After Turkey Day Madness

Since when did the biggest shopping day of the year turn into such a dangerous thing? Maybe I didn't read the news enough in the past that may have brought this to my attention but upon opening Drudge and AOL news I saw headlines about stampeding and trampled shoppers!

Last year there was a remote control HumV that I really wanted to get for our son for Christmas. Much to my surprise, the local WalMart would have it marked down to $20 for their early bird after Thanksgiving sale starting at 5:00am. This was a $30 savings for pete's sake and well worth it for me to get up that early. Of course it made me wonder also about how they could mark prices so damn high on things to begin with, feeling slightly robbed at the same time.

My two older daughters wanted to join me and yanked my butt out of bed so we could get there at 4:30. I thought that was a little ridiculous really but grudginly obliged them. I made sure the night before that they made me coffee or I never would have made it. Sweeties, they had a full pot ready for me.

We drove to the store and normally the parking lot is somewhat full being the busiest WalMart in the State of Wisconsin but upon turning in I was shocked at all the cars not to mention the line of people that spanned the parking lot. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that sort of crowd since we live only an hour from all the big shopping malls. It took me 10 minutes to find a parking spot and I just sat in our vehicle in awe. The line was insane!

We walked to the line and stood and had conversations with many of the other women in line, barely any men of course. The excitement was eminating all around. The line had almost reached the highway before 5:00 finally arrived. People were starting to inch their way past those of us in towards the front of the line and attempting to squeeze themselves into a spot.

When the doors opened I immediately felt arms in my back and was being pushed into the people standing in front of me. I told my girls, "When we get in there, you go left, I'll go right and you go kiddie corner and when you find that HumV, pick out the black one and wait there for me and then we are getting the hell out of here!'' My girls were in shock with the way people were being. Rudely pushing their way in front of us, cramming themselves in the doorway like sardines are crammed into a can. I just couldn't believe it.

Can I believe that people were sent to the hospital on a morning like this? Oh you betcha. In fact, my experience last year really soured me on getting to the store upon opening it's doors because of the way people were.

I went to the store later this afternoon to begin getting ready for Christmas day. Buying tablecloths, projects for my daycare, outdoor decorations, that sort of thing and it was so peaceful and quiet. There was hardly anyone there. It was like a normal day. Of course I missed out on some pretty sweet deals on things for my kids but ultimately, some of the things that I saw in the ad were still marked down a little and I just don't believe that it is worth the money to be in the fray of madness.