After having Thanksgiving dinner last night as my relative’s house, I got a major case of food coma and started having second thoughts about going out for Black Friday. A friend of mine called me though asking if I’d want to go to Best Buy because he and his wife were looking to buy the Emachines Desktop computer set which was advertised as a doorbuster special at $199. I told him we’d have to go really early because when I went last year at 4am, the line was wrapped around the building already. As a result, he shows up at my place at midnight because he really wants to get the computer.
We head out to the Best Buy in Secaucus, NJ because my brother said it was closer than the one in Paramus where I went last year. When we got there at 12:30am, there was already a line around the corner of the building. 
We park the car and get in line only to see a SECOND line on the other side of the building. 
I walk around asking people why there were two lines and each line insisted they were on the correct line and that the people waiting on the other one were wasting their time. After a short discussion, my friend and I decide to leave and check out the Best Buy in Paramus because we didn’t want to risk waiting on the wrong line in Secaucus.
We get to the Paramus Best Buy shortly before 1am only to find the line wrapped around the building…the end being at the same spot it was at last year when I got there at 4am. 
I tell my friend to go park the car while I got a spot on line. As I was walking around the front however, I spotted these 2 young fobby looking Korean kids. I walked over and started up a convo in Korean and managed to talk them into letting me cut into the line with them. Turns out they’ve been waiting there since 4:30pm the previous afternoon. The people who were at the very front of the line were there since 11am! Because the people near the front of the line had been there so long, they knew everyone by face and were quick to oust any potential line cutters. Me being the slick guy that I am, continued talking to the two kids in Korean and made it seem like I was with them. When the people around us questioned whether I was legitimately in line because they only remember 2 Asian guys there, I told them the two Korean kids were my cousins and that I’ve been switching on and off with them. After some more bullshitting the crowd accepted me in. Score! 
Anyways, at 3am the Best Buy employees started giving out the reservation tickets for the doorbuster items (guarantees receipt of the item). I told my friend to wait in the car because it would create suspicion after what I went through to get my place in the line. With the help of the two Korean kids, I managed to get the reservation tickets for everything my friend and I wanted, including the desktop computer package (which I got the very last ticket for).
After few more hours of waiting in the freezing cold, the doors to Best Buy finally opened at 7am (it’s 5am everywhere else but Paramus stores aren’t allowed to open until 7am by law). The mass of people rushed in and I ran straight upstairs for the Samsung monitor I wanted (which I missed out on last year because I grabbed the wrong box). This time I was the first to get to the Samsung monitors and raised my box in the air in triumph.
When all was said and done, my friend and I walked out of Best Buy at 10am. I walked away with the following:
- 22″ Samsung Widescreen Monitor ($199)
- EMachines Desktop Computer + 17″ flat panel + Canon All in One Printer/Scanner/Copier ($199) for my mom
- Tom Tom GPS ($119)
- LinkSys Router ($34)
While I knew what to expect from the Black Friday madness, my friend defeatedly said that was the first and last time he’s ever going out for Black Friday. In utter exhaustion, I agreed.
Next year I’m sleeping in… 
