work customer service for the public and I respect these individuals who have to and are forced into waking up at 3 am to get to work by 5 to "WELCOME" the miserable holiday shoppers. Ok, so... Thursday we get a paper while out doing the last minute shopping for Thanksgiving and my wonderful husband notices all of the "GREAT SALES" that are happening on Friday. I just shake my head at him and say no, he does not want to go and try to get some of the great deal. There was nothing we could not live without and although they were incredible deals, I tried to warn him that he did not want to embark on that road that it would not be a pleasant journey. I tried to relive some of my nightmare experiences to him and tell him that it just is not worth it. He of course just did not beleive it. He could not beleive people would line up outside of stores at 4:00 am to wait for the 5 am opening.. I kept telling him "yes honey, there are those people out there, and yes they are serious shoppers". He insisted that we were going to get up at 3:30 today and drudge out to JC Penney's to get this really great deal on a Christmas Tree... yup, you read that right, my husband wanted to try to get one of the what maybe 10 Christmas trees available at JCP at the 5am opening. I tried my best to discourage him but he would not give in...he wanted to go. He also had a list of other stores he wanted to visit that had really great deals also. Yes, you heard me my husband had shopping list of items he wanted to try to get on Black Friday and wanted to get up at 3:30 so we could be there in plenty of time for the 5am opening!! Not wanting to miss my husbands "virgin black friday experience" and wanting to be the supporting wife, I agreed to get up with him also and hold his hand through this experience. So he re wrote his shopping list with each item he wanted to look at from each store and we went to bed about 11:30pm.
Well the alarm went off at 3:30 am and needless to say I hit the snooze twice before actually getting up. Eddie was a bit slow to rise, but I did get up and was showered first. Eddie has probably never in his life been up at that time in the morning, me on the other hand have experienced it on to many occasions in my life! Of course the dogs were not to happy about us waking them up at that hour either, Nana was quite confused! We did manage to get out of the house at about 4:35am so we would still at least get there by 5am. Eddie said, there is no way they will sell out of Christmas Trees that early right? I told him he just does not realize , but I did not want to break his bubble. We drove up in the parking lot at a bout 5am on the dot and the parking lot was already partially full and there were people RUNNING to the door. Eddie was shocked, could not beleive it..!! He was laughing.. I just sat there and said "honey I warned you"...so we got out of the truck and walked "briskly" toward the doors, there was a "herd" of people pushing around us...as soon as we got in the door we saw 10 people pulling "Christmas Tree" boxes (the one we wanted) to the check out.. Eddie started to pananic, he immediately asked where they found them and the guy answered him, "around the corner, but they were going fast". That is when we I saw the change in Eddie, he was a man on a mission. His eyes bobbed from side to side and his feet carried him around the cornter...to his amazement there were "tons" of people surrounding the Christmas Trees all claiming thier prize. He looked at all the "other boxes" but there were NONE left of the one he wanted... like a kid who just lost his puppy he just stood there in disbeief. He looked at his watch and said.."honey it is 5:03am" ..I tried to console him with the "I told you so loook" but it did not help. There were a couple other items he wanted to look a there so we meandered through the store like a deer lost an amusement park. We walked in circles like the rest of the herd looking for that "one" item!! We did manage to get 2 of the FREE (my favorite price) miniture Mickey snow Globes that JC Penney was giving away to the first so many customer. Oh and they have the year "2006" on them, I figure it is a commerative gift for Eddie to remember his first Black Friday experience.
Not to be completely out done, Eddie still had a list of other stores that he wanted to trudge through in hopes of better luck. I tried to explain to him that all the good things he was looking for are gone now.. he inisted it was only 5:30am and that I had to be wrong... (yeah right!). So we headed off to Best Buy...hmmmm, let me tell you that was an even better Black Friday Expereince for Eddie....we got the parking lot and it was COMPLETELY FULL not a space to be had so Eddie did what any guy with a 4WD would do , jumped a curve and parked on the grass...yup, like a true Redneck. Anyway we got into Best Buy, almost being trampled in the process and Eddie just stood there in amazement at the people and the spectacle. I just had to laugh, but again, all I could do is say "I told you so". We did find a few things at Best Buy, not the big ticket items that he was looking for but none the less some nice concillation prizes. So we go to find the checkout, a whole new experience I tell you!! They had a line that was roped off that ran all the way to the back of the store, winding in and out of the refridgerator section, vaccuum section.. and so forth, you get the idea. WE stood in line for 45 minutes !!! But Eddie was proud of his few accomplishment. After Best Buy, he took us to Radio Shack which was a very pleasant experience...almost no one was there and we got in and out in no time! After that I was hungry, so it was a quick stop at the Waffle house for Breakfast/ Lunch at 7:30am ish....it was a wonderful meal. I know lots of people dont like Waffle house but I'm a big fan! So after that I figured we'd go home, no... Eddie was on a roll, we went to Home Depot (our date place- he did get a ladder he wanted there at least and I got some very pretty Poinsetta's) Walgreens, CVS, and Albertsons... for just a few more items that he wanted to look at! He was on a roll.... So finally after that we went home. Although the day was kind of a disappointment as for getting the items he wanted, we did manage to find a few good deals (door busters is what the stores called them..lol) and we had a blast. It was great watching Eddie on a mission and experiencing the whole Black Friday Festivities with him.
Although I thought this years experience would cause Eddie to swear off Black Friday next year , I was wrong.. my wonderful husband is already planning next years adventure. His plan for next year, get there at least 30 minutes before the store opens!! Hey, gotta love him.....lol
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