Gray Thursday

If you've grown up in the United States, or lived here long enough, you probably know about "Black Friday". That Friday after Thanksgiving when stores have huge sales and tiny prices on an infinite number of goods in their store.

Thanksgiving was a day of thanks, parades, ball games and stuffing yourself silly with food. The day after Thanksgiving was for getting up in the middle of the night, and going to stand in line at the store having what you wanted to buy on sale. Where I'm from, the time for stores to open was usually set at 6am.

Then a few years ago I started noticing stores setting their times before 6am; usually 5:55 am, or something like that. Then it was midnight. Stores would open at midnight for early Black Friday sales. After that, it started being 10 pm or earlier Thanksgiving night. That's the way it was this year. To me, that's not "Black Friday"; it's been deluted to "Gray Thursday".

While I realize that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving, whatever happened to still respecting the holiday? Is it corporate greed, or just good marketing strategy?

Either way, I always somehow manage to end up in the middle of it almost every year. Whether it's because there's something on sale I know someone wants for Christmas, or something I need at an excellent price, or this year, my son wanting company while he stood in line to get a $60 game for $27-$28.

Mind you, Black Friday's are always crazy and chaotic; in the past few years though, they just seem to be getting worse and worse. I remember someone being stabbed at a Toys R Us; and at one Wal-Mart, people died being crushed by the mass of overly eager sale shoppers.

My son and I wondered what story would make the national news this year in connection with Black Friday. Sure enough, first thing I see this morning is a story from a California Wal-Mart. Some lady actually pepper-sprayed other shoppers, to get them out of her way!

While looking for more information on the above story, I ran across several other stories from all across the country; from stabbings, to shootings, and more. I don't care how much I've ever wanted something; there's never been anything worth having that happen!

We were lucky that our local Wal-Mart wasn't as bad as the ones I read about; though it WAS crazy! My son and I heard one lady tell her friend she'd gotten elbowed in the face twice just trying to get around the electronics department.

A friend of mine posted a short video on Facebook from the same store, while she was waiting to buy a camera. I posted the following comment to that post, about what happened to my son and me in the short time we were in the store:

That store was CRAZY last night!!! Very surreal, with people running over others with carts, or making barricades with carts...Not to mention all the people between the aisles, taped in with yellow tape and "do not enter" signs...I so wanted to ask someone if it was okay to feed the "animals" in the "zoo"...Until I realized, the people behind the tape were the spectators...."I* was part of the crazy zoo! They were the people with tickets waiting on $188 dollar flat screens, etc. Seriously, even leaving the store I got hit in the back of the leg with a cart and almost had a head on collision with some woman who decided to speed push her cart through the exit door, because it was taking too long at the entrance. No way she could have *NOT* seen me, she didn't care...If I hadn't stepped aside she would literally plowed through me!!!

Needless to say, my son did not get his game at Wal-Mart. Though the actual sale didn't start until 10 pm, people had been allowed to pick up the game as early as 6 pm, and carry it with them throughout the store until 10pm.

Since Target was just down the street from Wal-Mart, and they had the game on sale also, we went there to stand in line until midnight. The Target line was already halfway around the side of the building when we got there, but the crowd was a good one. People were friendly and chatting with friends, family and strangers alike.

When the time was close to open the doors, Target employees, (who had earlier passed out store maps and free Luna Bars), came down the line explaining the procedures they were going to use, once the store opened. Thirty people would be let in every 15 seconds. It worked wonderfully! Even being in the middle of the line, by the time we got in the store, it still wasn't crowded; no one was being crazy, even in the electronics department. My son walked right to where the games were, picked up what he wanted, we paid, and left within 10 minutes.

All of these experiences left me wondering why all stores can't conduct their sales like Target. Even with Wal-Mart being open 24 hours, there has to be a way they could make this a less dangerous event. When 95% of the stories you hear happened at Wal-Marts, it makes one wonder why the store continues doing business this way.

And at places like Best Buy, is it really appropriate for people to actually camp out for days before a sale, just to be first in line? Where are peoples' priorities?

Of course, all of this is just my opinion, based on past and present experiences. I'm hoping next year there's nothing that will drag me out into this chaos again!