Black Friday... a CRAZY tradition!

I'm not normally a morning person. In fact, you may have heard me say, "I'd rather STAY up 'til 4 am, then GET up at 4 am." It's true. So what rouses me at 4 am on the morning after Thanksgiving??? BLACK FRIDAY!!! Black Friday has been a yearly tradition for me since... for a long time.

Once a year, a promising bargain wakes me up insanely early and gets me out the door to:
1. Wait in the freezing cold, for business doors to open
2. Be pushed around by a frenzied crowd
3. Wait, once again, while in line to check-out
4. Risk not even getting the deal I came in for, because there was a "limited supply on hand".

Putting it like that, really does make it sound CRAZY!... and it is.

I've carried on this tradition in many different cities and circumstances. I've shopped by myself (with 100's of others). I've shopped with children (even crazier!). I've shopped out-of-state, while visiting for the holidays (in-laws thought I was crazy). I've shopped for hours and I've been done shopping in less than an hour (once). These last 2 years, I've been able to go with Jason. We "divide and conquer" and then go eat breakfast. Yum!

This year, I dropped Jason off at ShopKo, while I headed to Walmart. The plan was for the first person done, to go to the other one's aid. Jason was in-and-out quickly, with the careful planning and smooth running check-out lines at ShopKo. Meanwhile, I was drowning in a sea of carts and shoppers at Walmart. There was little organization, lots of chaos.

Jason found me by way of cell phone. I had been standing in line for several minutes and had not moved once... except to allow other shoppers to get by with their carts. With Jason to watch the cart and save my place in line, I was able to maneuver through the crowds and find 2 more things on my list. I also found us a shorter, faster moving line. Yay!

When we finally got to the check-out stand, I noticed one of my items was damaged. It didn't look good, but I knew the others were all gone. I asked to talk to a manager, or at least the young kid who was making managerial decisions for the day. He was able to take a few more dollars off, making it worth the risk of it not being fully functioning. --A card table and 4 chairs for $20!..that seemed like a good deal to me. (When we got home we found out that it was mostly cosmetic damage, so it really was a good deal.) Whew.

As Jason and I were leaving the Walmart parking lot, we heard this on the radio...

A loose, simplified version of what happened (at least how I remembered it).

The radio station was asking Black Friday shoppers to call in with their best deals of the day. Lady A called in and said that she got the best deal EVER on a Wii... it was FREE! She had found it in the parking lot of Walmart.
The radio station hosts asked her what she was going to do? Because OF COURSE it wasn't hers and she shouldn't keep it...right?
Lady A said that when she found it, she had looked around, no one was there, so considered it "an act of God", in these hard economic times.
Meanwhile, Lady B called in asking if Lady A had found the Wii at the Fairview/Eagle Rd Walmart.
Yes.
Because she had just been there, set it on the roof of her car while she was getting her child in their carseat, and then took off forgetting it was there. As soon as she remembered, she turned around and went back to the parking lot, but couldn't find it.
Eventually, the radio hosts put the 2 ladies on a conference call and were speaking to both of them... and they were speaking to each other!

Host: Lady A, is there any way we can persuade you to return the Wii to Lady B?
Lady A: "No way! I found it, looked around, no one was there, it's mine!"
Lady B: "No it's mine. I paid for it. I accidentally left it on the roof of my car as I was getting my child into the carseat. I came back as soon as I realized what I had done."
Lady A: "I can't help it if you're so dumb, to be so distracted by putting your kid in the car, that you leave it on your car and take off with out it. It's mine."
Lady B: "I have the receipt for it. I was just there. It's mine... Hey, is that you??? I see a lady sitting in her car, waving her hands, talking on a cell phone. Is that you?"
Lady A: "Hey, you better move your car or I'll hit you! Get out of my way!"
Lady B: "Give me back my Wii!"
Lady A: "You better move or I'll hit you with my car!"
Lady B: "I've got your license plate number and I'll go to the police if you don't give it back!"
Host: "Lady B, you've got the license plate number, just drive away. Don't get out of your car. Just drive away!"
More fighting, shouting and rumbling....
Host: "Are you there? Do we need to call security???"
More rustling.... and then they radio station gets hung up on.

Proof... Black Friday is a CRAZY tradition!


PS- Want to hear the actual conversation? Click here to listen to Mix 106's podcast (Woman finds a Wii #1, 2 & 3).