I went out shopping on Black Friday because I'm evil.  Black Friday is the term given to the biggest shopping day of the year – the day after Thanksgiving when competition amongst shoppers turns their hearts black.

 

However, stores call it "Black Friday" because of two reasons.  One, it's a Friday.  And two, "Black" is the ink that accountants would use on the bottom line if the company made a profit and red ink if they had a loss.  On the biggest shopping day of the season, many stores would turn a huge profit.  Thus the term "Black Friday" where "Black" means, "Profit", and "Friday" means "Friday". 

 

Traditionally stores will have super deals for a few hours in the morning on a few cool things and deals on a bunch of stuff you don't need.  Stores also call "Black Friday", "Sell all our crap Friday," or "Clear out our inventory Friday." 

 

Here's an example…

 

So like Best Buy had an older model but decent laptop for $500.  Good deal eh?  Yeah, I'd like a laptop for $500.  So I'll go to Best Buy and pick one up. Doors open at 6AM so I should get there early.  But…

 

Each store only has 25 of them.  So the line outside the store would form much earlier than the opening. So this year the line started to form sometime around Halloween.

 

So you'd have this huge line formed by the hopes of getting this laptop, and here's the trick, since they had one good deal, they make all the other deals seem like good deals.  Like $100 for a 20", normal screen TV, made by like Burger King, and an $18 DVD player made by Sonee.  Those only seem like good deals, because of the one good deal – and it wasn't even that good of a deal cause they only had 25 of them to sell.

 

I didn't actually buy anything from Best Buy that morning because I went to other places, but I did stop by there around 6:30 just to see how chaotic is was.  And let me tell you, those $100 TVs were flying.  Does anyone need these TVs?  No.  But it's such a good deal right?  They're quality TVs right?  K-Mark had flat screen, 20" TVs yesterday for $80, but since Best Buy had an awesome deal on 25 laptops, that makes this piece of crap TV much better than that other higher quality, cheaper TV at K-Mart. 

 

Or maybe people are just afraid to go into K-Mart.  Just make sure you're caught up on all your shots and you'll be okay. 

 

So Best Buy was so packed that they cash registers were seriously popping up throughout the store.  And it still wasn't enough.  Lines were literally weaving through all the aisles.  It was pretty crazy. 

 

And yes, everyone looked mean.  Everyone's hearts were black. 

Office Maxx opened at 7 AM and they had super deals.  They had stuff for free!  That's right, free.  After rebate.  This place was nuts.  100 pack CDRs, jewel cases, cordless phones, quick drives, and power strips. 

 

Can you imagine the competition as 200 people all go into the store at the same time rushing for the same products?  It's like people were in a refugee camp fighting for the last jar of milk.  I mean, just grab anything you can get a hold of.  At some point, someone threw me and all the stuff I was carrying into their cart. 

 

Hopefully they’ll return me after they realize I don't come with a rebate.