Black Friday "You aren't one of THOSE people, are you?" I was recently asked.

I'm afraid I am. I usually go with my sister to search for bargains in the early morning hours on what retailers call Black Friday. She had to work today; well, I could've arranged to be there, but I wasn't sure I was up to it this year. But like the sirens call, it beckoned.

My sister, wicked woman she is, sent me to a website to tempt me. Black-Friday.net

At first I browsed, unimpressed. Surely, this year I would be warm and sleepy on that day, and I planned on being warm and sleepy in my own bed. We drove home from Thanksgiving with my family last night, and settled in.

But the ads beckoned me. I saw something for J, something that I KNOW he will like, something that wouldn't last past the first few minutes of the sale. Gift X, I'll call it, for he sometimes reads this.

My alarm went off at 4:30am. I'd been awake for a while. My thoughts were roiling with ideas; Target opened at 5, I thought. There were other places I could go; Toys R Us had Legos on sale, and American was selling flat screen TVs for cheap. But Target had Gift X. They also had some Legos on sale, and a Risk game I know the nephews would like. J thought I was getting up early to get Legos for my nephews.

I snuck out of the house and into the car. The streets were quiet, but there were others about, heading out with their shopping determination in tow. I pulled into the SuperTarget, and there were only a few people in line. The SuperTarget is new, I told myself, and few people know about it.

I jumped into line near a college student hoping for a camera, and not dressed for the cold weather, and a Mom hoping to find a Wii. We waited patiently, and as 5AM approached, I said, hopefully...."Only a few more minutes!"

The Mom looked at me, puzzled. "You do know that it opens at 6, right?"

No. No I didn't. Neither did the college student, which is why she'd not dressed to spend 75 minutes standing in the cold outside of Target. Well, I was there now. I have committed to it, I might was well execute it.

The news crew arrived and interviewed the men at the front of the line. They had gotten there at 1AM. They were snuggled in sleeping bags on top of lawn chairs, and waiting patiently to get GPS units, they explained. (Actually, if you look for shopping day coverage here, you might see me and my blue coat either standing in line or rushing into the store; they've used both pieces of video in their coverage. I was 10th in line.) (Another link here )

One of the people ahead of me was a chain smoker. It was horrible, smelly, caustic. I later overheard her say that she was from Michigan, visiting relatives. How rude is it to smoke when around other people; but she's not from around here. That explains it.

A corporate security guard came up to the doors to be let in early. He wore a short sleeved uniform. It was 21 degrees out. "You are crazy!" we told him.

He smiled. "I"m not standing outside of Target at 5 in the morning." Well, he got to go in right away, so he wasn't out for long.

He's right. But even as we stood, chilled, there is a comradeship in misery, in our hope, in our excitement. I like waiting in lines; I did it for the Star Wars movies when they were rereleased in the 1990's. I do it every year for Thanksgiving, and I'd do it for a concert or a movie that I gleefully anticipate. We talked of our plans, of the previous years where we'd waited and got some special something, of who was going to get our special gift and hypothesized about where the one item that we knew would go fast would be and how we could get it. We questioned security about where certain items were, and discussed how to get a cart to lug our items around.

I hadn't seen an ACTUAL circular for Target, so I borrowed one from my new friends and I was almost convinced that I needed a 19" LCD Hi-Def television, only on sale for $199.

Another person was getting an external hard drive. Maybe I should get one of those, I thought, thinking about how I never make backups and how I've had to break the news to devastated computer users about how their data was just GONE and nothing I could do would bring it back.

This is how these things work; people's excitement for THEIR dreams rub off on you. Before the doors finally opened, I'd spent way more in my head than I could afford.

But when the doors open, the most important thing to remember is that EVERYTHING goes quick, and once you get your special item, those other special items have already been claimed.

I ran in, grabbed a cart and zoomed down the aisle. I hurriedly launched into the department where Gift X was kept, and couldn't find it. I ran to a salesperson. "Where are they?" I demanded.

"Two or three rows past ...um...the ...." he couldn't think of the word to describe the display case, but it didn't matter, for I was already well gone from him. I'd followed his pointing and ran.

I found it. Gift X. Two on the shelves. I had one. I grabbed the other and saw a man who looked lost. "You looking for these?" I handed him it.

He lit up. "Yes! Yes! Thank you!"

You know, I think those clips you see of people biting and pulling each other's hair are only in places far away from the Midwest. We are too nice to engage in such behavior. We revel in pleasing others. Maybe it's our peasant heritage, knowing that, on arriving in this country, we had to work together to make a go of it. We've never really lost that, not here, not in Wisconsin.

So, yes, I am one of those people. I'm not sure I can change. I'm not sure I want to.

Labels: christmas, presents, shopping, thanksgiving

  ¶ 6:02 PM