Early Bird Door Buster Prices
/Ever wonder who those maniacs are who wait outside the stores at 4:45 AM the day after Thanksgiving, rocking on their toes, blowing on their chilled hands and eyeing the people next to them in a mental evaluation of who would win in a foot race to the register?
Wonder no longer. Those people are us.
We set the alarm this morning for 4 AM and were out the door by 4:40, intent on being among the early arrivals for the 5:30 am opening of Dick's Sporting Goods. You see, kayaks were on sale, almost 60% off until 2 PM. We've talked about buying kayaks but weren't entirely sure we'd use them enough to justify the investment. But this was such a good deal, we decided to go for it.
There were only 5 kayaks in the store, and we snagged two of them - a bright red and a bright yellow. We even got a $20 coupon because we were one of the first 250 customers in the store. We purchased a basic roof kit to secure the kayaks on top of the Explorer, and pulled around back to pick them up.
For the next 35 minutes, Blair and two other men tried diligently to make the kayaks fit, but it was a no go. We were presented with the option of purchasing a $150 deluxe roof kit, per kayak, to secure them, but at that point the good deal lost its good feel. So, we stood in line and returned the kayaks, the roof kit and yes (sniff), even the $20 gift certificate.
We had a little more luck as the morning wore on, but both of us remarked the door busters this year really weren't getting up early for. Nothing blew us away. In years past, we prided ourselves on our day after Thanksgiving shopping prowess. A few years ago, we were inside a mall waiting for a store to roll up its heavy armored gate. As the gate began rising off the floor, Blair and I looked at each other and said, "Drop and roll, baby. First ones in. Drop and roll!" (Don't worry, we didn't really do it...)
We've spent the better part of the afternoon addressing Christmas Cards. Some day, I'll have my address book up to date. As it is, I piecemeal together a list from the address book, business cards, e-mails, and random envelopes I've saved throughout the year. We've decided our friends are just way too transient of a group and ya'll need to settle down and make our lives easier.
