Capitalists gone wild! - OR - Never. EVER. again. (long)

The BBQ Pit
1

So while cleaning up for our Thanksgiving day guests yesterday morning, I find a recent newspaper that has a Best Buy advert in it. On the front page, several DVD’s are pictured at pretty ridiculously good prices, and three of them are movies my daughters like but we don’t have, or only have on VHS. I note that the ad says “6 hour sale: 6 AM - 12 PM” Fine by me, I have to be up early anyway.

Hmm… I’ll have to see if I can get there early in the morning, I think. Get a couple early Christmas presents. I’ve never done the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping thing before, but I’m a sucker for a good deal. I was not at all prepared for what happened.

So, despite a triptophan overdose from the turkey, I do actually manage to haul my butt out of bed to get in the car and blearily drive to Best Buy, dropping off a video rental on the way even! So, the sun still under the horizon and morning fog in the chill air, I arrive at the store at about 5 minutes before 6, and the first thing I notice is the parking lot - fuller than I’ve ever seen it, even in full daytime.

At first I didn’t see many people, though, and then I realized why, as I drove around the back to park. The line to get in stretched around the building, past the loading dock. The last time I saw a line that long, it was to see Fellowship of the Ring at Cinerama on opening day last year. But this wasn’t a movie… it was a store!

OK… I park, and take my place in line (!) to get in the store. There is someone singing karaoke to a Bon Jovi song loudly, which made it all the more surreal. After a few minutes, the line begins to move. I get in the store pretty quickly, and I’m thinking, oh, this won’t be so bad, figuring I’ll just grab the DVD’s, maybe see if there’s any cheap PC games, then head out. Easy-peasy. Uh-huh.

I get in and it’s a madhouse. People rushing around with big carts, already full of stuff after only a few minutes. I struggle through the crowds to the DVD section, where there are great bins full of the DVD’s I’m looking for. Surrounding the bins like leopards around a kill, men and women already laden with boxes dig deep into the piles of movies, grabbing left and right. “D’you see a Independence Day?” “Where’s Bug’s Life?! The ad said they’d have Bug’s Life!” A sharp eye shows me that one movie I want is on a nearby rack, and I grab it unmolested. I glance into one of the bins, and amidst the churning hands and packages I see another one I wanted flash by, and I reach in to grab it quick. I’m not sure, but I think someone growled at me as I pulled it out.

One more… the elusive Toy Story 2. The ad said it was on sale, but nobody can find one. Everyone’s seems desperate to find one. I stand back a moment, and think. Then I go away from the bins and wander into the Kids’ section of the DVD shelves proper. Almost nobody there. Less than 30 seconds of looking and I see them… 3 or 4 copies of Toy Story 2, sitting peacefully on a shelf. I smile and take one. 3 DVD’s in hand, I breathe a small sigh of relief. Mission accomplished; I have what I came for.

In a gesture of goodwill, I go back to the bargain bins up front and, loud enough for everyone to hear, I say “There’s a few copies of Toy Story 2 in with the other Disney DVD’s, if you’re still looking for one.” For my pains, I get mostly ignored, except for one woman who looks at what I have in my hand and glares. If looks could disembowel… I take the cue and just back away.

In my biggest mistake of the morning, I look at the cashiers’ line and see that it’s pretty short still. I decide I have a little time to browse the PC games and CD’s. I head to the back of the store and spend a total of 10 or 15 minutes just looking at what’s on sale in those sections. Nothing I can’t live without, so I decide it’s time to go. In the intervening time, the lines for the cashiers have stretched to the back of the store, and are getting longer by the moment. I jump in back of one, only to be asked if I have any computer hardware or software to buy. No? Then my line is on the other end of the store. Damn.

I go to the other end of the store and get in that line, also stretching through the store. And it’s not moving. Finally, after several minutes, it starts to inch forward. I’m behind a woman who feels the need to look at every display and gift card as we wind through the store, and in front of a woman who is purshasing a large microwave but has no cart, and is advertising the fact that she has no caart in which to carry her large microwave to anyone who will listen. And heck, anyone who won’t listen too. I stand between them, quietly holding my three DVD’s, moving forward as I can. I am, after all, a patient man.

