GEEKOLOGY 101: The Attack of the Crazed Shoppers II

I don’t know what is wrong with me. I think it is a sickness.

Oh, I am not running any fevers or have any symptoms of the horrible flu that is ravaging its way across the country.

No, I am talking about my addiction to Black Friday...I mean Black Thursday, or whatever day it is going to be next year.

There is just something about it. Every year about the same time, the day after, I pledge to NEVER go to another Black Friday sale again.

Then the sales circulars start popping up online and I start to feel this itch inside me. I MUST GO!!!

Is there usually anything that I NEED in these circulars that would make me want to venture out into the onslaught of human vultures? No, of course not.

No, it is this weird sense of victory after wading my way through the rest of those like me, crazy enough to venture out on a Holiday, and get that one item I didn’t think I had a chance to get.

This year it was the Iron Man blu-ray for the low, low price of $3 plus. I must have it! 

Anyway, I went right after we all finished our dessert after Thanksgiving day dinner. Since I was stuffed to my very core, I felt that going out to the local shopping establishments would be a good way of working some of this off.

Once there, I noticed that the huge parking lot was almost full. I was not happy about that.

Ever since some of the stores have decided that there must be a 8pm start time for Black Fri...Thursday, more and more people have found there way to the mass of humanity.

It used to be only the brave sort that would head out on Friday morning at Midnight.

Now, it seems, like everyone is there.

It makes life a little more difficult but not impossible.

So, I was a little early and decided to do my normal walk-around.

Since the store I hit has gone from the black wrap to clear wrap, it has been easier to scope out where everything is. Plus they give you a map.

So I planned out my attack run. I even shut off my targeting computer and decided to use the “force” on this one.

I positioned myself as far away from the carnage that is the electronic department piranha tank and set up shop in front of the blu-ray pallets.

Must - get - Iron - Man on blu-ray.

Then it happened. They announced that it was time to unleash the hounds.

I don’t know what it was like throughout the rest of the store but my little group waited patiently for the sales associate to cut away the wrap for us to start shopping.

So I jumped in and searched and searched for what I was there for.

Unfortunately I could not find it. I checked, checked and rechecked every single pallet and not a copy was to be had.

Disappointed I set off to get the rest of the items on my list. Looking back, every so often, with a tear in my eye. Knowing, just knowing I had missed it somewhere.

The next day, which I like to call “Picking the carcass” day, my family and I decided to explore what was left from the Black Fri...I mean Thursday deals.

And there it was. Gleaming back at me like a spotlight was MY copy of Iron Man on Blu-ray.

So I grabbed it and held on to it like it was my long lost son.

Then I realized something. If I would just wait until the day after Black Fri.. I mean Thursday, I bet I could probably find everything on my list without the fuss. So next year, No Black Friday shopping for me. This time I mean it.

Yea right. Heard that before

Gary Darling is the geekiest employee at the Maryville Daily Forum. His email is: gdarling@maryvilledailyforum.com. Drop him a line sometime!