The Black Friday Creep

I've been frequenting Black Friday sales for the past 10 years. The first time I ever attempted Black Friday shopping was in 2003. I stood in front of a Best Buy waiting until they opened "early" at 7am on Black Friday. I stood in line from midnight until open with my group of friends. All of us were huddled around the front of the store munching on Thanksgiving leftovers and sipping on lukewarm coffee that eventually turned ice cold throughout the night. At the end of the adventure, I ended up buying a handful of DVDs and an electric shaver. I didn't even get any of the big ticket items, like a gigantic 30" CRT HDTV with full 1080i resolution for $999. I will admit that it was still a great experience, one that my friends and family repeated for a few years after.

This year, I will not be standing in line for Black Friday. Aside from the fact that I realized most of the electronics doorbusters are pure crap (I don't want a 42" Seiki TV for $299 when I have an awesome smart TV already), I refuse to become a part of the increasing Black Friday creep problem. Stores will be opening up at 6pm on Thursday. This is when a lot of people normally have their Thanksgiving dinners, including myself. I'm not going to trade in quality food gorging time for $4.00 blurays and bottom tier television sets. I'm not saying that I won't be shopping on Friday, I'm just saying that I won't be one of the millions huddling in the cold fighting over doorbusters. I'm going to casually stroll in once the smoke clears to pick up deals on towels, vacuums, and other stuff everyone else looks over.

If you like Thanksgiving the way it's always been, skip the lines this year and wait. We have to draw the line at some point. And with that, here's my turkey defrosting: