the Mind’s Chew Toy

We really don’t get into the shopping rush on the day after Thanksgiving usually. Normally, we just sit around and recover from Thanksgiving overeating.

However, while looking through the 5lb paper full of ads on Thanksgiving Day, we noticed something worth braving the crowds for over at BestBuy - an E-Machines computer with 100GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW drive, 512MB of RAM, a 15″ LCD flat panel monitor and a color printer - all for $190.

Knowing that Best Buy opened at 5am this morning, we decided to show up a couple of hours early, just in case. So, after a brief night’s sleep, we were up and moving at 3am, arriving at our nearest Best Buy….only to discover that we weren’t the only one with the idea. In fact, we weren’t even one of the first 200!

As we later found out, the line began forming at 11:30am on Thanksgiving! By the time we showed up at 3, the line of about 2-300 people was wrapped all the way around the store.

Knowing there were only going to be 10 computers or so available per store, we tried another Best Buy, which, if possible, had an even longer line. Disappointed, we headed back home empty-handed.

Since Best Buy opened at 5am, I decided I’d run by the store again at 5:45 just in case they had computers left. Unfortunately, the lot was packed even fuller than before, and a line still wrapped most of the way around the building.

Trying anything we could think of, we called a relative in Vermont to see if they would be able to pick up the computer for us. No luck there either.

Giving up, I went back to bed, not waking up again until after noon. Heather called shortly after, to fill me in on some bad news - as it turns out, not every Best Buy had the long lines we saw - one had barely anyone show up! Since it was after noon, however, our computer special had ended, so we were stuck with our constant-crashing, over-heating Dell.com laptop for a little while longer.

So, what does our failed attempt at Black Friday shopping tell us? That this (and the 4-day line for the Playstation 3) proves one thing to us - there are way too many people without lives in Florida. Who would skip Thanksgiving to stand in line for a computer? Sure, it was a great deal, but with the rapid advances in computers, they might need to upgrade again next year around this time!

A computer good for about a year or a holiday spent with family and friends? Seems lika a no-brainer to me, but apparently I’m a bit old-fashioned. And they wonder why America’s families are falling apart. Maybe it’s partly to do with people’s obsession with that old joke saying “He With The Most Toys, Wins.”