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As those of us in America know, the day after the fourth Thursday in November is called Black Friday. This is the Friday where stores offer kind of meh quality things like televisions, tablets and other electronics at such a huge discount that people feel they need to line up seven days ahead of time to be sure they get one. I'm not one for Black Friday sales because it usually meant waking up obscenely early in the day to get in line and try to buy what you want. If I did go out on Black Friday, it was usually later in the day after everyone had gotten what they wanted and was back at home asleep, dreaming how to use five days worth of Turkey leftovers.
This year though I braved the crowds a little earlier than I would have if there was something I wanted to buy that was not a doorbuster. The first place I go to is Target. Having looked at the Target ad the night before there were only a few things I wanted like DVDs and an X-Box 360 game. It was noon when I got there and the place was still somewhat a madhouse. I see that they set up a sort of cardboard display with little cubbies that had the DVD's/Blu-Rays that they really needed to move, like they had over the last few years. I find the $10 copy of Monster's University, grab it and make my way through the middle cart path of the store to electronics. Ugh, electronics was an even bigger madhouse than the front of the store. I was going to buy one of the Call of Duty Black Ops titles, but the two women who were working electronics were swamped with people and I really did not want to have to fight through that whole thing. I wander around and look at the DVD's they have on sale that were not up front and find they have the entire Back to the Future trilogy on sale for $12. I stand there and look at it, and then decide against it. I wander through the back of electronics and look at the televisions they have for sale that were not marked down. I'm saving up what I can each month so I can buy one for my bedroom and watch the DVD's I have and play the games I want without having to contend with interruptions by nephew, animals and family members that need things done that can be done by them or can wait a few minutes. The crowd at the electronics check out area has not let up so I go to the far side of the video games section to see what they might have for their $20 versions of PS3 or 360 games that have sold a lot. Then I turn the corner back to the cart path and encounter an endcap of the newer Call of Duty titles for sale. I find Black Ops 2 for the X-Box 360 and I head to the checkout.
For some reason I decide to buy the game in Electronics and the movie in the front check out. There's a nice young lady that I see working in that area from time to time that says "Hi" to me while the other, more senior employee, who seems to have a voice that is a cross between Oscar the Grouch and a synthizer with a broken speaker, rings me up. I swipe me debit card and sign the screen and I am on my way to the front. This is where I made one mistake. The front check lanes are even more crowded than they were when I got there about thirty minutes ago. They have a young lady I like to call 'a cuter Taylor Swift' directing people to lanes; a thing that more stores seem to be doing now. I am directed to a lane where there is a slot open and I wait in line, and wait and wait. I feel a headache coming on. I want to scream out "I just have one thing and I have cash. Who wants to help me?!" Instead I stand there on line while the cashier is explaining something in Spanish to the lady who she's ringing up. I know very little Spanish so I do not know what the problem is. Meanwhile there are lanes to my left and right that are moving rather quickly. It is at that point that I see my favorite cashier in the whole store has her line empty and I jump over to hers. The 'a cuter Taylor Swift' says something about being in the wrong line and that she is sorry. I tell her not to worry because she cannot control what people understand. My favorite checker takes my DVD and scans it, gives me my total and I hand her a twenty dollar bill and she gives me change. Total time spent in there about an hour, but it felt like three.
After making a stop at the PetSmart in the same shopping center as the Target, and buying two cases of assorted canned Friskies cat food. I decide to make a donation to their holiday drive. For five dollars (and Tax) I can buy not only a stuffed animal to be donated to a local children's charity, but I also get the warm fuzzy feeling of 10% of my purchase going to help animals in need. In my head I'm thinking 'Twofer all right!' My only complaint about PetSmart was that the music they had going over the speakers was too loud and was echoing throughout the store. By now, the headache is going in full force.
The last stop I make is to the local Professional Beauty Supply house not too far from the shopping center. I know this place will be somewhat saner since it is not open to the public (only licensed beauty professionals and cosmetology school students may shop there). Most of these beauty supply houses never have Black Friday sales; they usually have some sort of winter 'Thank you sale' in December, but this year the ones I go to have Friday sales going on. I looked in the guide they mail me every month when I got it in late October and they only had a two page spread of stuff. Lots of lightener from various companies, some of the gel nail polish set boxes (one UV one LED), and a few tools like flat irons, and driers. In the bottom right hand corner of the spread there is possibly the best thing you could on as a starting hairstylist, a Peanut clipper/trimmer. Many years ago when I was going to beauty school one of the higher level students had one of these and she let us borrow it from time to time when we were working on clients. The best part was that it was $35 instead of the usual $50. While I'm at the supply house I look around at the various products they have on clearance along with the six foot by about eight feet tall section of wall that has little metal baskets mounted on it with assorted round brushes and regular brushes. I never realized how big round brushes could get or the variety in the type of bristles you could get. I find the brush I need to keep practicing and go to the check out. As I am working my way to the check out I notice that I have an overwhelming need to pee. As I am being rung-up the woman who is helping me is making small talk and I can't hear her over the din of noise someone who has brought their kids along with them to the store. They could not have been more than about five to eight years old. I complete my transaction and I finally get to go home.
Saturday
I was looking at Facebook the night before and saw that my local comic book store was having a sidewalk sale. By the time I got to looking at the post they were closed for the day on Friday but the sale was going on all day Saturday as well. Younger brother and I had to go grocery shopping in that same shopping center so I ask him if we could make one other stop to the Comic Book Store so I can look at the sidewalk sale. He says okay and stays in the car while I look at the statues (some good stuff, but not within my budget), the 75% off trades (not a lot of stuff there), the quarter boxes, and about six comic long boxes filled with $5 comic related shirts. In the quarter boxes I hit pay dirt with about eighteen issues of Marvel Comics' Groo the Wanderer. They were in what I like to call "reading shape", and although they didn't have the issue #1 of the book, I still bought them. As I am thumbing through the boxes of comics, I hear the conversation going on between the three employees that are keeping watch over everything. I know one of those employees was the owner's wife, one was a new guy and one was the owner's twenty year old daughter. She was kind of cute, had dyed her hair a multitude of vivid colors ( I hope it was professionally done) and she seemed very full of energy; like she had just downed a four pack of regular Red Bull, some Espresso from the Starbucks not too far away and had taken some ADD medication as well. Other than the eighteen Groo comics, I also picked up a $5 shirt. I give everything to the lady at the end of the line (owner's wife) and she says to take the card she gives me to the register and then bring back the receipt once I had paid. The cost for all 19 items with tax was just over $10. I take the receipt back out to the table and show it to her and get my bag of stuff. Then it is back into the car and home again hoping that I did not spend too much time and the ice cream sandwiches we bought from the grocery did not melt too much. I did not open the shirt until I got home that night. The shirt had Storm from the X-Men (I don't know which adjective team she is on now) and I was hoping that it had a few of the other X-Men on it, but it was just her. I'm okay with that though because it is a nice shirt.
Overall, the experience I had on Saturday, outweighed the sheer amount of nonsense I put up with on Black Friday.
Here's hoping that 2014 is good for us all.
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