|
|
Mike Moser Black Friday an experience to remember There are some things in life that we are
not meant to understand and the annual rites of the holiday shopping
season when the people report en masse in search of the ever-elusive
bargain is certainly near the top of the list. As long as I live, I doubt I will ever witness
the spectacle I experienced on Black Friday at the Crossville
Super Wal-Mart Center. For those who don't know, Black Friday is
the day after Thanksgiving, which is arguably the biggest shopping
day of the year. I have heard my friends in retail trade talk
about the dreaded day that puts workers in fear, shoppers on
edge and store owners and managers in smile. Mere words, however,
can not portray just how curious is this phenomena of Americana. On Wednesday of last week I decided I would
set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. so I could firsthand see this wonder
of capitalism. It by far exceeded my expectations. I arrived at the store at 5 a.m. and while
I was surprised at the number of vehicles in the parking lot,
the numbers were not outstanding. I went ahead and did some casual
shopping, a ball of twine, a string of Christmas lights, a star
for the top of my tree. I walked around and chatted with some
of the employees I knew who were chipper but full of anticipation. After all, wasn't it last year that one of
the stockmen got hit in the face with a rocking chair, and a
couple of years ago didn't two women get into a fight when Furbees
were the rage? By 5:50 a.m. the store looked like Saturday
afternoon. Extra help were poised at their appointed stations.
In the garden center where I was debating the virtues of a real
tree versus a new artificial tree, two big stockmen stood in
front of the exit doors and I knew I was at the right place to
see action. At exactly six o'clock the first pallet of
goodies entered the garden center, but the scene was relatively
mild. In fact, customers grabbed buckets of Legos off the top
and handed them to others who couldn't get close. That's the
Christmas spirit, I thought. The crowd swelled by the minute as pallet
after pallet was pulled into the garden center en route to the
store floor. Operation games were attacked but survived to reach
the toy section. Then came the Matchbox toy sets. Fire, police and car lot, they were called.
As soon as the doors shut behind the stockman pulling this pallet,
a wave of shoppers surged forward. It looked like a giant ant
hill. One woman pushed to the front and when the
commotion she created ended, she had seven sets. Grown men were
grabbing them from the display, not for their kids, but for themselves.
So I grabbed one, too, for no apparent reason. Later I saw an
acquaintance who was searching for one and I gladly gave him
the one I had nabbed. I still don't know why I grabbed it. The hot item this year for kids are scooters.
Who would have ever thought they would have followed the yo-yo
and Hula Hoops in making a comeback? By this time it was 6:15 a.m. and the crowd
in the store numbered thousands. So many people and shopping
carts were clogging the aisles by this point that the stockmen
could no longer maneuver pallets into place. Then the pallet with the scooters entered
the garden center. Shoppers surged forward in some kind of ritual
feeding frenzy. Plastic wrap around the display was flying and
cardboard was crumbling as the harried shoppers jumped on the
toys. Moms, dads, kids and grandmas, pushing, shoving, jockeying
for position. If only they could invent an apple picker
with hands that fast. Oh, the humanity. A department manager was asked, "Are
there any more scooters?" "Not here," Sheri Beaty replied,
"but they might be bringing some more through the rear stockroom
doors." Within another 20 seconds they were gone and I
found myself alone in the garden center, facing two checkout
operators, the greeter and the supervisor. Later I heard a large swell of voices at the
stock door near the shoe section. "What's happening?"
I asked. A manager passing by said the magic word. "Scooters."
I then heard a woman's voice shout, "Run for your lives!" I tried to navigate across the store but aisles
were littered with frazzled shoppers and stuffed shopping carts.
I was hit with shopping carts on every part of my body including
two places I had just as soon not talk about. I was most amazed at the ingenuity of some
of the bargain hunters. One pair was armed with walkie-talkies
and another was talking with a shopping partner via cell phones.
Like commandos on a seek and destroy mission, they had all exits
covered. I made my way to the door, happy I got to
witness the blitz, and happy in the knowledge I'll never do that
again. I drove home and went to bed. |