End the War -- on Thanksgiving

I just got done Black Friday shopping. My brother and I have been doing it for (now) 17 years and this year we had a full Thanksgiving Day for the first time in years. We went to Walmart at 11:30 p.m. (My state doesn't allow anyone to open before 1 a.m.), were in the story at 1:20, out by 2 and hit Best Buy right after.
BB was having a sale on some professional-grade SDHC memory cards and, being the photographer I am, I couldn't pass them up. Regular price was $50 per. Sale price was $9.99 each. I bought ten of them and saved $400.
All told, I probably spent about $180, which is WAY down from what I usually spend, but I got somewhere close to $700 or $800 worth of stuff.
Not a bad day. Now it's time for bed.

 

After dining with a friend's family, she and her brother drug me to Best Buy. Previously, she'd pretty much forced me to not buy a 128G thumb drive for $80, saying a different brand would be on sale for $50.

For me, it's worth $30 to not deal with shopping or hassle, but at the time, she said she'd get it for me on BF. Well, her plan changed and I got diverted to not one but two BBs. We arrived right at 6 p.m. at the first one, and since the line was clear down the block, we decided to continue on to the one closer to the apartments.

There, we walked into what's pretty much my nightmare, but I went straight to the thumb drives and what do you know, they were out of the exact one that was on sale. (This is maybe 6:20 p.m.; the manager said later they had six of them available for sale) My friend argued with the manager forever in trying to get one that was the same size and brand for the $50, but they didn't want to do it. (Neither did I; I just wanted to get the hell out of there.)

Meanwhile, the one that had been $80 four weeks ago and on sale for $70 last week was now priced at $135.

During the drive there and back, she and her brother reminisced about their years of family BF shopping, which included stories of running people over and one where, after camping out for days, they fell asleep right before the store opened and woke up to people going in and out of the store.

Oh, and her brother wound up buying a TV on the spur of the moment. While in the checkout line for 15 minutes, he kept saying how he didn't need it and had no idea where to put it, but at $180, he just couldn't pass it up.

I have no problem passing stuff like that up.

 

At 8 am this morning all Lego stuff was 30 percent off at Wal Mart, including the Friends series. I went down for that and the place was pretty much empty. I went out last night to Wal Mart at Target and picked up a few things, and was home in time for the Steeler game. Not a ton of people out compared to years past, but the big stuff seemed to be the iPad items. I was more looking for kids toys.

 

Just a regular Friday here in Canuckistan but many Toronto-area malls were opening at 6 or 7 a.m. looking to cash in on this.

 

It seems Black Friday has migrated here to parts of Western Canada. Calgary stores were lined up and the Canadian Tire yesterday was stooopid.

I wonder if Boxing Day sales are going to become extinct.

 

Just went out to Target (7:30, local time), and the place was kinda dead for what I was expecting. I spoke with a cashier and he said there was a steady stream of people all night. He said at 8 p.m. yesterday, the place was packed. They had all cashiers working and the line was back to electronics.

 

And people wonder why their debt is so high and their credit scores so low.

 

Very, very true.

 

More likely scenario is some major national retailer having a special "black Friday" the day after Halloween. As Coco said, Thanksgiving as a holiday just ain't what it used to be.

In fairness, I can see the point if you've got a big family and 20-something people that you feel obligated to buy something for. That just wasn't my lot in life.

 

I wonder how much Thanksgiving has suffered from people realizing it is a celebration of genocide. I suspect that has more than a bit to do with it.

 

Pfffft.

 

Please be blue font.