No shopping...

I did spend money on Friday. $12.00.
Had to ship a couple little packages.

Finally got a couple tie dyed items sent to their intended recipients.

All that required was a trip to the post office, a little excursion into my wallet for a twenty, and about fifteen minutes of my time.

Did I go shopping since I was out anyway?
HELL no!!!

There is not a deal in the universe good enough to get me to brave the crowds that gather for the few 'doorbuster' items.

I did read a few stories on local news and on CNN about the feeding frenzy.

One duo waited in line at Best Buy starting at 3? AM (too lazy to go back and look at the story). They got what they came for. Went out and PUT IT IN THEIR CAR IN A CROWDED PARKING LOT and went shopping somewhere else.

I'm sure you can write the ending. But not here. So I will.
Someone broke into their car and stole their stuff.

Another story talked about people having their cars towed from a parking lot that was not marked as for one particular store (T-mobile). One guy said he'd have to return his merchandise to pay for the tow fees.

Another lovely lady cut in line at a ToysRUs. And threatened to shoot people who protested.

Really?

I think there's something seriously wrong here, folks.

My Matt works retail. Most of his shifts are spent in the company of the other ghouls who work the graveyard shift.

They all shuffle around stocking shelves and occasionally growling at each other. Most of them can at least grunt to communicate. They don't usually like having to talk to customers. They go in, do their jobs, and are out of the store by 8:00 or so in the mornings.

On Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, though, they all have to deal with the public.

The store buys 2 of a few huge, big ticket items, and 300 people come to the store to buy them.

It's a gimmick, folks.

The store loses money on those items, which it makes up by selling other things to you at a much higher price than you really want to spend.

I'm sure you already knew that. But you can't say that to the 40th guy who asks you where the item is. So you have to say that you're sold out.

That customer will not be happy, but the corporate people who make those marketing decisions are snug in their beds at home sleeping off the excess of Turkey Thursday. They don't get the fallout.

Matt was just a teeny bit tired when he arrived home from work on Friday morning. Now if I hadn't already planned to avoid shopping, his stories about the wild-eyed frenzy were more than enough to make me decide to stay home.

And that was before I started reading the news stories.

::shudder::

So did you go out shopping?
Did you get it all done?
Did anyone threaten to shoot you?

I know some people shop online, can get great deals and manage to get all their holiday shopping done in a day or so.

Not me.

Since we're being very careful about money this year, that's not happening in my house, although for some reason, I don't feel as Scrooge-like as I have the past few years.

I still look like him, though.

Speaking of funny looking... in other news, we had a zombie egg show up at our Thanksgiving dinner, but he wiped the snotty look off his face pretty fast when we smashed him into the deviled egg mix.

That's one egg bastard that will never terrorize US again!