I Love the Smell of Commerce in the Morning

Outside of Best Buy - 5:03 am, Black Friday

Pretty much everyone is well aware of what Black Friday is. To be exact, it is the day that most every retailer goes from being in the red to the black, meaning it's the day they officially start making money. It is also the day after Thanksgiving every year, and is the single biggest shopping day of the year.

My Mom and I go every year. It isn't necessarily that we go to actually purchase things - a lot of it just has to do with experiencing the event. It's really fun to watch people go absolutely insane over stuff. That's right, I'm calling it all stuff. Basically the day is the one day of the year where it is perfectly acceptable to act insane and blow money right and left with no thoughts towards budgeting or anything of that sort. Essentially, it's the commerce equivalent of Thanksgiving. One day a year you can go overboard, and the rest of the time you are attempting to make up for that one day.

I do buy things, don't get me wrong - I normally buy a few DVD's or go for whatever is free (last year I picked up Ahead Nero 10 for free, which is the best price ever), but some people are just driven insane by the savings. A few years back, I saw a man walk out with no less than 7 DVD players. I would really love to know what he is going to do with 7 DVD players. It's things like that...the insanity...that make people bewildered about this wondrous day. I occasionally sarcastically say "that is such a good deal, I think I'll buy it again" when I see a fantastically priced DVD or CD I already have. I say it jokingly, not actually intending to do this. But people do in fact do this.

Inside Best Buy - 5:10 am, Black Friday

I am also very entertained by the fact that this is in Alaska, where it is obviously going to be cold in late November, yet people stay out in front of stores for over 12 hours so they can get savings. I hope those savings are fantastic, because you'll need that money to pay for your treatments for frostbite. But anyways, enough complaining about people's insanity. I included three pictures of the massive lines. My niece Sophie came up to me and asked me what I was taking a picture of during the last picture, and I simply told her "I like taking pictures of crazy people." Amazingly enough a woman in the ridiculously huge line laughed and said "it's true." I thought that was a fun little anecdote, and at least it makes people realize that what they do is pretty crazy.

Inside Wal-Mart - 6:20 am, Black Friday

I ended up picking up Knocked Up, Crank, Season 10 of South Park, and Season One of Rescue Me for $40, which is way better than the probably $80 to $100 I would have spent otherwise. It was a solid day of shopping, and as per usual it was tremendously entertaining. I can't wait for next year, even though it will be more of the same. The best thing is, I think people just go to go at this point, not because any of the deals are really THAT spectacular or any of the products for sale are that fantastic. Maybe I missed something, but it was pretty light in the high end items from what I saw. Maybe next year will be different, but I think I'm counting on way too many maybes at this point. The only thing that isn't unsure is the fact that I will assuredly be there. Maybe that makes me crazy too...but maybe I'm OK with that.