[Talk] Black Friday

[Nick Simicich]

Went to do the rounds of the early-bird stuff on Black Friday.

I went to CompUSA at ungodly in the morning.  In Ft. Myers, by 1 AM the
line was around the block for 15 Toshiba laptops.  There was no way the
people in the back of the line were getting anything.  They had
announced that they would send an employee out at 4 AM to give out
tickets for the stuff.  So you would not have to fight inside - but 4 AM
was a bit late, they should have started at midnight. CompUSA was open
on Thursday evening for a couple hours.  I wonder how many people, in
their buying frenzy, bought stuff that was incompatible or that they
simply didn't need.  Who could resist an off brand WiFi AP for $2 after
rebate?

The stores that attracted the longest lines were Best Buy and Circuit
City.

The first people in the  Best Buy line were there at 2 PM Thursday. 
They probably will get a Laptop or whatever else they wanted.  I needed
a laptop and a camera for gifts. At 1 AM, the line was already around
the store and halfway across the back, and it was completely clear that
there was nothing left for the people at the end of the line.  I decided
that Best Buy would be a zoo all day and that there was absolutely
nothing left that I would want at Sound Advice or Best Buy, the two
biggest zoos. (I would have wanted one of those doorbuster items, a 50+
TV for like $900 or something), but not enough to get in line at 4 PM
and to wait for 13 hours.  I am honestly not sure I was capable of doing
that.

I then decided that there were decent deals at CompUSA - not that they
mostly could not have been had on Thursday, but they were going to be
OK.

I had wanted a cheap, tiny stand alone DVD player for a while - the
cheapest (after rebate) was $60 at Compusa.  I had wanted a cheap,
decent laptop for someone who I have known well over the year, and that
was available at CompUSA.

I needed a low end laptop as a Christmas gift to someone who had been
wonderful to me, and I needed a decent but not high end camera as a
gift.

In Ft. Myers, CompUSA and Target were in the same plaza, almost
adjacent.  CompUSA was opening at 5 AM but several times through the
night they let someone out and he interviewed the line - he'd tell you
how many they had of what and if it was a low availability item, they
would put your name on a ticket (and hand you a copy) so that a late
arriver who was given cuts would not beat you out for it - I thought
that was excellent. 

My friend shifted to Target when their line started to build. We were
after the C633 for $98 (-10% for the "get credit today" discount) and a
19" LCD TV. At Target, they advertised minimum 15 items per store but
they had literally hundreds and were restocking as the shelves emptied -
they wanted people not to be disappointed. They had a number of movies
for $6 and others for $9.  If you were in the store even an hour after
they opened, you could get a camera (probably the best item) and you
could get a cheap 19" LCD TV.  I think that they did sell out of the $30
gaming chairs.

I bought a cheap chocolate fountain from Walmart a couple of week ago
and it turned out to be a bad move - the thing died at the first party I
went to and set it up at.  I went to Costco to buy a Rival brand one
(and returned the broken one to Walmart).  When the chocolate starts
flowing over the top and dripping down the sides, it is really fun to
watch the chocoholics eyes light up. The cheapest chocolate is also at
Costco - $5 for a box of truffles, pure chocolate dusted with cocoa,
that contains a kilo net weight.  Costco carries them at Christmas and
Easter. Surprisingly, the chocolate would not flow and needed to have a
bit of vegetable oil added to it (per directions, but I thought that
these were gonna be plenty soft when warmed up - maybe I'll bring a bit
of U-Bet or Hershey's chocolate sauce next time to cut the melted
chocolate with).  These truffles normally need to be kept cold - they
get sticky on a warm day.  


After about 15 minutes the gears broke and quit transmitting motion to
the auger and the chocolate stopped moving.  And the light went out -
despite the fact that there was still warm chocolate in the bottom of it
to dip bits of fruit and ladyfingers into.  The best thing discovered
was that you could take small cubes of pumpkin pie and turn it into
chocolate pumpkin surprise - then when the chocolate stopped flowing 
you needed a spoon to get it onto your pie.

They will also work with a cheese fondue - next halloween, I think I am
going to try and do a white jack and mozzarella sauce heavily doped with
red food color so that it looks like a  blood fountain. If the chocolate
works at all.

Last year, year before, it seemed to be a big deal how the turkey was
cooked.  This year, people I have talked to have all had "boring" oven
roasted turkeys. People have put away their friers, BBQs and so forth. 
I have a smoker that I really want to do a turkey on - maybe at
Christmas. Smoked turkey is really good when I buy it, and this smoker
makes as good smoked meat as I can buy, ribs, brisket or chicken.

The local homeowner's association sponsors a Christmas party in
association with the Toys for Tots (who deliver toys) and the fire
department (Santa comes in on the fire truck) and when I am in the
grocery store, kids ask their parents if I am Santa Clause - the grey
beard and weight probably give them that impression. I found a Santa
Suit I made years ago, from red felt and fake fur, and I also have a top
end santa beard and wig. It might look best if I wear the top part of
the wig, for the white hair, and I use my own beard.  I think that I was
supposed to have a bit less chin for this beard.

My life has not been wonderful recently, but it might be shaping up to
be a pretty good holiday.
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