mausibaer

Best buy just posted a comment: "The sale will post later this morning - Keep an eye on your Best Buy Facebook and/or Twitter feed for the announcement!"

At 12:30pm on Thursday afternoon, it was 76 degrees with high humidity and a "Feels Like" of 82 degrees. Five hours later, it was 47 degrees with a cold rain, 20mph+ winds with a "Feels Like" of 37 degrees. Almost nobody that was in line from the beginning was prepared for such a dramatic shift. I know that those numbers are laughable compared to our brothers and sisters to the North. But watching 100 people realize that they were woefully underprepared to deal with the elements made my wife understand why the first App that I ever downloaded onto my iPod was The Weather Channel.

This one's not about what I bought, but what someone else wanted to buy.... Those of you who are camping veterans are very used to having people drive up in the days and hours leading up to the store opening and asking one of the same few questions: "Are they open?", "What time did you get here?", "What are you waiting to buy?"...etc. Today, someone got me with a question that I've never heard in 10+ years of doing this. A guy gets out of his car, surveys the Best Buy entrance and then scans the sidewalk that is jammed with every piece of camping gear imaginable. He walks up to me at the front of the line and says..."Are these tents for sale?" I was dumbfounded. I honestly thought that I misheard him. When he started to clarify, I realized he thought that we were having some kind of community garage sale...on the Best Buy sidewalk...in pouring rain with 20mph+ winds...ON THANKSGIVING! ...which is why this craziness never gets old.

Best Buy in Katy, Texas. 1st in line...rockin' the GottaDeal T-shirt and picking up limited WiFi by the front door.

Does anyone remember what the timing was on the release of the "unadvertised specials" for Best Buy last year? Thanks!

#1 After years of unsuccessful attempts to minimize congestion in the shopping aisles, Target has implemented a mildly unorthodox solution. #2 The producers of "My Name is Earl" finally solve the mystery of the cast members missing from the set. #3 The crowd gets whipped into a frenzy when the staff announces the local in-store special: The 1st 100 customers will receive a limited edition copy of MTV's Celebrity DeathMatch 20th Anniversary Special DVD featuring such classic matches as Yanni vs. Michael Bolton, Zsa Zsa Gabor vs. Tammy Faye Baker and a never-before-seen bikini mud wrasslin' throwdown between Liberace and Richard Simmons.

Big fan of the Amazon pre-order program with guaranteed release date delivery. The "hot" releases almost always are on sale and qualify for PRIME shipping. About half of the time I actually get the book a day earlier than the official release date.

Anticipation Keep feeling trepidation GottaDeal Nation

How about providing wi-fi access?

I just downloaded it and it works great on my iPod! I'm even sending this post from it

Most comfortable night's sleep ever on a hard sidewalk!

This package doesn't appear to be a doorbuster...which means they most likely will not hand out vouchers for it. I bought last year's version of this package and had to make the mad dash around the computer department to find all of the components to create it. Since the guy handing out the computer tickets at 3:00AM was from that department, I asked him where the individual components were, so at least I had an idea. Despite the fact that I was #3 in line, I barely managed to get everything. If you're serious about getting it, I recommend a recon mission to BB on Wednesday and see if you can at least find out where you'll need to go.

Too much hot cocoa... In line for thirty hours... Must find a bathroom.

Even though it is one of the least glamourous of the preparations, you definitely want to bring up some personal safety issues....Keeping track of the kids, Credit/Debit card theft, pickpockets, etc. We've all heard too many horror stories about people who get taken advantage of because they were so wrapped up in the excitement of the big day.

Sleep....maybe not so much. But, I at least get a few snoozes in here and there. One of the reasons that I get to BB on Wednesday night is so I can get settled in and relax for the next 30-ish hours. I usually am by myself with the exception of an occasional visit from the wife cover my spot for a potty break. By Thursday morning, we've all told and re-told our previous years' war stories to our new neighbors and all shrink back to our caves (tents). I spend most of the day just relaxing...at least until the crowd starts to show up after dinnertime. After that, having every newly arrived person ask you what time you got in line pretty much prevents anything further.