45 minutes later we’re in the home stretch; the final twist in the cashiers’ register line. Loud music is playing, of several different genres. TVs play movies clips silently, staring down at us in our waiting game. I can see the DVD bin that was once so heavily fought over, now abandoned, a dessicated corpse of its former self, the level of DVD’s in it now about 1/4 of its previous level. I think they were all Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, or maybe that’s all I could see. Blue shirts are everywhere. One of the employees rings a bell near the registers, and all the other employees in earshot yawp: “WOOHOOOO!” Around the store, customers continue to mill around, charging their strange carts this way and that. It’s 7 AM and I should have been asleep. My senses are overwhelmed.

An employee points me to an open register and I move. I get to the register and hand the friendly young girl my purchases. “Find everything you needed?” she asked. “Uh-huh,” I nodded back, dazed. She was charmed, I’m sure. I have a moment of panic as she rings it up and all the DVD’s show as full price. She quotes me the total and I think It was ALL IN VAIN!, then she says “Oh wait…” as the machine retroactively subtracts my discount for pain and suffering. The new price is, at least, what I expected to pay. I’ve almost forgotten my PIN number and the touchpad won’t cooperate, but I finally get it and I’m given my receipt and go. I hold up my bag dumbly for the checker at the exit. She tells me to have a nice day.

“I will,” I say as I exit the madhouse for the cool air of morning. “I will.”

I’ve apparently led a sheltered life. I never knew that it was a tradition for Americans to go apeshit on the day after Thanksgiving and engage their predatory insticts on the various product offerings of major retail chains. I never knew that, on this day, it became acceptable again to shove and complain loudly and growl. I’m surprised someone didn’t leave that store with a bite wound, with some of the behavior I witnessed there.

I suppose, since most Americans don’t hunt nearly as much as they used to for survival, this is an outlet for some primal aggressive tendencies, or something. That’s what my rational side says, anyway. My emotional side is still cowering in the corner in shock. It has only one thing to say.

Not next year. Not. Ever. Again

2

Good Christ! The scene you describe is just shameful. It doesn’t surprise me, though. It really reminds me of college students trying to get access to a keg or when they hand back problem sets outside the lecture hall in a bin for A-K and L-Z. All the same, it speaks for a lack of perspective on the part of everyone involved.

Who was it here who used the word “Giftmas?” That’s what the holiday has become (duh!). When I’ve had the TV on in the last few weeks, annoying holiday-themed music comes on and stupid themes abound in commercials. I used to like this time of year, even when I knew how much commercial bullshit was to be expected. Now it just outweighs everything good that has to do with christmas.

…which isn’t to say that the contemporary aspects of the Christmas Eve church service and that sickening phenomenon known as ICICLE LIGHTS doesn’t contribute to the downfall.

I’m back in my home town of Fargo, ND this week for Thanksgiving. Although I’m going back to Connecticut tomorrow, it’s amusing that today is such a prime shopping day considering that all that separates the current weather conditions from a raging blizzard is the absence of snowfall.

It would seem that the gods are angry.

3

I find it astonishing that you would go to all that trouble to save some money on DVDs. At full price they would be what, $60? Frankly, I wouldn’t go through that to get three DVDs for * free. * My time is worth more than I’m saving, not to mention my peace of mind.

Fun story, though.

4

You couldn’t pay me to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. It’s lucky you didn’t lose a hand.

5

Thanks… I saved about $30-35 on the DVD’s I bought, but believe me, I won’t be doing it again. I just never imagined it could get that bad. Now that I know, I’m not going back. They’d have to pay me to do it, and even then I’d have to think about it.

I felt especially bad for the blue-shirted Best Buy employee who, while directing customers to where the end of the line was, told me it was his first day there. Gawd. I’d have run screaming from there if I found out that was what my job was going to be like. He has admirable fortitude.

6

You went shopping on Black Friday? Beginner!

:smiley:

7

chuckles I know… I’ve been initiated into the mysteries now. :smiley:

8

I saw the exact same thing outside the Best Buy in Madison this morning. My sister and I got there about 6:30 AM which was way too late to drive anywhere near the store.
We drove away, filled my tank at the PDQ and munched a couple of donuts. Then we headed for Circuit City. which opened at 7 AM.

