I have to say, I was a little disappointed. Not necessarily with the experience, but really from the get-go, with the ads themselves. So I shouldn't have been surprised, I guess. Oh well. I guess it's hit or miss, year to year. (I was happy to see that we made a good decision buying our TV earlier at a grand opening sale as the best I could find today was a 40" Panasonic Plasma for $500 and ours is 50" Panasonic for the same price. Yay!) Usually there's at least one thing I know the girls want that's a great price so I go out and get it. This year, nothing really stood out. But I still went out haha. So maybe I'm really just getting addicted to the experience itself. :) I went to Kohl's at midnight which was very crowded ... I got my first taste in 3 years of actually having to wait in a long line on Black Friday. Boo. But not horrible, if you keep reading. :)
One thing I really enjoy about Black Friday shopping that might surprise some ... are the crowds. Obviously not the huge amount of people or the long lines, but the people themselves. The image of crowds of people pushing past each other, fighting for every item, hoarding everything they can, has honestly never been my experience. I don't know if it's because we're in the suburbs or because I've never even tried for the big ticket items/giveaways (so feel free to chime in if this is not your experience), but there must be something about staying up til the wee hours of the morning and knowing that you're going to have to wait in huge lines that just makes people relax and be NICE to each other. It's really great to experience and is honestly such a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas season.
This year, I saw a woman leave to use the bathroom while another man (stranger) pushed her cart for her in line. Not only this, but she came back and he was "happy to have helped and didn't want her to have to wait because it was going to be a while." She also offered to carry the things he was holding in her cart while they waited in line. I then saw a man spill his coffee in the middle of an aisle while waiting in line and another woman (also a stranger) literally run to the bathroom to get some paper towels for him. Other than that, people were just generally so nice, striking up conversations, talking about their families, what they did for Thanksgiving, and other things about their lives with complete strangers. I hate to say it, but these things just do not happen on an average shopping day. Of course, I usually don't have to wait 45 mins to an hour in line (and if I did, I would probably just leave), but that never even came up and it made me wonder, should the fact that we are EXPECTING to wait really make such a world of difference? Shouldn't we ALWAYS be this nice to each other? Especially when you consider that most lines are nowhere NEAR the kind of line I was in. Just some food for thought and something I am really going to try to consciously aim for in my shopping excursions from now on. Not just being polite, but going that extra step to true, friendly, heartfelt kindness.
These are the kinds of things that make me wish every shopping day was Black Friday. Anyone else have a good Black Friday shopping experiences? I'd love to hear! With all the bad in this world, it's great to hear about people just being nice to each other, isn't it? :)
It is nice to hear that there are good experiences of Black Friday. It provides a counterbalance to the stories of people getting pepper sprayed and all that other nonsense. I generally stay away from Black Friday shopping. Mostly because I'd rather sleep than shop. Also, there is never anything I really really want. I haven't needed or wanted anything that bad that I need to go out shopping at midnight or 4am.
ReplyDeleteI did however go downtown this Black Friday. My friend from seminary was visiting and we decided to walk around downtown. I did have an enjoyable experience mostly because of the company I was with. Everyone around did seem to be in a good mood. There were some groups protesting and preaching that were interesting. One group that stands out is the religious(I strongly hesitate to call them Christians) group that were informing women of what their place was in the world. The first thing on the list was to be quiet and then there were a bunch more ridiculous claims which took biblical verses way out of context. It was cool because most people walked by and laughed or shook their heads.
I often think how hard it would be to just be more friendly on normal shopping days. I was reminded of this yesterday when an old Korean lady was rude to me at H-Mart. How hard is it to be nice to each other?
thanks for sharing, jase! i'm glad you had a pretty good experience too. after i posted this, andrew showed me videos of people going crazy for $2 waffle griddles and i was like, ....maybe i should take this back... haha. i did come across a pretty good cartoon/comic about black friday that i keep meaning to post. i'll do that now. :)
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