My wife works as a pharmacist for Walmart, and got lucky enough to work today. She actually got off an hour and a half early, cause the pharmacy was the slowest she said she's seen it since she started there. Makes sense, I guess. You'd have to REALLY need a drug to go get your prescription filled at Walmart today. Otherwise, you'd probably avoid it like the plague. The rest of the store was a fucking madhouse, apparently. When I arrived to pick her up, there were 3 police officers sitting outside their cars, chatting near the busiest intersection of the parking lot. There were 3 other police cars at the front of the store, and my wife said that the Walmart actually pays the local police, possibly off-duty officers, to be in uniform at their store to prevent some of the bullshit that went down in those links. Here is something I didn't even think about, though. Apparently, Black Friday is also a big day for shoplifting. In all the commotion and confusion and insanity, people love to just grab shit and walk off. Apparently, at my wife's Walmart, some guy was in the bathroom using a knife to cut things out of packaging. When he emerged, he found police officers with their guns drawn, demanding him to put down his weapon. Awesome. Next year, I'll go, but I won't even buy anything. I'm going to go to Walmart, find a chair, set it up, and watch the people fight like idiots over a toy that is $2 off of its regular $6 price tag. Might be worth the entertainment.
It's baffling that people don't grasp the concept of their own time's worth. If you're going to stand in line for 6 hours to save $40, then your time is worth less than minimum wage.
Let's see, I got a all in one printer, usb cable, paper, eastbound and down, a blender, a crock pot, and a toaster for 90 bucks. Full retail would have been 220. Also, I didn't wait, got it all 15 minutes before my shift at around 7:45 am. Th$14at means my 15 minutes were worth $130. If only I made $520 an hour.... I also picked up Dragon Age: Origins for 35 bucks later in the day. I feel like a fucking nerd, but god damn, that game is fun times when all my friends are in the suburbs doing thanksgiving shit and my girlfriend is in Michigan for the weekend. Well worth it, I say.
Do you know how many time I had to hear "Jesus is the reason for the Season!" this weekend? Enough that it was a struggle not to reply " No mam, That would be the tilt of the Earth Axis." I woke up on Friday morning and had torn my sheets. So I headed out to Target at 9am to get new ones before work. No one was in housewares, everyone was clustered in the Electronics Department. I grabbed some sheets and some laundry detergent. You should have seen the look on the lady's face when I checked out. I'm sure she thought I was nuts. Other then working for 12 hours mt black Friday wasn't too bad. Plus Saturday was my birthday and I got someone to take my shift. Then I went out and got shit faced.
The Mrs. got up and was at Best Buy at 4:10 am on Black Friday to get a Macbook for one of our daughters (BB was giving you a $150 gift card with the purchase of a Macbook, but limited to stock on hand and no rainchecks). She said they had it very well organized, handing out tickets to people on line with the specific item they were there to get, had different color tape lines along the floor inside to guide you directly to merchandise you were buying, and set up blockade so no one could cut lines. She was home and back in bed by 5:30 am, we got the Macbook and the gift card.
I walked into a near packed Sears Hardware at about 9am, grabbed the $69.99 10" Craftsman Miter Saw they had on sale, walked up to the nearest register, then got the fuck out of there with my item in tow. I win at Black Friday because nobody gets in line.