The beguiling sale flier
Oh, little sale flier. You come tucked so neatly inside the paper, folded just so with your colorful ads whispering my name. You cunningly offer coffeemakers, toaster ovens, and the ubiquitous comfy socks that only come out when the snow flies. Once the Thanksgiving meal is over, we bring you out to spread all over the table. I peruse you slowly, not wanting to miss a sale I would kick myself for later. I think I’ve become addicted to you.I’m not really a Black Friday shopper. My shopping style consists of waiting until mostly the last minute, then going gonzo on a shopping extravaganza. I long to be the kind of person that sees a steal in June, purchases it, and tucks it back in the closet to pull out magically in December. I bow down to all of you who can do that – really… As for me, I’ll probably always be a fly-by-my-seat purchaser. I’ve only been organized enough to do Black Friday shopping once. This year, though, the lowly bath towel advertised in the Walmart ad grabbed my imagination and most likely my sanity. I had actually staked out the wally-world flier for a couple of weeks online. I zeroed in on that $1.33 price tag for nice fluffy towels and I just knew I had to have them. Towels are not high on my list to buy, so over the years they’ve become almost unbearable to look at. It was time to buy – and Walmart at midnight on Black Friday was going to be the place.
I’m not sure if I became possessed by madness or if I just wanted the rush of shopping with thousands of people. I’m sure it wasn’t thousands – although it did feel like it. I went with my sister and a friend and we arrived in pouring rain around 11:20 p.m. There was a tense feeling in the store. That moment you experience just before a race. We each had our things we wanted to buy, so we all spread out. I found the towel display, the ones that were going on sale, and staked out my space. As the minutes counted down toward midnight, all of us inched closer and closer to the towels. We needed room to grab. My cart inched ever closer and 30-some bodies got ready to pounce. I felt the insanity taking over as the Walmart employee started cutting off the plastic and after that it was on! Stacks and stacks of towels disappeared off the display, so I dove right in and grabbed my stack of 20 towels. Pure madness I tell you. After I had what I wanted, I really looked into my cart. Did I really need 20 towels? No. I put some back and steered off into another section, hell-bent on finding some $1.96 DVD’s. Maybe it’s that darn Walmart uneven pricing technique that pulls me in.
I was broken and bruised after fighting my way through the thronging aisles of the store. I felt victorious as I stood in line to pay for my towels and DVD’s. I had braved Black Friday and had won – or at least had found some cheap towels. I went home and sunk into bed around 2:30 a.m. As I started drifting into a dreamless sleep, I also thanked God I wasn’t my other sister, who was waiting in a Walmart line to purchase gifts at 5 a.m. Oh, little sale flier! Oh, Christmas!