Why I hate Black Friday (and long ass lines)

So this year, unlike previous years, I decided not to do the whole Black Friday thing and fight the crowds to save myself 50 bucks on some gadget, or maybe pay half price on some games.

One of my most memorable experiences was trying to go to the Walmart in South Philly. It was black friday of 05, and my friend Tony gave me a ring and asked me if I was interested in going to walmart to pick up a laptop for 250 (i think). Mind you this was 3 years ago, when laptops that cheap were almost unheard of. This was after the post Thanksgiving dinner coma, so it was about 1-2am that we got up and took the bus from 40th street down to the waterfront. It was your normal philly weather in november, ie. fucking cold as hell and we walked from the waterfront roughly half a mile over to the walmart. No one was on the streets. it was dead quiet. Tony wasn't sure i was going to go so he brought a pair of nunchucks. We made it to the parking lot at around 3am and lo and behold we were not the first in line. There were about 8 of us maybe from 3-4:30. Everyone was in good spirits and we were all having fun talking and freezing our asses off. The cops that showed up (all two of them) were nice and we all chatted. One had worn a balaclava to keep warm, but then had to take it off because apparently he wasn't supposed to be wearing it and gave it to us.

At any rate, everything was cool until about 5am, when the rest of jersey and philly decided to start lining up. The line became ridiculously long, and the pushing began. It started off as a gentle nudge, but then became a constant pressure up against the front of the line. Up until then the first maybe 10 of us were having fun, but soon it wasn't fun anymore, as we were being pushed. The cops saw that and tried to tell the crowd to quit pushing, but it was to no avail. Also, I don't know if it's a Philly thing or what but people started to think that they could just WALK up to the front of line and skip everyone. The cops had to tell the idiots that if they didn't walk to the back of the line, the crowd will be very, very angry. Eventually the idiots backed off. Soon the pushing became thrashing, and fights started to happen behind us. Tony and I were anxious to get in, if only to get away from the crowd.

Once the doors opened, it was a mad rush to the electronics section and we got there pretty quick in a dead run. I got clipped by a falling woman who couldn't turn fast enough and I recall hurdling over someone once we got past the door.

I've camped out at an Ikea, a Gamestop, a Walmart, a Movie theater (star wars episode I), and a few other stupid places. But I find standing in line for Deals is the worst. Overall my experiences in camping in line for stuff is this:

-The first maybe 10% people: generally really cool people, either unemployed, students, or die hards, willing to make conversation with you and chat about stuff. Let's face it, if you get there early enough to be the first few in line, you've suffered a bit. My favorite group.

-The middle of the pack: These people want to be in the first group but didn't make it early enough for their own reasons. They heard about whatever sweet deal it is and they have interest in it, but only enough to buy the item then sell it for profit. I don't like these people as much, and they tend to be the pushy ones, as some of them have the idea that they can push their way to the front. They also aren't into the experience as much as they just want to get it over with so they can make money.

-The back of the pack: These generally are the younger people, the kids and less mature. These bastards will push and cut the line to try to join either the middle of the pack or the front. I hate these bastards.

Before Black Friday, I figured that people were going to get hurt this year. With a rough economy, cheap deals, and really cool gadgets to be had this year, it's going to get crowded. So far from what I've been reading on cnn it looks like the season is up 3% from last year. But last year people didn't get shot or trampled to death as far as I know. So this year I managed to get some sweet ass deals online without having to step out of the house(tho i did have to leave with my gf eventually, and got trampled by New Yorkers. gotta love it), and I look forward to cyber Monday, as awful a name as that is. We'll see what good stuff is online. Specifically, I'm concentrating on Amazon.com and Newegg.com for computer and gaming stuff.

Recommendations for shopping:

cheapassgamer.com- their front page usually has the most up to date info on cheap deals, you'll find a list of cyber monday stuff from everywhere.

dealhack.com- has a list of stuff from both amazon, but also the newegg stuff i want to get

I'll talk about where i plan to buy my games and gadgets in the next post. take care.