Smokedog Blog: Black Friday, Black Saturday

We love Black Friday. It’s like Christmas, except we buy our own gifts. It’s a shame that it only comes once a year.

After last year’s nuthouse at our local Best Buy, we decided to try our luck at another Best Buy in a less populated area. All we had to do was to get up in the middle of the night and drive to a far away town. Did it work? Not really. There was quite a crowd already there. It didn’t wrap around the building and beyond like our experience from the previous year, but there were several hundred people in line ahead of us, already shivering in the cold winter air.

But they all deserved it, for showing up earlier than us. Ha ha! Freeze suckers, freeze!

Once we got inside the Best Buy, it was a feeding frenzy as usual. We got what we were looking for, although there actually weren’t that many great deals this year. I told myself that if there was a pile of PS3’s sitting in front of me, then I would treat it like a litter of puppies and find the cutest one to take home with me. However, I saw no such litter. All the PS3’s were caged away, already all adopted. Hopefully they all found good homes.

We wrapped up our Black Friday at McDonalds, which was a huge disappointment. We wanted sausage and egg McMuffins, but ended up with bacon and egg McGriddles. If you’ve never had a McGriddle, avoid it at all costs. This miserable excuse for a breakfast sandwich uses two pancakes as the bread instead of an English muffin. Pancakes! It’s an awful, awful combination of maple syrup pancakes, weak bacon, and bad eggs. I don’t know why anybody would willingly eat this stuff.

Disgusting.

Happy with our purchases, but disappointed with our breakfast, we trekked back home. Later that day, my fiancé says to me:

“Babe?”

“What?”

“I don’t want you to fall out of your chair, but Wal-Mart is having a “secret sale” on PS3’s. You get an 80 GB PS3 with 10 free Blu-Ray movies for $499.”

I picked myself off the floor, and the new hunt was on. Black Saturday, here we come!

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I usually wake up pretty early for work every morning, but to wake up around 2 to 3 in the morning two days in a row is pretty brutal. You just hope that it’s going to be all worth it.

Duplicating our Best Buy strategy, we picked a non-local Wal-Mart and made the journey over. When we got there, there was no one there. Victory! We’re first!

We sat in our car and staked out the front of the store, not wanting to stand outside in the cold. A few moments later, a guy drove up and got out of his car. You could tell by the way the hair on the back of his head was awkwardly sticking out that he was there for a PS3. A few minutes later a second guy shows up and gets in line.

Now, it’s kind of a goal in my life not to look like a dork. If you are first in line at a Wal-Mart waiting for the doors to open to buy a PS3, then you are a dork. If you are the second guy in line, then you are also a dork, although a few degrees less dorky than the first guy. If you’re the third guy in line, you may be still a dork, but you are not so desperate that you didn’t have to be the first or second in line.

We were third in line in a group of three. When the Wal-Mart finally opened, a store employee told us that they only had two PS3’s available. Arrgh! Disappointment!

I was ready to pack it in and wallow in my despair. However, my lovely fiancé, the ying to my yang, the sweet to my sour, encouraged me not to give up and find another Wal-Mart.

We located the next nearest Wal-Mart and drove over. When we got there, we sprinted to the electronics department. Did they have any PS3’s? No! They only had two, and they were both sold!

Noooooo!

Giving it one last try, we drove to the next nearest Wal-Mart, where we found a group of four people waiting in line. Did they have any PS3?

Yes! Success!! Sweet Jesus, we’ve found the elusive PS3!

All hail the PS3!

With our new PS3 and ten free Blu-Ray movies in hand, we made our way home. On the way back, we found a McDonalds, and had some delicious sausage McMuffin sandwiches for breakfast. Life is good.