It Only Happens Once a Year - Thank Goodness...

: People waiting outside of a store on Black Friday

November 28, 2008, was a day that everyone looked forward to and also dreaded the most. This was the day when people of all ages woke up early in the morning to make sure they got a great deal on a desired item. Sure, most, if not all people, complained about waking up early after a nice Thanksgiving, but in the end, the prices people paid on items should have put a smile on their faces. What is this day? This day is known as “Black Friday.”

Over Thanksgiving break, my family was going to be one of the thousands of people who were going to be attending Black Friday. Waking up at 5 a.m. started the damper on the day, and it didn’t seem to get better. Our first store of choice was Best Buy, and then we were headed to the dreaded mall. Thankfully arriving thirty minutes before the opening time – 6 a.m. – we were going to actually be lucky this year and be closest to the door. The line started to grow around 5:35 a.m. and by 5:45 the line to get into Best Buy wrapped around the whole building and then grew towards an nearby building complex. Hundreds of people were in the line complaining that it was cold, it was ridiculous that the workers wouldn’t let us in already, and someone even said sarcastically, “this is going to be a real freaking great holiday!”

A nice man standing in line behind my family informed us that this was his third stop of the morning. He was looking forward to buying a flat screen television that was forty-six inches in length priced at $1999. He heard that there were only ten televisions of that type available in the store. We broke the bad news to him that we were hoping get the same exact thing.

After this conversation, it was game time! Six o’clock on the dot, the doors to Best Buy opened. People rushed inside, running all over the store hoping to get their items before anyone else could. Sprinting towards the televisions, we noticed that there were indeed only ten of our desired item left, but thankfully we were able to get our hands on one of them.

My sister, Jess, went to fetch help to carry our new television, and I was left alone to guard our treasure. A woman with short brown hair dressed in a baggy sweatshirt, jeans, and white sneakers came up to me and asked if she could have the television. I told her “no,” but she got aggressive and tried to force me to give her the television.

Thankfully, the nice man from the line, who also got a hold of one of the ten televisions, saw what the woman was saying to me he said, “Look lady, she got here first – fair and square. Why don’t you just leave her alone and go find something else. Happy Holidays!” The woman walked away with a look of disgust on her face.

Moving on throughout the day, I would soon learn that Best Buy wasn’t going to be as bad as the mall. Walking into Express, it seemed to be even more crowded than the entire Best Buy! The lines for both the check-out and dressing rooms were long and snaked around the store.

Complaints could be heard about the store not having the right sizes, and the workers not working hard enough.

The manager of Express said, “We put extra people on the list to work today, and it is still a mob scene. I have certain workers helping the customers on the floor and I have other workers who are just simply making sure the store looks clean and friendly. People are coming here to pay lots of money so they should expect a clean store. No one likes walking into a filthy store.” Jess then had to go because some customer was complaining about the price of a shirt and called for the manager.

When we arrived home safe and sound, relatives in Long Island called to tell us Happy Holidays and then said, “Have you scene the news? At the WalMart here, people trampled over the greater – He’s dead.”

No wonder it is called Black Friday – It is a dark day, and it seems like the Scrooge in people always come out this day, even though it’s supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year.”