Black Friday is out of control

I don't think the whole Black Friday is too bad. As I was telling my wife last night, I think most of the people waiting on line at X a.m. in the morning are lower middle class people who are trying to get something nice for family members for Christmas. If getting in line at 11 p.m. the night before to get a great deal is what they have to do, then that's what they have to do. Don't see anything wrong with that. But if you're a shopaholic . . . well, that's a different story.

 

I nearly got in a wreck last night because of this. A road that is usually wide open at midnight, when I was driving home from work, all of a sudden had a huge backup because of traffic backed up from an outlet mall onto three consecutive freeway exits. You know the people on the freeway had at least a two-hour wait to get into a store. I just don't understand it.

On the good side, I needed a Wii for my son. Stopped into a Hollywood video today where they had one for list. Bought it. Life is good.

 

"Black Friday" is a complete media concoction, dreamed up by superstore and shopping mall marketing sycophants, and inflated and hyped beyond any reason by fucking idiots on metro desks, assigning stories because their pals in display advertising tell them it will "keep the big boys happy."

No newspaper worth a shit should ever cover it, unless there's a felony assault in the queue.

 

The wife and I loaded up at 3 a.m, went to JCPennys, Wal-Mart, Sears and the PX and PXtra with my military in-laws. We had a big truck loaded down with gifts and were returning home for a well-deserved nap before work by 8. We have to be one of the lucky ones.
Then I get home, my mom has already ordered my wife a laptop the day before and ordered me a GPS because I get lost in my own house. When she sat there and 10 minutes later said "Done" I was sickened. I wish I had thought of that.

 

i went out to get a couple of things that i saw advertised

replaced my stolen ms word for my mac with an actual legit version of office (student and teacher edition) because of the one-day only $100 mail-in rebate from the apple store. (total, $58 with tax) and if you buy an older version of office and send in, you get the 2008 update for $7 when it comes out.

also, super mario galaxy at circuit city for $35 and the from earth to the moon dvd set for $15, also at cc. besides the idiot in line in front of me at cc, no problems.

 

Black Friday is racist!

 

Was at Best Buy at 3 p.m. on Thursday and we were still about 30 people back. Friggin' cold, raining. Brutal.

Got everything I needed to get, though.

 

Did you mean 3 a.m., or were you really in line 15 hours before the store opened?

 

Stores are opening at midnight. The only thing I hate more than the shoppers are the constant news reports on the day. As a news consumer, I've never gained one tiny iota of useful information or learned something I needed to know despite the heavy coverage. I know there is nothing else going on and news bosses need to please the ad people, but don't call it news. I really don't need an live copter shot to catch all the "excitement."
Twenty years ago it wasn't like this. People shopped, but now it almost seems more like the coverage of LA after the cops got acquitted for beating on Rodney King.

 

WHEN THE DOORS OPEN AT 3 A.M. WE DOMINATE!!!

 

Shopping is not news.

 

I got bored today and took a trip out to Target. It was pretty crazy in there, but was able to pick up Knocked Up for $9.99 and Elf for $5.99. I'll take two DVDs for 16 bucks any day. Also picked up a couple of DVDs my bro wanted for Christmas.