Seven hours.
Usually 7 hours is how long someone sleeps at night for a good night’s rest or a really long car trip that consists of traveling over two states. But on Black Friday it’s just another line at a store selling some nice electronics.
I have never once gone Black Friday shopping so this was my first experience to see what this experience is all about. I was surprised to say the least. I decided to go to the Black Friday popular store of Best Buy were people had already been lined up with tents for days. They told me, “These sales were totally worth missing Thanksgiving for.” I could not believe what these people were saying this just seemed crazy that people would actually just sit out in a tent outside of a store for days just to get a hold of a nice TV or the new Playstation 4/Xbox One. But instead of disagreeing with them I decided to go along with everyone and act like this was the best thing ever.
Until the 3 hour wait mark hit. I started thinking to myself “This is crazy! Its under 30 degrees and I’m waiting in line for a couple of movies.” Being at school in Chicago for now my fourth year I thought that the cold down in Texas would not affect me at all but as the hours kept passing I found myself regretting this whole Black Friday thing. That was until the employees of Best Buy began coming outside with hot coffee and donuts for all of us who were waiting. I have no idea if they do this at other places, but I quickly thought to myself, “Wow, now this is Southern hospitality at its finest.” Then a truck pulled up right by the line, he put his hazards on and began to pull out a huge flat screen out of the back of the truck. He hooked it all up and chanted, “Hotty Toddy!” and put it on the Ole Miss vs Mississippi State game. A lot of people were all huddled up watching the game and chatting about life and sports.
It reminded me of a tailgating party.
Finally, the game ended with Mississippi State beating Ole Miss 17-10 in overtime. But as soon as the game was over there was only one hour left until the store opened up and the mayhem began. Everyone started getting back situated in the spots that they were at, some were beginning to put their tents back in theirs cars to get ready. It was at that moment that I looked back and realized how many people were in this line waiting to get in the store for Black Friday. I could not believe my eyes there had to be over 500 people in line. It looked like the line almost wrapped all the way around the store and more and more people were showing up as the time got closer.
The time had finally come.
I was expecting a race to the door, but surprisingly it was a lot more organized then I imagined. Best Buy made everyone come in at about 15 people at a time so that it would not be as crazy. I was part of the second group going in because I was the 18th in line, but it was surreal.
The store had only 30 people in it so it was still a little quiet.
That’s when I saw the movies I wanted and ran towards them and grabbed all of the ones that I wanted plus a few more because they were there of course. I decided to just look around the store to see if there was anything else I wanted since only one other group had gone in since I had gotten in. I found a couple of things that I could get my family for Christmas. I found it harder and harder to get from one part of the store to the other. I had been in the store for an hour and everyone outside was in the store and on the prowl for the things they wanted to get.
I looked over at the movie section and it was destroyed there were movies on the ground and all over, people were grabbing the movies they wanted and throwing the ones they didn’t out of the way. It was a mad house.
I decided that it was time to leave. That’s when I saw the line to check out. I went over to the beginning of it and walked next to line till I got to the end. I could not believe my eyes I had just walked all the way to the back of the store where one of the employees had a little flag that showed everyone that this is where the line began.
This was ridiculous I thought. But I waited in line for my movies. As I waiting I could hear people screaming about random things whether them saying “This is mine” or “fine take it I didn’t want it anyways!”
It took a whole hour to finally check out and get out of the store. I checked my watch and realized I had been there for over 10 hours. And that was just one store. I was defeated by Black Friday and all I wanted to do was go back to my house and sleep. That was until my mom called me, asking me if I wanted to go check out the mall.
Then it hit me it was like an addiction.
I was excited with a ton of adrenaline running through my veins.
“I’ll meet you there, let’s do this,” I replied.