A look at Black Friday, the shopping day from hell
Val Adams
Issue date: 12/7/06 Section: Entertainment
Black Friday is a day when people camp out on sidewalks, race through aisles, shovel through people, fight over toys and wait in never-ending lines all for one purpose - the love of the deal.
The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. Thousands of stores advertise their biggest sales starting at 5 a.m. luring in all of the shopoholics who can't help but read them in the Thanksgiving Day paper.
While most people are still in a food coma from the day before, there is that very small group of people who get up at the crack of dawn (actually before dawn) to start their Christmas shopping - or so I thought.
My family and I decided that maybe this year was the year to start a new tradition. As a shopoholic family, we figured that it would be a good idea to get up early and miss the massive crowds of people.
We had never before gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to go shopping, but this year we thought that by getting up and being at the stores when they opened we would find the best deals…no one is crazy enough to be out this early except us, right?
Our adventure was to begin at the local Best Buy where the store was offering only a certain number of the product we wanted at the best price we had seen.
Upon arriving in the parking lot, my sisters and I joked around and laughed at my mother for driving awkwardly fast to get to the store right at 5. Our joking turned into utter disbelief as soon as we entered the lot.
I have never in my life witnessed a more chaotic scene! The store is located in a town center with many different stores so the parking lot is very large. That morning the entire parking lot was full with people driving around looking like animals searching for food in the jungle.
Getting into the parking lot was a struggle; however, once we made our way through the traffic we saw it! The store had not yet opened, and the line to get in was wrapped around almost the whole building. If you're familiar with the Best Buy stores, you would know that those stores are huge - more like a football field with millions of electronics inside.
The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. Thousands of stores advertise their biggest sales starting at 5 a.m. luring in all of the shopoholics who can't help but read them in the Thanksgiving Day paper.
While most people are still in a food coma from the day before, there is that very small group of people who get up at the crack of dawn (actually before dawn) to start their Christmas shopping - or so I thought.
My family and I decided that maybe this year was the year to start a new tradition. As a shopoholic family, we figured that it would be a good idea to get up early and miss the massive crowds of people.
We had never before gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to go shopping, but this year we thought that by getting up and being at the stores when they opened we would find the best deals…no one is crazy enough to be out this early except us, right?
Our adventure was to begin at the local Best Buy where the store was offering only a certain number of the product we wanted at the best price we had seen.
Upon arriving in the parking lot, my sisters and I joked around and laughed at my mother for driving awkwardly fast to get to the store right at 5. Our joking turned into utter disbelief as soon as we entered the lot.
I have never in my life witnessed a more chaotic scene! The store is located in a town center with many different stores so the parking lot is very large. That morning the entire parking lot was full with people driving around looking like animals searching for food in the jungle.
Getting into the parking lot was a struggle; however, once we made our way through the traffic we saw it! The store had not yet opened, and the line to get in was wrapped around almost the whole building. If you're familiar with the Best Buy stores, you would know that those stores are huge - more like a football field with millions of electronics inside.
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