H3 loves to shop on Black Friday. Each year he gets up and goes out to shop for good deals and kick off the holiday season. He gets a thrill from all of the energy and crowds.

I hate crowds, and waiting in line, so I normally skip this ritual. H3 on the other hand, loves to talk to complete strangers and he will stand there and talk with everyone around him. Imagine how happy he was to find out that the local Outlet Mall opened at midnight on Thanksgiving night.

I'm also not a morning person so the midnight sale sounded like it might be fun. I went with him this year and I enjoyed it. There were some long lines, but overall the crowd was well behaved. I think it's due to the fact that the stores controlled how many people could go in at a time and there was enough merchandise for everyone. I wanted to go to the Gap because everything was 40% off, but I was not willing to stand in the long line to get in and another long line to check out.
We stuck to the stores that did not have a long wait. The only place we waited was at Eddie Bauer were we got a feather bed mattress for $30. But in most places like the Oneida store and Bombay Company, we were in line for about 10 minutes or less. The three most packed places were Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren and Timberland.

After we left the Outlet center, H3 took me back home. It was about 2:30 and I was ready to sleep. After he dropped me off, H3 headed to Wal-Mart. They had some great advertised specials that started at five.

I had heard that things get scary down at the local Wal-Mart on Black Friday so I warned H3. But he's a big man and he felt that he could survive the wait. He got there around 3:00 am and started asking where the Game Boys would be passed out at. The guy behind the electronics counter kept acting dumb like he didn't know anything. So H3 just stood by the electronics register and waited patiently. He also struck up a conversation with another man who was there next.

About an hour later the crowd was growing. No one knew were to line up since there were no official lines, the staff was not controlling the crowds and people were starting to act crazy. H3 had asked a lot of questions during his wait so he was trying to help people figure out where they should go for the item they wanted.

The most popular item was a laptop computer that was on sale for $378. There were only a few available, but hundreds of people were trying to find out were to line up for it and the staff would not help out. h3 had stood there for almost two hours (he was the first person there) when a manger walks up and announces that the Game Boys would be given out at the opposite end of where H3 had stood for two hours.

Chaos broke out and everyone started pushing and shoving. H3 was suddenly out of the running until the man he had been talking to during the two hour wait said that H3 deserved one and to get in line in front of him. The pushing and shoving was escalating and H3 said it was getting scary. People were starting to fist fight. So H3 made a deal with the line guy. They agreed that H3 would body block everyone that was shoving and hitting if the guy would ask for two and give one to H3. The line guy said you've got a deal and they both got a Game Boy. H3 then used his girth to move him and the line guy through the crowd to a register.

H3 said that he saw one woman who was bleeding from being attacked while getting a laptop and that there were too many fist fights to count. He said the staff was tossing the items into the crowd and people were having to fight for them.

I think Wal-Mart is pure evil. The purposely create a situation of panic and set the stage for pandemonium. They bait people with these super-low prices and then limit the amount available.

Wal-Mart should be ashamed of itself. For example H3 said there were still 12 Game Boys locked in the electronics case but employees could not sell them at the advertised discount because the special price was limited to the boxes with a special barcode. There was nothing different about the Game Boys other than a barcode. I guess it's just another way Wal-Mart limits how many are sold at the advertised sale price.

H3 has been to hundreds of Black Friday sales and he has seen huge crowds and long lines, but he has never seen a store and its staff act as irresponsible as Wal-Mart does. HHGregg is the most responsible. They guarantee that anything advertised will be in stock that day. Before we moved to Mayberry I would shop at HHGregg each black Friday. Unfortunately we do not have one within 2 hours of here. I like spending my money with companies that appreciate customers and treat them respectfully.

One day someone is going to get seriously hurt at Wal-Mart's Black Friday sale. Of course Wal-Mart will not care about the safety of its customers until someone sues them. Wal-Mart only cares about the money.

Wal-Mart Corporation is evil.