Exhausting- Black Friday

So I was one of the crazy people that was up all night and in line at the store right after Thanksgiving but this time I got someone crazy enough to stay up with me and freeze all night. It was much better with someone to talk to this time! It's almost like I sport for some of these people. It just gets crazier every year but we keep doing it. I can't believe some of the stories of violence that I've read this year! And to see the people that bring babies and kids out here all night is just awful!

I know that no one is polite that day and everyone is in competition to get the stuff before it sells out but it's just gotten way out of control!

Apparently Devon is as crazy as me since she came over and stayed up all night on Thanksgiving with me. We spent hours making and organizing lists and then mapping out what route would be best. We were in line by 3 am (hats, goves and all). Apparently people have started camping in line outside these stores days in advance. This is a pic of customers sleeping in line at Best Buy. It was below freezing that night. There were tents set up in the lots before we even had dinner at 5! People are sleeping in line!

Why do I do this every year? I can't believe how violent Black Friday has become. Some of the incidents below are just scary!!

"The holiday shopping season began early today with a 73-year-old Josephine Hoffman being knocked down as a crowd at BrandsMart USA in Sunrise, Florida pushed their way under a metal security gate to get inside, forcing dozens of people against the walls and trampling the woman."

"A bargain notebook computer was the catalyst for trouble at a Wal-Mart in Orlando, Florida, where a man was wrestled to the ground by plain-clothed security guards after cutting in line to buy one. Many customers simply carted their stuff out of the store and passed right by the man in handcuffs, without any reaction."

"A woman was stepped on by several people after she fell when dozens of frenzied shoppers stampeded into a Grand Rapids, Michigan area Wal-Mart store around 5 o'clock this morning. When the rush ended, the woman and a 13-year-old girl suffered minor injuries."

"Extra officers were called to a Renton, Washington Wal-Mart to help control crowds of shoppers who pushed their way into the electronics department shortly after the doors opened. The shoppers even knocked counters out of position as they fought over a limited supply of notebook computers."

Violence mars PlayStation 3 launch
By PETER SVENSSON, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 18, 6:19 AM ET

HARTFORD, Conn. - Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new PlayStation 3 game system to go on sale early Friday and shot one man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

In Sullivan, Ind., a man was in critical condition after emergency surgery for a stab wound after he and a friend tried to rob two men of consoles they waited 36 hours in line to buy, police said.

Nationwide, short supplies of the PS3 and strong demand led to long lines of buyers, some waiting for days outside stores. Once the doors opened Friday, they pushed and shoved their way to the shelves in several cities to get at the limited supply.

Two people were arrested in Fresno, Calif., after a crowd trampled people in a parking lot.
It was about 3 a.m. when the two gunmen in Putnam, a town of about 9,000 residents in northeast Connecticut, confronted 15 to 20 people standing outside a Wal-Mart store and demanded money, said State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
"One of the patrons resisted. That patron was shot," Vance said.
Vance said the gunmen fled after shooting Michael Penkala, 21, of Webster, Mass., in the chest and shoulder. Penkala was in stable condition at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Mass., with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Vance said.
Police were searching for the suspects, both believed to be in their teens, Vance said. He said one was wearing a ski mask and brandishing a handgun, and the other had what appeared to be a shotgun.

About 30 miles away, another shopper was beaten and robbed of his new PlayStation 3 just minutes after he bought it at a store in Manchester, police said.
The shopper told police five men surrounded and beat him as he left the Shoppes at Buckland Hills.
Police Sgt. Chris Davis said the attackers pushed one of their cohorts out of the car as they drove away. That man, a 17-year-old from Windsor, was charged with robbery, larceny, assault and breach of peace.
Four other teenagers were arrested, and more arrests were expected, police told WTNH-TV late Friday.

Andrew Templeton, 20, and David Wiggins, 28, of Sullivan, Ind., were assaulted by two teens after waiting for 36 hours at a Super Wal-Mart, police said.
They were unloading their PlayStation 3s from their car when two teens approached them carrying a chain and a tire iron and demanding their consoles, said Sullivan Police Chief David Story.
A fight broke out. Wiggins' nose was broken, and he stabbed one of the attackers, Dylan Moss, 19, police said. Moss was in critical condition after surgery, officials said.
Sullivan County Prosecutor Bob Springer said he plans to charge Moss and accomplice Dustin Fagg, 19, with felony robbery.

Elsewhere, two men wearing black ski masks and sunglasses made off with five consoles after holding two employees at gunpoint at an Englewood, Ohio, video game store Thursday night, police said.

A Pennsylvania teenager was also robbed of his new PlayStation by a man who tapped on his car window with a handgun in Allentown, police said.

In Lexington, Ky., someone fired BB pellets from a passing vehicle at people waiting outside a Best Buy store, according to WKYT, whose own reporter said she was among four people grazed while she interviewed buyers in line.

Police fired a talcum powder ball at the ground outside a Target store in Henrico, Va., to get the attention of an unruly crowd of about 350 people who were waiting to buy one of the shop's eight consoles, police said.

In McLean, Va., police fired pepper pellets Friday morning to subdue a rowdy crowd of about 200 people outside a Circuit City store at Tysons Corner Center mall. One person complained of shortness of breath after the pellets were fired and was taken to the hospital, authorities said.
A Best Buy store in Boston, aware it had only 140 of the consoles, got smart about the big sale — its employees gave out tickets to the first 140 people in line so everyone could go home until the store opened.