We got there just as the doors opened, and we came from the other side of the building than the line that had been waiting. We started to walk in (there was plenty of room, it was a very orderly line) when a woman objected to us breaking the line. “Some people have been waiting more than an hour,” she said. While I hesitated and pondered the morality of it, my sister said, “That’s their problem. They should have known when the store opened,” and cruised right in. So I followed.
I was has shopping for a big ticket item, a rear screen projection TV. Since I had actual questions to ask, the sales manager said, “Come back after 9:00 AM.”

9

If this astounded you, avoid shopping the week before Christmas and a few days after. And, even more importantly, DO NOT attempt to return something immediatly after Christmas, unless you like waiting in lines a mile long…(slight exaggeration, but close enough).

10

We have nothing like “Black Friday” in Canada. I went to Wal-Mart this morning at 6:15 and missed out on everything I wanted to get.

I will never, ever shop again on this day. Ever.

11

That’s what we do, Ginger. Just avoid the whole mess.

12

‘Pin Number’? ‘Touch Pad’? I have never had to use these in a store in my life. When I do use my card it’s a case of writing my signature on a little piece of paper. Is this an American thing - you enter your pin number at stores as well as at ATMs?

Why don’t we have it in britain? It would be a hell of a lot easier than having to replicate my horrible signature.

13

Basically, yes. It’s a fairly recent development, but more and more stores now let you pay with your ATM card at the register, deducting the cash directly from your account. Even the McDonalds near my house has 'em, now.

14

I went to a housewares store today to get a great deal on a Calphalon stock pot (/drool) after yesterday’s cooking proved how completely inadequate my current stock pot is. However, the store wasn’t open until 8, so until then, I browsed the nearby Best Buy, and saw much the same sort of thing (minus the bin-diving for DVDs, I think). I found a David Sedaris book in the book section that I knew my sister would like, but wouldn’t brave the insane line just for that. There was a checkout stand located immediately in front of the video cards, which was the other item I was interested in, so I couldn’t even compare specs on those easily. I said screw it, walked down to the bookstore nearby - which was nearly empty - and got an early bird special discount on what I bought. No David Sedaris book for my sis yet though, sigh.

For the ultimate in consumer horror (and difficulty in finding parking), this shopping center had the Best Buy located right next to a Toys-R-Us. :eek:

15

I’m curious, were you guys actually surprised that your shopping experiences were like this the day after Thanksgiving?:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

C’mon, what did you think, that everyone would just loll around in bed and watch TV all day?

16

I wasn’t surprised. The only reason I went out was because I wanted that stock pot. It was calm in the housewares store and the bookstore.

Best Buy and Toys-R-Us (well, from what I saw through the window) were insane, though, and I didn’t even see any decent deals in Best Buy that would bring in the hordes like that.

As for lolling in bed, I did stuff the rest of the day that I do, oh say, any other day that I don’t work. Housework, read books, watched movies, and so on. I’d assume other folks would be able to entertain themselves similarly on their day off as well.

17

Wow. That makes my day seem like a walk in the park. I drove to Old Salem to get some gifts from the Winkler Bakery around noon today. The line was out the door. I just waited thirty minutes to get in and grabbed everything I needed (except one thing) and was out in another ten minutes. Very orderly line, no shoving, cussing, disorderliness, or other ruffianism. Of course, there were “Moravians” everywhere to put the kibosh on that kind of thing.

Even so, I won’t be braving those crowds again. The store area of the bakery is tiny.

18

Oh, and Best Buy is the Official Store of Satan ™. Anyone who goes there deserves what they get.

19

Now come on, Ginger - You and I both know what Boxing Day (December 26th to the rest of you) is like.

I was working retail one year, at a Footlocker to be exact and was amazed at the people pressing in on the doors before we even pulled them back. We opened early that day, and it was just a wave of humanity. It was insane. People were rude and angry.

I just stood and worked the cash for eleven hours straight. Salespeople stood on the benches just to stay out of the way.

It boggled the mind to see it. :eek:

20

This is why I stayed home (well, my home and then my sister’s home) and watched movies all day. I used to work retail.