It’s 5am and the exit ramp at Hylan Drive is backed-up a mile. Turning into the parking lot, the cars are already parked out to the street. Just inside the front doors of Best Buy one can see the mob cradling boxes of LCD’s, DVD recorders and the newest I-Pod. Once again on Black Friday 2006, the day after Thanksgiving, this store has customer service staff dressed in blue shirts like a battalion of “blue angels” helping the “mob” of desperate shoppers to find a bargain. These angels are slick. With attached earphones, they are busy finding your treasure or directing traffic to check-out. The check-out line resembles a Disney ride at Epcot, One has to follow a series of roped lanes that weave you between rows of vacuum cleaners, washers and dryers and finally up against refrigerator row. Waiting in line, I can’t help to marvel at all the “loot” people are pushing along the floor like their 40 inch LCD TV or crates of CD’s and DVD’s or a shopping cart loaded with a flat panel monitor. While waiting, there is music not Georgian chant but classical rock. Our “blue angels” are busy handing out I-Pods screaming: “Get the newest I-Pod of the season for only 49.95!” In which I overhear a disgruntled buyer tell her friend: “Sucked you in-- did they.” I’m a tad embarrassed since I don’t know anything about I-Pods. Do they do laundry?It’s interesting to observe the people walking along the crowded aisles with cell phone in one hand and merchandise in the other. At 5:15 in the morning, are they calling their dispatchers at home or an anonymous bidder from Antique Roadshow?
Screaming was heard from the electronics counters, I think its has something to do with limited quantities and everyone at the desk wants “to deal” or get a raincheck or voucher. Getting people to buy more than what’s on their list or the illusion that sale prices only occur once a year on Black Friday at 5am is a myth.
At the check-out, there was a ”blue angel” standing on a platform like air traffic control directing traffic to the next open register. By this time, people were impatient telling clerks that their electronic item was on sale, only to be told by the computer: “not this brand or model or without a voucher.” A frenzy would develop and the “security blue angels” were despatched to break up a riot. Imagine, all this rutting for a Kodak Easy Share or LCD?
It suddenly dawned on me that the real sale folks had missed was not the newest I-Pod you plug in your ear. Rather, this kingdom was filled with empty promises. I saw no ads for any new cures, no lasting happiness, no peace of mind. I wondered after browsing the sales in aisle one, if there were really any bargains. Though as I stood in line with “Home Alone” under my arm, I wondered if I should have bought that DVD video recorder for $89.95.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who brave the endless shopping rituals of the season. Let them realize the real “bargains” are found in the boxes that hold memories we spend with family and friends. Give us the grace to let go of the cravings for more and portions that add on pounds and clutter. Let us nibble more on “good sweets” when we pet our “best friend” or relax with our friends.
