Black Thursday/Friday madness

I've been going to Black Friday since I was a teen. My first Black Friday was in 1978 when I was 16 years old. Back then the stores didn't open till 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. and enough merchandise was available so that everyone pretty much got what they wanted. When the doors open, people walked in orderly and had friendly conversations with others.



Fast Forward 2012 - In many stores you have police officers and security officers at the entrance of the store to prevent a stampede and to keep the peace. People push each other around and trample over someone that has fallen down.



On Thanksgiving evening I went into a store to get some shoes - buy one get one free. When I got back to the shoe department I saw two women who had about 10 boxes of shoes in their basket. They just grabbed boxes and didn't try on the shoes. It was like if they didn't grab these shoes, they would never get another chance. I didn't find anything that fit. Within an hour, the shoe department looked like Hurricane Sandy had come thru. Things tossed about, wrong shoes in the wrong boxes, things on the floor etc. I had driven quite a distance to get to this store and I was very disappointed.



I went to another store which was at a nearby mall to look at some clothing and shoes. At that store, the same thing happened except at this store it was worse. Stuff was gone thru which would make it unlikely that anyone would buy stuff in this condition.



I sat in my car and thought about the next store I was going into which was opening in a couple of hours. I decided that sleep was more important and if they didn't have what I wanted, then so be it.



At 6:00 a.m. I went to the store and hit the jackpot. Got 4 pairs of slacks. The store was neat and orderly. I had no difficulty finding what I need. I'm not a neat freck but what I saw in some of the other stores the night before was something else.



Later in the morning I went into a store to get some shoes. One pair I couldn't have because it was a display. Hurricane Sandy had come thru this place with a vengence. Different shoes in boxes seemed to be the norm. I found a shoe that fit but the other shoe was nowhere to be found. There was nothing in the back and I looked around to see if the missing shoe was mismatched. No luck. At that point, I could have gotten angry, given up or laughed. I just started laughing. I didn't want to scream or cry. Then when I got home tried to order the shoes on-line and they were sold out.



Today is the last day of the sale so I probably will not be getting these shoes at their sale price.