Bletch Friday
by taxi - November 28, 2008 12:30pm
The day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday” because that’s the day each year that retailers have traditionally been able to look forward to “being in the black” for the year.
Honestly, I didn’t know this until last year.
This year, Black Friday may never actually come for many retailers, though…
Circuit City, for instance, is going into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
But the tradition of the Black Friday waiting line is still in full swing today. Here’s a YouTube video clip made by a disappointed uploader in Utah who went to a Best Buy at 3 am last night, but the line was too long. This clip is a five minute collection of interviews someone did last night at a Best Buy in North Carolina. At 3 am last night, someone named “3amJosh” made this clip at an IHOP in South Carolina. Here’s a blog post and video clip from a Baltimore radio show host who went to the local Wal-Mart this morning at 5 am and had the “CRAZIEST shopping experience” of her life.
All things considered, I just can’t get into the spirit of waiting in line to buy something, though. I mean, if I have to wait in a long cash register line to pay for something, I’ll just park the shopping cart and leave. …I guess that probably comes under the heading of “old buzzardry” though, eh?
The really silly thing about all this is that, even if I did want to take advantage of any of today’s specials, I can do so without even leaving the house. Wal-Mart will sell me today’s “in-store specials” online, all I have to do is pick a store. Same thing with Best Buy, Sears, and even the now bankrupt Circuit City. In fact, from what I could see in my quick glance while digging up the URL’s, there are plenty of “online only” deals today, deals that the line waiters would never be able to get in the stores.
Why wait in line?