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November 24, 2007
What It Takes
I blame it on the turkey. And the stuffing. And the corn, rolls, gravy, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Did I mention mashed potatoes? There were so many mashed potatoes. Because you see, in my post Thanksgiving Day feast haze, suddenly going shopping at 4 AM in the morning to get ALL THOSE DEALS seemed like a good idea. My oh my.
I could also blame it on football because after watching the 50th game of the day (well, more like the 3rd) I just couldn't take any football any more. So I turned to the pile of newspaper ads sitting next to me on the couch. And the deals started to overwhelm me. After a while of flipping through them, glossy and very inviting with prices that could not be beat (!), I pulled O into it. "Look," I tell him, "we could get such and such at half price and then this and that at 60% off and then..." At first he was hesitant but then...then we found the exact gift we wanted to get for his parents (not to be mentioned in the case they might read) at a price we could actually afford. He had thought of the idea a while back but we decided it was a little too pricey for this year. Perhaps next year. But then, there it was, staring back at us at 50% off and all of a sudden it became reality. O was in. And thus our idea of actually joining the crazies that get up at 4 in the morning to go shopping on Black Friday, was born.
Our plan was simple. Up at 3:30. Feed dog. Put on clothes. Out the door by 3:45. At the mall by 4. Pick up the items we needed. Back home by 4:45. Back in bed by 5. Sleep for another 2-3 hours. Up again to run and start a normal day, like nothing ever happened, except for the fact that we had just crossed about 5 more people off our Christmas shopping list for half the price!
It was so simple. So pure. And it started off okay. Up at 3:30 and my excitement was starting to build. In the car, driving to the mall and O comments that it sort of feels like we're going to a triathlon! Dark and the roads are empty and we're both a little nervous.
That's right - I can handle this! If anybody has the ability to get up at 3:30 in the morning and function at a very high level it's me! I get up early all the time. I swim. I bike. I run. I put it all together and suffer for hours at a time. I'm going to show these Black Friday shoppers how it's done!
We pulled into the mall parking lot and instantly I'm amazed. The lot is PACKED and I mean PACKED! It's 4:01. What the heck? These people really are crazy... But nonetheless - here we go!
And we have a plan. O goes straight to the electronics where he plans to pick up the gift for his parents. I go straight to the women's dresses where I (unfortunately) plan to pick out a nice (but now inexpensive) dress I need for an upcoming wedding.
We walk into the store and it is wall to wall people. I'm instantly a little thrown off my game. How could there be this many people already? And I hate crowds. Oh how I hate crowds. There are tables filled with clothing and this doo-dad and that all lining the walkways too, so now it's even harder to get around.
But I take a deep breathe. I can do this. I can show these people what triathlon toughness is all about!
O heads off in his direction and I in mine. Now I absolutely hate dresses and shopping for them, but I need to do this. I have nothing fancy enough for this wedding that is 2 weeks away. So I start searching. Is this elegant enough or too casual? Does the dress need to be black for a black tie affair? Why are all dresses sleeveless, even those made for the winter? I finally find two that I think might work and head to the changing room. And that's when my cell phone rings.
It's O, sadly informing me that the gift we wanted was already gone. The store had limited amounts of them and even though O arrived at approximately 4:02 am, those limited amounts were already gone. Major bummer.
So now what? I didn't expect this to happen. A wrench thrown in our plan already and it wasn't even a quarter past 4! And we didn't have a plan B. I should have known. You ALWAYS need a plan B.
So O met me upstairs near the dresses as I tried on my picks. They fit okay, I guess. But I wasn't sure if they were too casual. I brought them back out of the fitting rooms and found O. We roamed around the dress section a little longer before I became disgusted. "I hate shopping for dresses!" I tell him! (as if he didn't already know)
Now the crowds were starting to get to me. People everywhere and I was getting hot. Our top priority item was a bust. Now the dresses were just not working out and my patience was slowly running thin. And all of a sudden I felt tired. Very, very tired.
We rallied a little. There was still one other item on our list. Perhaps we would find victory there! So we went down to try and find it. But there were more people and I was now even more tired. And my ability to make any sort of useful decision was quickly failing...
It was somewhere around 4:30 am when I accepted defeat.
I watched all the people hustling about, loads of purchases in their arms. Drinking their coffee, smiling and laughing. They were having fun. They were buying up a storm. They knew what they wanted. They went after it. And they got it.
O and I, on the other hand, were haggard. We had no Plan B. We weren't ready for the crowds and the rush. We weren't ready for the split decisions that had to be made in the blink of an eye before someone else snatched up the last one. It was quite a realization - one I didn't want to face.
Quite simply, O and I just didn't have What It Takes. Not on that particular Black Friday, nor any Black Friday to come. These people were pros and we thought we could hang. Very much the opposite. It wasn't even close.
We found our way out of the store, heads held low and empty-handed. In one last attempt at success we thought of driving past the Best Buy (which opened at 5) to see if we could find what we wanted there. But the line of customers waiting for the store to open was clear across the parking lot and starting up the road. Did I mention that it was in the 20s, windy and snowing? No way man. O didn't even slow the car down - right back onto the highway and home to get back into bed where we belonged.
So now we know. Black Friday is NOT our day. I will never be tempted to go after those deals, no matter how wonderful, again. Because some people have What It Takes and others, O and I included, don't. :)
Posted by beth at November 24, 2007 2:05 PM
Comments
Did your triathlon skills help you get to the sales rack any quicker? You know, don't you triathletes simply swim over people who are in your way!
Posted by: Dawn at November 24, 2007 2:53 PM
It was like throwing a rookie quarterback in to play his first game against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense......confused, overwhelmed, defeated....
Posted by: O at November 24, 2007 2:54 PM
HA! This was the 1st year I skipped Black Friday...and I MISSED it...but Jerome and I "tried" to go shopping sans kids at night and I was trashed. BECAUSE I got up at 5am to swim and bike and coffee for a different version of Black Friday! :) Honestly though, I always did the TOYS R Us store for the kids and it was worth it!
:) Jen
Posted by: Jennifer Harrison at November 24, 2007 3:14 PM
I like to think how much money I saved on Friday by not going shopping at all. If you don't buy it, it's 100% off. I have no doubt if you trained year-round you could handle it. But you don't show up for a triathlon without training, do you?
I'll probably do most of my shopping online again this year. I wonder if they have Black Friday deals on the 'net...
Posted by: Alison at November 24, 2007 4:00 PM