A good thing to do on Black Friday is make a plan of attack prior to 3am and believing you'll get somewhere.
I weighed the options of what I could get at Circuit City and Best Buy around 3:30am after an extremely long sessions of Excite Truck (don't believe mainstream press, this game is a MUST HAVE Wii title) and Wii Sports. After repeated "one more race" challenges, I eventually said, "Okay, let's hit it."
Last year was pretty well planned out... Or moreover, more planned out than this year. I went with a few people, went there earlier than 4am and had tons of things to do to keep me occupied (Dunkin Donut runs and dancing with a life size cut out of Shaq.) However this year, absolutely no one wanted to go, save my friend Victoria, who really went just to go and maybe see if any DVDs were on sale.
After weighing the options, I decided to hit the Best Buy I went to last year. Getting there pretty early, we were only about 100 feet away from the door and as far as I remember, pretty late compared to everyone else. All the free coffee was gone, people already knew what they were getting and as far as I remember, 4am SEEMED like a good time to leave this year. Prior to heading there, a mandatory Dunkin Donuts pit stop was in order. Assuming we'd only be standing around for about an hour in the moderate cold, coffee seemed like a good option. It was there we were asked, "Are you guys out to go shopping?" I replied that we were only to find out the girl asking worked at the Circuit City that was on the way to the Best Buy. Amongst other things we exchanged, she said, "Wow, you guys are pretty late." It wasn't until later that I realized my own blunder.
En route was pass the aforementioned Circuit City to see a line rounding the side of the building. It was then I should've guessed I was a moron. The Best Buy seemed like a good idea, especially because it was near Toys R Us and if all else failed, I could score a $35 Game Boy Micro for no reason. Pulling into the lot, the Toys R Us line was somewhere near 2 or 3 dozen people. Hardly anything. However, pulling into the Best Buy lot, all I could think about was Circuit City.
Not much to my surprise was the line at Best Buy ridiculous. Needless to say, I ended up waiting for my Game Boy Micro.
About 20 minutes later, I ran into a scenario of deja vu I again was to negligent to realize was going to occur. As far as I know, 5am is the time people are allowed to live out their consumerism dreams on Black Friday. However, as anyone in Bergen County, New Jersey knows, we dream differently. Regardless of what any circular or news paper will tell you, you will not be buying a HD TV, waser/dryer combo, DVD box set, or in this case, a Gameboy Micro at 5am. No Sally, you're waiting til 7am.
Now I remember why Black Friday last year sucked.
It wasn't the extremely bitter cold that was an issue. It was the fact that I endured it for 2 hours only to have the law makers, sleeping silent and more importantly, warmly in their beds, remind me they're fucking assholes. So as the sun came to shine last year and as my little foot shook with bitter chill, everyone all at once checked their watches and cell phones to verify the time. It was now 7am, cold and not defeated, we were ready to shop.
However, those two hours sucked so hard. All I got that year was Arrested Development seasons 1 and 2. And for all my conviction and fanboyism, it was worth the wait/discount. And while my Nintendo fanboyism will never go into question, I have a DS Lite, I don't want a Micro that bad. Not two hours more bad. So, disappointed in my severe lack of memory and planning skills. I scooted around Route 17 in hopes of ideas or at least something to do.
On the way back, Staples appeared to not only be open, but to be harvesting a line of would be shoppers. It was time to head home real quick, poop like a champ, hit the internet and ride.
Staples also carried an item I was interested in purchasing that every other place did: a large external hard drive. Oddly enough, it was the biggest of the bunch and the price was extremely reasonable. Off I went, only this time: alone. Needless to say, I got there around 6:30am, hoping to secure a spot on the very short line only to see the store was already open and customers were exiting. Hop to it. In a completely unorganized and unaware of the store lay out stupor, I searched frantically for my prize. About 10 minutes later, I eventually stumble pass where they were, after walking passed the spot at least several times only to realize the one I wanted wasn't even in the store. A deal even better than that was obviously already taken advantage of and I in no way really felt like buying anything even remotely close to retail price on a day like this. I almost purchased whatever the cheapest hard drive was, as almost a knee jerk response as well as something to validate the fact I'd been driving around all morning and wasting gas and time. However, I did the smart thing, admitted my defeat and lack of any sort of plan and headed home. I contemplated just browsing elsewhere, because "you never know," but I decided to go home and call it a night. I'll learn from my mistake and do a better job next year. Especially since HD TVs will probably cost less then!
To further make up for things and to make myself feel better through the act of buying shit, I went to the mall today at around 2pm and spend money on some clothes. While not so much a deal or bargain, I enjoy H&M's prices, color options and choices in fabrics and cut. I however, do not like that the clothes are ideally made for skinny euroboys. All in all, getting new clothes is always great motivation to lose weight. I also realized how huge my ass is.
But I guess some people like that sort of thing.
