Black Friday

Every few months, I think more and more about writing blogs. I say to myself that I am finally going to commit and then the next thing you know it’s been 9 months since I last logged on and gave it a real whirl (no wonder I have no readers). Here’s my second attempt in 2012.

The holiday’s are here and black Friday madness ensued last night, I have yet to turn on the TV today to see how many people were trampled or shot, all of this fun to save that 30% on the item you really didn’t need but it was such a great deal you braved the crowds anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I love the black Friday madness and for many years I braved the crowd in search of the same saving’s. 

For me (and maybe I’m alone here) black Friday prepping is good fun, you get all the sales ads, and store maps when provided and you map out your plan of attack. It’s like prepping for a pirate attack on another ship; this is real strategy in play here. My girlfriend and I would look at the times the sales started, decide where we needed to be when and then divide our lists and conquer the store and meet up at a rendezvous point and sort out the booty. Last year, my husband decided he needed more excitement in his life (HA! He wrestles crocodiles and handles venomous snakes for a living) he wanted to go with me in lieu of my girlfriend. We had some friends keep an eye on the kids and out we went, he loved all the action and was super psyched by the madness he saw. 

Last year in our local Wal-Mart super store there was a near beat down over some 600ct sheets, and this year had the same. These women are pushing and screaming and cursing in the most colorful word selection I have heard in many years, the F bomb was dropped so many times in those 1-2 minutes that I felt like I was watching a Quentin Tarantino film.  I heard but steered far away from some commotion over a GPS unit, the line was half the length of the store. What amuses me is that the stores get away with causing this chaos.

 In years passed there was semblance of organization, the workers would pass out tickets for the amount they had in stock and when they ran out of tags the end of the line would usually disappear, meaning that you didn’t have people pushing and shoving and screaming and trampling each other over that 89$ GPS unit. I am also in shock that the sales now start as early as 8pm, I mean on the one hand YAY not having to wake up at 3am to get your shopping on, but on the other hand, way to cut into the family time superstore madmen. I personally did the least amount of shopping in my history of black Friday and managed to only be out for a total of 1 hour and spent 30 min of that hour standing in line to pay. Online shopping is so much easier.

As my kids are getting older, I am finding that the need to black Friday shopping is diminishing. I have great, amazing, wonderful kids. I know every mother believes that about her own children, I am not delusional they can be little butts a lot too, and believe me I am the first to admit that. My kids rarely have a giant massive Christmas wish list. They do not ask for a lot and as they get older they as for less. The items on my children’s wish list these days rarely provide an argument for me to brave the black Friday crowds; they are never the things on sale or not a sale I can’t find online. Of course I will regret posting this by next year because they will suddenly “have to have” some ridiculous list of items and I will be back out there beating people down to get them.