It used to be fun.
After a lazy day of eating with family and strategically planning our shopping day, we’d get up at 3-ish AM, and head out for the Place with the Deal We Need. I think one year it was some computer components I wanted. I’ve never shopped for gifts on Black Friday, oddly enough.
Anyway, you get to the store about 3:30 AM, and stand in line with a bunch of strangers, talking about what deals there are, and how everyone’s Thanksgiving was, and what are the words to the second verse of O Come, All Ye Faithful anyway? Someone – often us – brings enough hot cocoa and Styrofoam cups to keep a few people’s hands warm. It’s all good craic until doors open at 5:00 AM, where you dash to the part of the store you need, grab the two or three things you want, check out, and head off to the next store, that’s opening at 6 AM.
Now everyone opens at friggin’ midnight the day before, or never bothers to close at all. Took all the fun out of it.