First experience with Black Friday

I can’t believe it’s that time of year again. However, this year I experienced something I had never taken part in before. I traveled to New York to be with family over Thanksgiving break. And at four-some obscene hour in the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law and I (my mother stayed sleeping) ventured to Wal-Mart.

She had a list and loves a challenge. I was going to be her runner.  

I was greeted at five o’clock. Doors had already been opened by a frenzied mass of hundreds of people weaving in and out and carts were stacked two or three boxes deep with toys and “big ticket items,” such as televisions and laptops.

When I arrived at the kiosk for the computer I was looking for (at 5:01 a.m.), a worn-looking customer service representative informed me, with a sly smirk, that the tickets for the computers had been given out by one in the morning. Right. Why didn’t I think to stay up all night and wait for the golden ticket? Of course.

There also was the highly caffeinated woman in front of my sister-in-law and me in the line for the newest Nintendo DS. “They wouldn’t let you leave the store and go to your cars. They timed your smoke breaks, your bathroom breaks!” She said this with inappropriate language I won’t repeat for you and in such a rapid rate that I could barely piece together what she was saying.

In the end, we scooted out an hour and a half after our “late” arrival, two Nintendos and skateboards under each arm and looking forward to going back to sleep.