Black Friday

Every year we drive out to see the lines in front of Best Buy, Frys, Target etc before the doors open for Black Friday and marvel at the enthusiasm of the people who brave the boredom and cold for hours just so they can get the deal and save a few hundred dollars.

I had never ever thought that I would be one of them.

I had been interested in the iPad Air for a while now since I carry my iPad around the hours, reading books on the Kindle app while doing chores. And it becomes really heavy after a few minutes. So, when Target came out with the amazing Black Friday offer on the Air, we felt standing in line for it would be a lark. But, of course, we were not seriously considering standing in line for hours and so I thought I would just try to catch it online.

Since all the online deals start at around midnight, I was trying to keep awake the night of Thanksgiving day but with office and all other stuff (planning the shopping, reviewing the deals), I made the mistake of trying to keep awake in bed. Somehow, I finished shopping the stores which came online early the day before Thanksgiving (Sams, Sears etc) and then went to sleep at around 11.00. The Target deal was not online till then.

Early morning I woke up at 3.30am (you know how you keep getting up through the night when you have to wake up early for something) and immediately checked the deal but obviously no iPads were available till then. I sighed and went back to sleep.

Next day after doing breakfast and all other chores, we thought we would drive around and check out the lines. And at 11am, there were just 4 people outside Best Buy and 2 outside Target!!! It was really surprising because by that time (the stores were supposed to open Thanksgiving evening instead of Friday morning) there should have been a line snaking around the corner. So, Kumar who is the life of the party and our lives sold us on the idea of getting in line for the Airs. We went back home and got chairs, books etc. The weather was really lovely - sun with a hint of cold. After unloading our camping chairs, the guys left me with my book and went back home to get a big flask of tea and snacks. We hung around having the snacks and talking to the other people there. After a while, I went home and came back with sandwiches, completing our hiking routine (snacks, tea, sandwiches, assorted drinks). By evening, the whole atmosphere was exciting with people talking about past Black Fridays, deals in other stores and educating us about what would happen once the doors opened. We found out that we were really illiterate in Black friday protocol but an aged uncle kindly educated us. He was really surprised that we were in line for iPads and did not even know where the electronics section was in the store! Everybody was laughing when we told them that we just saw the line and joined it with no prior planning!

The high point of the evening was when a person came around and took our interviews (we were third in line). We did not take him seriously and cracked a lot of jokes, and did not even ask him why he was interviewing us. He did ask us the question which my sister had asked me around 10 times since the morning - was it worth our time waiting in line for 9 hours? Well, for us it was hanging out as we do our hiking trips, awesome weather, awesome company and a totally new experience. And getting 3 iPads at 380$ (regular price 500$) at the end.

Later, Kumar heard us on the radio. It seems the guy was "Lunch Box" from the Bobby Bones show and he was in Austin to capture the spirit of Black friday shopping. If I had known we would be on air, I would have been more eloquent! And the amazing thing was that, coincidentally, it was aired when Kumar was on his way to Dallas on Monday and was tuned in to the show!

Here are some pictures:

In the morning - the guys at no2 position had a very cozy tent, while the no1 slept in his truck. And we, the no3 came at a very late 11 am

Soaking the sun with tea and snacks and hanging out in the camp chairs. That's Manas and Kumar waving to the camera.

I was really impressed by the measures the stores take to make the shopping effective. The store employees came early to talk about the procedures and they formed a cordon to enforce queue discipline when we first entered the store. The security tapes strung along the Target shopping carts are the line guides.