Black Friday. This is the day after Thanksgiving and has gained notoriety for being a day for insane deals on all those things we love to buy (especially electronics). I had heard of it before but having never experienced first hand before, I wanted to give it a go. Besides I saw an amazing deal on a TV…so here is the story.

My old TV was…well…old. It was a decently sized tube TV and in it’s prime the quality was amazing. But after (roughly) 15+ years it was showing its age. Being a lowly restaurant manager I didn’t have thousands to spend on the newest/greatest/bestest…so I was shopping for a deal. I found a couple ads for Target selling an Olevia 532H (32 inch high definition LCD) for $500…I was pretty damn excited. But perhaps I could do better…

And then I found it…a Black Friday special at Microcenter in Santa Clara, CA…the same TV for $350 (after rebate). Who could resist that? Little did I know that A) not many people could and B) there is a reason why “normal” people don’t do this.

Not really knowing what to expect about the whole ordeal (besides the inane ramblings of internet bloggers…eep) I figured I could get out there around 4 AM and everything would be cool (they open at 6 AM).

Oh yeah, did I mention that I worked Thanksgiving at the restaurant? It is one of the Big Dog holidays for us (see another post for Big Dog Holidays). I got out of work around 10ish and went home to shower and change. Mary was coming with me (THANK GOD) so I left my house and picked her up around 11-11:30 PM.

Mary lived out in Walnut Creek fairly close to Best Buy. On a whim we cruised past the store…I knew they were doing Black Friday stuff too…maybe there would be a line.

Yep…a line. A line of roughly 150-200 people.

We had originally planned on hanging out at my house until 2AM then driving to Santa Clara. But if there are already that many people outside waiting before midnight…we are in for a bit more than anticipated.

We drove back to my house, geared up with warm clothes, got directions, and headed out.

It was a bit tough to find (having never been in that part of the Bay Area) but we found it…after driving past Google and Yahoo HQ (kinda cool to see actually).

So we find the place…it’s a HUGE parking lot/strip mall type place.  And what did we find?

A line.  A monster line of people running along the whole front side of the building and roughly a quarter way around the side.  Unreal!

A bit disheartened we park the car, take a deep breath and walk out into the cold night.  Sure this was November and a mild winter…but it isn’t exactly warm out (especially at 1:30ish AM).

More later….