By: Dallin Rahlf 

Black Friday: A wonderful even for people to get great products at a great price, or a modern day Wild West that leaves people frightened, scared, and wondering if they ever want to shop again? I would say it’s about 80/20, respectively. I Wanted to dig up some Black Friday horror stories from some folk around me to see what they’ve gone through in the craziness of the quasi holiday. Their stories did not disappoint. Let’s dig in. 

Marie

You all remember Marie? She shared some tips the other day about shopping online for Black Friday. I wondered what inspired her thoughts about shopping online. Turns out that she had a dramatic experience when she was 14. 

“I was waiting outside of a Target with my family. It was on Black Friday, very early in the morning. We were inspired to take full advantage of the sale Target was having and wanted to be one of the first ones in there. We found ourselves behind the folk that camped out, but it didn’t look like too bad of a line. As the doors opened and people were going in, I could sense something happening in the parking lot. I looked over and noticed that many shoppers were waiting in their cars instead of the line. As they stampeded out of their cars, they went directly to the doors instead of waiting in the line everyone else was in! I watched helplessly as we found ourselves in the middle of a massive push to get inside the door. What was shortly a calm, Black Friday experience turned into a dramatic fight to make it inside. Since then, I have yet to shop at a store on Black Friday.”

This one really gets me going. We have LINES people, and in a society, we follow those lines. We learned to do this in Kindergarten. For those people to just skip the line and think they can head right inside without waiting? Chumps. That really boils my potatoes. 

PLUS, this makes a great case for shopping online this year. Your friends at the GetOutPass have an excellent Black Friday deal going RIGHT NOW. You don’t even have to wait for Friday. If you’re not a member yet, check out the pricing and attractions available in your area. You’ll be surprised at the low price and massive list of places to visit and explore. If you’re already a member, send out your Refer a Friend code. You’ll get your buddies an additional $5 off their purchase while getting some credit for yourself as well. You really are the best. 

Tommy

Tommy works in our office here at the GetOutPass at Flex Fundraising. He worked for the GetOutPass in sales and now works for Flex Fundraising, a wonderful, new way to fundraise. He’s got quite the story to tell in general. I asked him if he had any Black Friday stories. His did not disappoint. 

“I was chilling at Kohl’s here in Draper (Utah). It was 4:34pm. I’ll never forget that time. It stays on my brain, always. As I’m about to get out of my car to partake in the lovely sale, I see a dude straight up SPRINTING out of Kohl’s at Mach speed. I see that he’s got a bag of clothes and a determined yet terrified look on his face. I use my astute detective skills to put two and two together. “He’s a shoplifter,” I muttered to myself, pressed against the glass to see what might happen. He’s made it out of Kohl’s to what I believed to be freedom, but nay, closely behind him I see two police officers closing the distance. It’s wild. I could barely believe what I was witnessing. One of them, in perfect execution, whips out his taser and nails a direct hit on the shoplifter. Dude drops like a sack of potatoes. The cops quickly get to him, put him in handcuffs, and drive away. I drove away myself. I believed that to be enough shopping action I needed to experience in one day.”

Tommy, I thank you for sharing this story with us. I hope your next visit to Kohl’s is easy and you find some new jean shorts to wear all year long. 

Here’s one I pulled from the depths of Reddit. I wanted to find one that was a little heartbreaking. Prepare yourself for this one; it’s going to be a doozy. Thanks to u/smuggling_info!

“I think it was around Black Friday 2004 and I was a cart pusher at a Walmart. In this particular year, Walmart offered a plasma tv at an extremely low price and was the hottest deal of the year. A man showed up the Tuesday before the big sale with a tent, ice coolers, generator, tv and everything he needed to brave the three nights he would be staying over. He continuously talked about being first in line and how he was going to get the plasma tv and how he was hosting the next Super Bowl party so this was just going to be the best thing ever. Come around Thursday night, I showed up to my shift and he was still there in a jolly mood thankful he was about to be able to go home and sleep in his own bed. The news came and he did a short interview and explained what he was waiting for, how he was able to get the time off (he was a truck driver) and was overall excited over the whole ordeal and prided himself for toughing out the cold. The line for the entrance wrapped around the whole front of the door and about another 300 yards or so past the store with thousands of people waiting to get in. At 5:00am, the doors opened and the man goes straight to the plasma tv’s to see that they were all gone. What happened? The garden center at the Walmart opened up about 10 seconds before the front doors and those that came the night before scooped up on all 15 plasma tv’s. This guy who had been there since Tuesday afternoon was dumbfounded and argued with management but was stonewalled and told there was nothing that can be done. That guys Thanksgiving was a bust for sure.”

This one hurts me a little bit. Hope that that guy has recovered. And I hope that YOU have a blessed and safe holiday week!