In Defense of Black Friday...
While some of my fellow bloggers may be deriding the Black Friday bargain-hunters, There is another side to the story. On my old Blogspot site a few years ago, I showed the campers outside of a Best Buy waiting for Black Friday Deals. Now for a dirty little secret... I was one of them! Sure, freezing your arse off to save a few bucks seems ridiculous at first (maybe even at second or third), but there is a fun side. Fun if you are up for adventure, make an event out of it, and don't take getting that elusive $200 laptop too seriously. If you are not majorily bummed by being the 51st in line for the one-of-fifty special doorbuster. Some of us have made it a tradition for the last few years, not always camping out, but still hitting the stores early, grabbing breakfast after our hunt is over. "Hunt" is a good analogy, I may think that getting up in the wee hours to sit in a cold deer-stand hoping to maybe-perhaps bag a prize buck not my thing, but I respect you hunters that love doing it. Sometimes you bring home dinner! Sometimes I bring home a good deal. Always you bring home stories. Me, too; from the free items, to the discovery of a hot doorbuster that they were supposedly out of, to the unexpected deals not on the radar. With the hurried, frantic shopping, there were actually also quieter, more pleasant experiences as well. There is a camaraderie amongst my "hunting buddies" (bargain-hunters, that is). We have a "divide and conquer" strategy, sometimes leaving one of us to check-out while the rest head over to the next nearby store. We divy up the bills, who paid for what and owes whom, at breakfast, while sharing our stories. So don't insult Black Friday Shoppers, if it's not for you, that's fine. If you are up for it, maybe you should join us some time. Just once, so you can say you did it, even if you also say "Never again"!
PS- I do admit that the pushing of the envelope on opening times, even opening on Thanksgiving day, is getting a bit much, and I do feel for those forced to work instead of being with their families. They should get hazardous-duty pay!