Last year was my first BF experience - my best friend and her boyfriend told me a few weeks ahead that they were going to camp out at Best Buy all night for the sale. I thought they were somewhat crazy, but I also thought it might be a fun experience, so I decided to join them. I met them there at 12:30am or so, and they'd been there maybe 30 minutes or an hour already. Not only that, but there were already a good 15 people in line already.
So I got in line with them (they were actually first in line), and we waited. We had some food and drinks, but at one point one of us had to run back to his house to grab some blankets and more food, since it was getting quite cold. (It was about 35°F and windy, which is plenty cold for TX :) ) The employees got there at 4am or so; some of them chatted with us a bit, seemed to think we were crazy for having been there 4-5 hours already, but that was fine with us.
Unfortunately at the time I was pretty short on cash, so I was only able to get a few things - most notably The Simpsons Season 1 DVDs for $12, and an MP3/CD player for $20. Although, like I'd said, I mostly went for the experience anyway. As 6am drew near, more and more people showed up, and the line was about a block long by the time they opened the doors. A cameraman for a local news station showed up and interviewed us, which was a kinda cool perk of being first in line.
As the number of people increased beforehand, people of course felt like they had the right to come to the front of the line (even though we'd been there for six hours), but there was a police officer there monitoring the whole situation, and the employees (one manager in particular) were very good about making other people go back when they tried to get ahead of us. (They'd seen us there at the front when they first arrived, so that was no problem.)
When they opened the doors, it was insanity. We knew exactly what we were going to get, so I went in one direction, and the other two went in another. I believe they were looking for the CD burner, some blank CD's, and I forget what else. None of us really had that much money at the time, so when they'd come outside an hour or so before, asking if anyone was buying such-and-such item (the limited stock stuff like camcorders, laptops, etc.), none of that applied to us. In any case, people rushed to every corner of the store, mobbing all the employees and each other, but we just ran up to the registers with our purchases and left uneventfully. I think I remember seeing 6:12 on the clock in my car when I got in it to leave.
It was fun, and I got hooked. It looks like we may be arriving at BB at 10pm this year, just to ensure our first place spot in line. In my mind, that's really the only way to do it. I remember some of our friends getting there at 5 or 5:30am, seeing us first in line, us telling them that we'd been there since midnight, and seeing the "WTF, are you crazy?" looks in their eyes. :)
Although, since I'll probably have some more money to work with this year, I'm also wondering what other sales there will be...perhaps Fry's, for example. So we may have to split up in groups - we were still planning to do the Best Buy in San Antonio (one of them...there are 3), but the nearest Fry's is in Austin. In any case, I'm greatly looking forward to seeing more deals appear on this site, so we can plan our night of madness!
