doodledee

As I see it, the shopping frenzy that erupts every year the day after Thanskgiving neatly divides the nation into two groups of people. First there are the deal hunting maniacs who stay up all night reading fatwallet, building shopping lists, and waiting in ridiculously long pre-dawn lines in the hopes that they, too, may get a piece of The Doorbuster bonanza. Then there are the people who sit back and count the days until the "the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture" finally does us all in. And that's it - those are the only two types of people.

Except for me. I fall kind of in the middle. For as much as I can get worked up about the gross-out consumerism that defines our very being as Americans, I also can't resist the cultural implications of missing out on the kind of scene where people are actually trampled in the name of a $24 DVD player. Which is why I don't get up at 2am to go wait in line, but I do go out at 7:30 and people watch and try and grab a few deals.

The crowds were big everywhere I went. Not monster huge, but plenty big. Also, perhaps non-related, like 80% of the cars in the parking lots had those 'support our troops' yellow ribbon magnets on them. Seriously, like 80%. When did that happen? I've noticed a few on the freeways in the mornings, but nothing like what I saw at Apache Mall and/or other various strip enterprises in Rochester.

All the ribbons got me to wonderin': Why on cars? Is it somehow better than putting a yellow ribbon on your shirt or jacket and parading your troop-love right next to your face? Maybe a little more anonymity means you can tell me how you really feel? Seems odd. And another thing: who out there is anti-troops? Is anybody? All this 'support our troops' stuff just feels like some sort of massive overcompensation by the Boomers for spitting on the baby killers coming back from Vietnam. Kudos on the effort, I guess, but it still feels creepy.

Ok, anyway, back to the shopping. Because I was hours behind the flashmobs, I pretty much got blanked on everything, but I did manage to pick up a couple of things on uber sale from Best Buy (file under: devil customer). When my rebates arrive in 8-12 weeks I'll be living large with super cheap reasonably high grade battery backup in the basement for my server. Until then, however, I'll be overpaying for a black box that I don't expect to use that much. Funny how that works.

Getting a drop on time to shop [strib]
Buy Nothing Day [adbusters] - but the deals man, the deals!