Black Friday is out of control

Went out on my first Black Friday this year. Made the trip to the local outlet mall that had most of its stores open at midnight from Thanksgiving going into Friday.


It was just as crazy as I thought it would be. The mall even hired a DJ and set up a gigantic booth with speakers so loud you could clearly hear it from where it was set up to the other side of the outdoor mall which was at least a quarter mile away. Loved hearing and seeing teen girls dance to Solja Boy at one in the morning.

Luckily, I got what I went for and got out of there quick enough. Won't be doing that any time soon.

 

$2.50 for dozens of DVD titles at Wal-Mart. Was an absolute zoo, but I couldn't sleep so I decided to grab some coffee and venture into the city. Wasn't worth fighting through thousands of people at 4 AM, although I picked up a bunch of titles that I've been wanting to add to my collection but never have, including Spiderman 1 and 2, King Kong, Miami Vice, Walk the Line, Training Day, Surf's Up, etc. Also picked up a Sopranos season for $15.

I drove by Best Buy and the line was wrapped around the building and almost into the street. A few thousand easy. Absolutely insane.

 

You mean to tell us you looked through the selection and didn't grab "The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave"? That's always the first DVD I see at Walmart, usually peeking through that overflowing collection of crap in front of the entertainment section.

 

I have never shopped on Black Friday before, but this year, we're getting big-ticket items -- computers for the higher-tech-than-me kids -- and the prices really were very good (and the best ones were not available on line -- I checked). I didn't really know what to expect. I got out to Circuit City at about 4 a.m., expecting to see maybe 10-15 people waiting out there. Instead there was a huge crowd. When the door opened, it looked and sounded like the Who concert in Cincinnati. As people were trying to cram themselves through the door, you'd hear screams and cries of pain and ``I can't move!'' Oh, the humanity!

That said, I managed to squeeze myself near the front of the line for the desktop I was there to get and, yes, I got it. But I'm never doing that again. Ever.

 

I wouldn't have last year, but one of my interns came up with the idea of doing a Black Friday story from the perspective of the employees who have to deal with getting up at like 3 a.m. and dealing with the mad rush of customers.

Standard "Black Friday" story? Fuhgedaboutit. Slightly offbeat version? Different story.