I am a senior, (69 years old) and I decided to join in with the youngsters on the "early bird" line at our local Staples, to save some money on a special gift for my new granddaughter. I was an hour early, but that wasn't enough to be anywhere near the head of the line. When you arrive early at a Black Friday line, you of course get to speak with many of the people with the same wants in common. One generous young man overheard what I needed to buy, and he kindly gave me his when I finally entered the store because there were none left. He made my Black Friday shopping experience become one of the most pleasant in my many long years. Dennis Kievit

I got creamed at Best Buy, and I wasn't even shopping. My friend is pretty shaky with Parkinson's, but she was hell-bent on a bargain--the 32 inch Westinghouse LCD TV. I just tagged along as security, since I worried she might get jostled around. Jostled? I would have killed for jostled. We were swept into a consumer maelstrom. We were up front in the crowd, and within seconds of store opening, my friend was beyond my help, body-blocked into a rack of gift cards. I fought with little success just to defend myself, suffering a humiliating defeat at the lowered shoulders of what appeared to be a pair of sisters who might also have been former roller-derby professionals. I got away with what I think is just a torn right rotator cuff, and I count myself lucky.

To Whom it concern:

To that nice gentlemen dress in a nice red polo shirt that fooled my grandmother I would like to say thank you for running the last whish of my cousin Mario, thanks to your unselfish act my grandmother was unable to deliver the game console to Mario and he was unable to play before passing away last Friday night, thanks again for making this thanksgiving a memorable one and something to remember you by, I hope you never run into someone as unselfish as yourself!

Jorge

Ok so here it goes,
My black friday story is a good one. I am a college student with little money that wanted a Wii. I actually went and stood in line on release night only to be turned away unsatisfied. After making the usual rounds I gave up, hoping to get it early next year, but my girlfriend had other intentions. After falling into my usual post turkey coma I awoke at 6AM to a note stating she left to 'check out the digital cameras at best buy' because she couldn't sleep. Thinking nothing of it I fell back to sleep. I was awoke at about 8AM to the smell of coffee. I stumbled out of bed and made my way into the living room. To my suprise there sat a Wii along with a copy of twilight princess on the coffee table I immediately lost my mind of course. It turns out my girlfriend left the apartment at 4AM. After seeing a 200+ foot line at best buy she decided to head to our local gamestop where she sat for 3+ hours on the sidewalk and recieved the last wii they had in stock, despite having to fight off other customers at the counter. So no real damage done or craziness witnessed just a story of someone who awoke to a Wii on black friday expecting nothing more than a cold turkey sandwich. Here's to the best girlfriend any guy could ever have and if I win, the recipient of this GPS device.

I have a good one for yah!

So it's Black Friday, of course. I woke up at 4:30AM to hit the stores hard, not because I wanted to, but because I was forced to. Since I was home for Thanksgiving and had a drivers licience, I was press-ganged into this lovely arrangement. I would be buying the gifts for my youngest siblings, a Nintendo DS (pink)and a V-Smile Pocket, etc. in the store. All the while, my mother would be doing shopping online from the comfort of her bed with a 17' laptop and watching her big screen TV. Already, this sucks.

One of my brothers (15) came down the stairs right as I was leaving around 4:50AM. Hell, if I was going to be press-ganged, he would be too - only by me. I made him get in the car and we drove to the store. It was a frenzy! I had to fight through angry gangs of soccer moms and desperate dads just to get to the video game area.

We were some of the first people to get there and they tell me that they ran out of the DS lite pink, in fact they ran out of all the DS lites. At that point, I was forced to use my persuasions of the female kind. I flirted with this greezy teenager to get this thing from his private stash he planned to ebay. It's Black Friday, what other choice did I have?

So we manage to get what we came for and move into the line. It was only 5:30AM and the line already streched to the TV Dept. I stayed in that line for 2.5 hours holding everything in my hands because of course there were no carts or carriers in the whole store! Thus, it was even suckier.

Finally I had made it near the front and had everything ready, right down to the credit card in my hand. This guy by me, not in line starts asking people where the end of the line is, people point to the guy holding baloons at the end of a corkscrew by the Plasmas. The guy throws a fit, cussing a swearing to the point my face turned pale. Then he turned to me and shoved me hard (with all my elctronic goodies in hand), I flew hitting a cart and eventually the back of my head struck a display corner. My packages went every which place. My brother without hesitation plows the guy in the gut. Guy falls down panting, gasping for air and security takes the guy away.

I end up with a few bruises and a gash in the back of my head, not to mention a splitting headache. Bastard sales people wouldn't even give me a freaking discount.

Long story short, I score major brownie points and mom hates my brother less.

Oh, did I mention my brother is a lineman?

BTW: If you question its creditability, I can tell you the store this happened at. Also, to any spelling or grammar msitkaes please forgive this computer engineer.

So, what ever happened to this contest? Did you guys just drop it or something?

After reading some of the crappy things that people did to get a Wii this year, I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't even use half of them...

Nothing like a good shot of the Christmas spirit to bring out the best in everyone!