Black Friday Failure

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year, inviting all of our siblings, parents and grandparents. Everything went just fine with that, and Evan had a good time with all the people at his house!

We had been checking out the “Black Friday” ads online and saw a number of deals that couldn’t be passed up, so my in-laws planned to stay up in Peoria to try to hit the deals, especially at Best Buy. I went to Best Buy two years ago, and even though I got there at 3 am (for the 5am opening) there were already 40 people in line. We decided, if we’re going to take advantage of this sale, we have to commit. So, at about 8pm, my father-in-law, sister-in-law and I hopped in the truck, complete with sleeping bags, cots, rain gear, etc. ready for an adventure. When we got to the last stoplight before the store, we noticed there were far too many cars in the turn lane going to the store, since everything in that plaza was closed.

Rounding the corner, we saw the parking lot lit up, full of cars, with a line of people heading around the back of the store – over 150 by our estimates… We, along with the other cars in our line, turned around and left. We drove by Circuit City and there were only 25 people there, but the deals there weren’t quite as good, and Circuit City doesn’t have the courtesy to post “minimum 18 units” in their flyer. A $250 laptop would be worth camping out for, but camping out only to find out there’s only one available wouldn’t be as appealing.

Upon returning home we heard it reported that people had been lining up since 11am. Now, we were ready for an adventure, but people willing to skip Thanksgiving with their families in order to wait in line are just too hardcore for us. I kept an eye on the weather overnight. If a snowstorm or plague of frogs rolled through, I would head back out hoping to win a spot near the front through attrition (I’m equipped for such conditions but everyone else just had plastic deck chairs and blankets!), but as it was, the weather was just too nice. I never thought I’d see a downside to nice weather…

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