Thanks-giving Mela

It has been a very long time since I have put anything in my blog. Thought would share my experience about thanks giving sale. The holidays were brilliant, I just relaxed at home. Unlike last year, even after almost a week after thanks-giving it is not snowing yet. The weather channel reported that it was the record high temperatures since 1905. Snowing was thus ruled out. Lucky enough were the guys who had camped all night in front of those Best Buys or Circuit Citys. I guess even an earth quake would not have stopped them from attacking the shops as early as it opened to bag those huge Plasma TV's being sold for more than 1000$ less or a 500 GB phantom hard disk being sold for meager 69$ or a gigabyte of thumb drive for just 3$. I had no intensions of camping all night, but had determined to getup early. Weather or getting up early would not have intervened with my addiction to buy a new gadget in anyway. The only factor that was inhibiting me was doing a “second round” of shopping for similar gadgets as my knapsack has already reached high watermark levels. Yet, I had a small list of *to buy items*. I was all set to wake-up at very early morning to start my thanks-giving shopping spree. So were all my roomies.

Somebody had dropped a bagful of advertisements at our door, the previous night. We were badly in need of that. After doing a combined research, our approach, our priorities, the order and time of entering the shops were made.
My manager had told me that he would pick us up and had precisely given a wake-up call at 4.15 A.M. Despite that, I just couldn’t miss the last few minutes of (lazy) sleep until I heard the second wake-up call about 10 minutes later ;-). I could hear my roomie answering the call. Soon after that we were all geared up in proper winter attire from head to toe.

By 4:45 AM we were at Wal-Mart. The parking lot which seemed like a barren land the previous day was completely swamped. People were finding it difficult to find an empty parking space to throw their car. They were rushing towards the tail of the queue from all directions. We were given an additional catalogue for the whereabouts of the items in the shop at site. Sharply at 5 A.M the shop was opened. The queue was long enough and after little bit of struggle to withstand the chilly winds, we could make an entry. It was not as bad and as delightful as getting a seat on a bus going from Mysore to Mandya. After New York visit, it was the first time I saw such a phenomenal crowd in Wal-Mart and in our Eagan Halli. Shoppers were on a rush. Almost all aisles were clogged with people and their carts were overloaded. Amidst all these we were running aimlessly in the shop. I could not find what I wanted though I was so early to the shop. My friends could manage to sneak in a few in their list. By 5.15 A.M all of us were out. We walked past to the adjacent Kohls. Kohls which is famous for marketing gimmicks of putting huge retail prices on tag along with a wide discount margin, this day was showing upto 70% discounts. A price tag for an ordinary 29" luggage bag showed 329$ with a brilliant 65% discount to come down to yet unrealistic price of 115$. I laughed at that and moved to the apparel section. I was looking for few exceptional ones. I was saturated in buying T’s or jeans and was not in anyway thinking of buying them just because it was cheaper. This saturation was not because I had enough but because my cup-board is filled way beyond limits and I’m sure I have to pay for excess baggage on my return to India. I was still wondering whether it was this determination of mine or it was that the shop did not have any good ones that day. I could just find the boots that I was looking for - the last thing which was on my list.

The same scene were followed at Best Buy, Office Max and Old Navy. All of us came out empty ended. I was just wondering that our usual shopping would have been better and happier. It was 10:10 AM and we were completely tired and restless. We decided against going to any other shops on our list. I was cursing myself for ruining my morning sleep. I badly wanted a coffee. I had fabulous brew at Caribou Coffee, reached home and dozed off to mark the end of my fantasy with the thank-giving sale.