Black Friday

In my callous and misspent youth I did, on at least one occasion, go to a mall on Black Friday.  Well, I wasn’t really that young, but it was done just for the fun of it and as a lark so it was at least in the spirit of youth.

I never had gone out on Black Friday to shop.  Not, that is, until this Black Friday.  Dum dum dummmmmmmmm.

It was the first and most likely the last time that I will do such a thing.  I did, however, have an excellent reason.

We have a land-line phone at home.  It’s there for several reasons, not just because I am old, and on the line we had two cordless phones.  You will note, please, the use of the past tense.  This past week both phones decided to break on the same day.  It may have even been at the same time.  It was certainly noticed at the same time.  So there we were without fully functioning phones.

Now this had been anticipated, since neither phone was new and both were showing signs of impending trouble.  So we had actually looked at the options available for a replacement phone.

As luck would have it that very phone was on sale on Friday.

So early in the morning we went to the store, conveniently located less than a mile from home, and bought the phone.

I realize that that is not exciting.  It was in fact a calm and quiet shopping experience without stress or crowds.  So it was not a Black Friday shopping spectacle such as those you may have seen on TV.  However, that was my Black Friday shopping experience and it was just the way that we wanted it to be.

I have now shopped on Black Friday.  I was even drawn to the store by an advertised sale.  However, unless a similar circumstance occurs, I will not be doing so again intentionally.

As far as I’m concerned, Black Friday shopping is a spectator sport.