Black Friday is for suckers

Today was my first try at a Black Friday experience. I woke up at 4.45 to head down to the Emeryville Best Buy (I assume this is where the Pixar guys get their tech supplies) to participate in the festivities. On arrival at 5.06, I was turned away at the parking lot, as it was already full, and had to park in a nearby parking lot. I watched a line of campers as they filed into the store as I walked up to the door.

As I approached the store, the outside of the building looked like an abandoned shanty town. It was littered with garbage, both solid and liquid, and it smelled horrible. When I was on my way in, I heard people mention that they'd been in line since 2am. My ambitions weren't to get the doorbuster deals, I only wanted to get a few items and be on my way. I wasn't prepared for what waited inside the store.

I grabbed a shopping cart and headed inside. What a madhouse. I'd never seen a store so crowded before. It took about 20 minutes to just get the few items I wanted, those that were still in stock, at least. Half of what I wanted was sold out by the time I'd even found it. And pushing my way through the crowds was a terrible experience. I clipped a few ankles with my cart, and my legs were bruised up from other crazy shoppers and their over agressive carts. Several people were pushing enormous boxes containing 42" TV's around the store, others had armloads full of discounted DVD's.

It took a while to find the checkout line, of which there were two, one for people that had "ticket" items (for those first in line that got a few of the rare doorbuster items) and a standard line for the rest of the dregs. I finally found the end of the normal line, marked by an employee holding a bundle of helium filled blue balloons. The line took about 15 minutes to navigate, which we were herded through cattle-style, and given ample opportunity to purchase marked-up DVD's and cables, which were certainly meant to offset the minor losses the store incurred by selling a few items at a loss.

I managed to get out of the store in about 50 minutes, which was a minor miracle compared to how long I was dreading waiting to check out. It wasn't yet 6am, and the sky was just starting to lighten. Since I'd missed out on a few items I wanted to get at the best buy, I checked the officemax next door, and was able to calmly walk through the store, and everything I wanted was in stock. What a relief. The line was only about 15 people long, a refreshing experience after the 100+ person line I went through at best buy.

I'd have to say the overall experience was horrible, and I don't want to do it again, nor would I recommend it to anyone else. Next year, I just want to do all my deal finding online, sleep in, and never remember the crowd battling experience I went through this morning.

Sorry there's no picture.