Today (the day after Thanksgiving), is known as "black friday." Supposedly because this is the day that stores typically become profitable. They are no longer in the red.
In what has become a tradition, my mother and I went to Best Buy. They had quite a few deals that we took advantage of. I picked up a Toshiba Laptop for $499, some wireless hardware for $20, some DVD+r's for $3, and a 160gb Western Digital Hard Drive for $30. My mom picked up a few of the same, as well as some DVD players and some other electronics. Since Kathy is in from Michigan, she decided to join us to pick up some deals.
We arrived at around 4:00am, and we were about the 50th person in line. The person in the front of the line had been camped out since 11:00pm. They had sleeping bags and blankets spread out on the side walk. By the time the store opened, the line stretched to the back of the side of the store, the whole way to the 172 bridge. Back there it curved back, came up the sidewalk back to the front of the store, and went across the entire parking lot. There were literally hundreds of people in line, and it was probably more than a quarter of a mile long.
When we entered the store, the employees were all lined up and were clapping as we walked in. Since there were three of us, we had formulated a plan based on what we needed, and based on the map of the store. I got the networking kits and the DVD's right away. Then I jumped in the computer line since I saw that it was moving so fast. Buy the time Mom and Kathy caught up with me, the computer line had easily over 100 people in it. While I was in line, I walked by the empty shelves where the 160gb hard drives were. Everyone had purchased those right away. I lucked out, because a Best Buy employee walked over and put 1 more on the shelf, I asked him for it and he handed it to me. I waited about another hour to get the laptops and check out, and met up with Mom and Kathy at the front of the store as they were completing their checkout. We were out of the store by 8:08.
Now everyone needs to spend a few hours filling out rebate forms...
posted @ Friday, November 26, 2004 2:41 PM