Getting up at 4:30 a.m. is literally, for the birds. As I dreamt away my Thanksgiving dinner, hundreds of hurried shoppers, honking cars and fender benders staked their chairs (and tents) outside popular brick-and-mortar stores.
Yes, I’m one of those crazy people that go shopping on Black Friday. It’s fun.
Unlike some hardened Black Friday shoppers, I only stand in line at Office Max to get the cheap blank DVDs and 8 gigabyte SD cards for my camera. No fights, no reason for the cops to come out and break up arguments over who’s standing in line, just some brainless questions from my line mates. One girl in line asked a man behind her “do you know if a laptop comes with a battery charger and USB ports?” I think he mumbled yes. I buried my head to hide my laughter.
But back to the lines outside of stores that formed in the early evening hours of Thanksgiving. Local news media began reporting of some scuffles outside local retailers. Including an incident outside Toys R Us on Grape Road which involved a woman getting into line by saying she can stand wherever she wanted.
Words were exchanged. The Mishawaka Police were called. The officer told the woman she had to get in line or leave, per story policy. Some people feel they are entitled, or even privileged to cut in front of everyone. It’s the entitlement culture we live in nowadays.
The line was nearly 1,000 people deep according to some reports at Toys R Us. Lines were also extensive at Best Buy, Target and Kohl’s as eager shoppers hurried their way to get big bargains on everything from laptops and desktops, flat panel TVs, video game systems and clothing. Some retailers had slashed prices as much as 75% for early bird specials to lure shoppers in to stores.
The line outside of Office Max extended to almost Hobby Lobby before the doors open 7 a.m. However, much too my dismay, someone did crash the line after attacking several people, including my dad who skillfully ducked out of the way to avoid getting whipped in the face by this insensitive sort.
The line crasher?
It was a bird who took “the early bird special” a little too seriously.
Yes, a moment of humor when a little bird decided he wanted in on the specials—perhaps the digital camera to put a Most Wanted Cat poster in nests across the greater Mishawaka-South Bend area. Or maybe he wanted a GPS unit so he can plot his way south for the winter and return home in the spring.
Either way, it was a humorous start to my Black Friday shopping. A new one for the books that’s for sure.
Office Max wasn’t my only foray into the wildness of Black Friday. There was a brief stop at Meijer, then home before making a return trip to the mall.
And this is where my short-tempered self wanted to fling my heavy J.C. Penny bag at a bunch of folks who think its ultra cool to stop in the middle of the way to answer a cell phone or greet that long lost relative (not seen since yesterday afternoon) in the middle of the mall making dozens of hurried shoppers veer off into unsuspecting shoppers coming out of the Finish Line and trample over the kid in the stroller only to fall into a
store causing a domino effect knocking down patrons and cardboard displays.
Okay, the last part about the stroller and dominos didn’t really happen but the other stuff did. But that’s all part of the adventure.
And the good thing about all this is: I’m almost done with shopping. So it was all worth it in the end.
The early bird special cometh
Published: Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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