D-bag in Aisle 2

Never in the entirety of my black life have I experienced ANYTHING comparable to Black Friday 2012. First let me answer a couple of FAQs that may come up throughout this post:

Q. Was this your first time shopping Black Friday?
A. Yes.

Q. Where did you go?
A. Walmart and Best Buy

Q. What did you go shopping for?
A. Televisions

Q. What demon of Satan possessed you to agree to go shopping for someone else's TVs?
A. Chile if only I knew.

Are we all on the same page now? Good. These people were bat crazy. In my short 4 hours on the scene I witnessed 2 arguments over parking, a complete fire hazard, sold out items in mere minutes of opening the store, and straight pandemonium. 

Whilst I was waiting amongst the crazy for items that weren't even being purchased by me, nor FOR me, my mind wandered to what the heck have we come to as a people? As a former retail employee I make it a point not to indulge in Black Friday shopping as a sign of camaraderie. I know how painful it was to leave my family so I can sell some random over priced sweaters at the butt-crack of dawn. So for this, my first black friday not working in retail, I got to see things from another perspective. 

No big surprise, from the consumer perspective, I was ashamed. Here we are pushing and shoving waiting in long lines for items we were only saving about 30% off. It may sound like a lot, but the tale from the trenches is way worse. How dare we fight over SPENDING our hard earned money. That's like fighting at the strip club over who will tip a performer. COMPLETELY POINTLESS. 

There are people living in this world who fight on a daily to EAT. There are people in this city alone 14,000+ to be exact, who fight over a safe place to sleep at night. Here we are waiting outside, in the cold, voluntarily in line to spend money we obviously don't need for food or shelter to save a couple bucks on a flatscreen TV. 

I volunteered to do the shopping for my family that night, just out of curiosity. I had never been, nor will I go back again. Anytime I see Sheriffs and employees in hazard vests......let's just say  I'm good. More importantly I want the people that do indulge in this 'holiday' to really sit back and think about the fact there are more important things to do over the Thanksgiving holiday than camping out all day to be first to purchase a $20 video game. How about giving back to the people who camp out every night just to get a wink of sleep. Just a thought.