We all heard the stories and other posts about Black Friday. I have succumbed to this ritualistic self inflicted pain for several years. Every year, Staples had something I just had to own (many items still boxed and in the drawer). I remember sitting or standing in line with hundreds of others in 30 degree weather just to get that door buster special. I even stooped to parking my kids in line telling them frostbite is good for you just so we could score 2 thumb drives. I was so sneaky!
This year I told the wife, I would not lower myself to that demeaning position in line right behind the family of eight who slept there over night and are wearing adult diapers so they dont have to leave the line. I would wait till Saturday and partake of what I titled it as 'serene' Saturday. We spent a few days at the cabin right across the river from Astoria, OR. Rumor has it, they built a new Costco and it's only a half hour to the outlet Malls were my wife assures me the deals will be great.
I chose to get the outlet mall thing out of the way. How many 50% off sales can there be. As I looked, that sweater was originally marked $75.00, wow what a bargain, only a few dollars more on sale than what we saw it for at that other store. Crowds didnt seem that bad here at the sale of the century. Maybe this will work out as I expected. We finished up and as usual, my wife walked away with several "good buys".
I'm getting hungry, so off to Costco. My neighbor told me he was headed there to 'graze' at the booths and told me of steak samples and the like that served up as full meals. He was excited that he could head over and just walk around eating. He did tell me hoped there would be a few more drinks available to wash down all that food.
When we arrived, the parking lot was huge, so huge, it seemed it was only about half full. We parked and walked past several people with 50" tv's on them and others with carts so full, they had trouble pushing them.
As I entered the massive fresh smelling store, I stopped dead in my tracks and realized why the outlet stores were so empty. This place was packed. I had three 'incidents' just entering the store. One lady rushed in front of me to get a cart 2.3 seconds faster and I was already loosing my serenity. As I made it past the hoards of tv shoppers and several just watching football, I managed to get to the jewelry counter where the wife ran full speed to. She already had a pair of earrings picked out. The wait was on to get someone to open the door to look at them. Shopping cart rage was setting in. As we headed through the store, it was worse than a New York traffic jamb. There were crowds of 50 to 100 people around the hand out vendors. I could'nt even get close enough to smell what they were offering. Soon dismay gave way to rage and I escorted my wife to the checkout. We stopped and bought a hot dog on the way out and went back to the cabin. I am a true believer now of Cyber Monday
Happy holidays everyone
