December 2, 2011

Featured: Discounts & Disappointments - A Bad Black Friday

After enjoying the usual family Thanksgiving meal at my Godmother’s house in upstate New York, my sister pulled out a box full of Black Friday sales and specials. I reacted by asking her for the cleverly marketed blacked out Macy’s flyer. Ad after ad, I came to the conclusion that I would be foolish to not go Black Friday shopping for the first time. So my sister and I planned out where and when we would shop. We went back down to Long Island, and being the typical college night owls, we set out for Kohl’s at 11:30 P.M. There was a massive queue of people that I was not expecting to be there. Yes, I said queue. I say queue because everyone was standing in an orderly single file line across the front of the building. I was expecting a massive conglomeration of angry shoppers banging on the glass doors waiting for their blowout deals. Being the sly fox that I am, I slipped in as soon as the doors opened at midnight. I perused through the Men’s section and was terribly upset. When the only piece of clothing that I even slightly considered buying was from the Marc Anthony line, I quickly plugged my earphones back in and left Kohl’s with 8 pairs of black dress socks. That was not the outcome I had in mind.

Marc Anthony Dress Socks - Kohls
Next we were off to the Roosevelt Field Mall. Expecting no parking spots, my sister almost parked at our cousins’ house, which is a 10 minute walk away. That distance is something we would like to avoid if we had our hands full of Black Friday deals. Everyone was going to Macy’s. My sister decided not to bring the Macy’s coupons or our mom’s Macy’s card. That is when the lessons of the business school came to my mind. I realized if I went to Macy’s, I would spend amounts that I would regret. So we didn’t go to Macy’s and walked through the mall separately finding our favorite stores and looking for those great deals. I went to Express and was immediately suffering from claustrophobia. I left empty handed, because I was not about to spend about $200 on another suit. I ended up in H&M, where I was sweating more than I do when I go to the sauna and steam room after my gym workouts. I threw some elbows to get out of there and went to Guess. Guess had this sophisticated gray pea coat, something I’ve wanted for a while. It had the most awkward hood ever, and it was probably just me making the coat look great. I glanced at amazing watches there too, and glanced at their even more amazing prices before walking out. I walked in front of the high end designer name stores and thought to myself, “Nah, I rather eat on Arthur Avenue all week.” I found myself in the food court when I had the most outrageous craving for some chicken, and decided to go to Ranch 1 for the second time in my life. I waited on line for 5 minutes and waited 10 minutes for my order. That was the second and last purchase of my Black Friday shopping experience.

Nothing is trendier then chicken accessorized with bacon.
I’m not sure whether I am too much like Mr. Krabs or if I’m just not a good Black Friday shopper. I usually gravitate towards the clearance section anyways, and you won’t find me shopping without my coupons. I hear they have great prices on Fordham Road too. I got home at 3:00 A.M. and tweeted “What a fail! All i bought were socks... #Black Friday” It was the best I could think of being so mentally, physically, and financially distraught.

My sister bought a few things, but said she would do better the next morning because the sales go on until noon. We both slept until 11:00 and awoke to our dad screaming at us “WAKE UP!” upwards of a dozen times. We threw in the towel. We studied the advertisements for a few hours and failed. Reminds me of midterms....

--Robert Abballe (GSB '14)

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