It all began with an early morning text from my granddaughter.  You see, it’s a tradition for her dad’s mother to shop on Black Friday with her grandchildren.  Bless her loving heart.  I’ve managed to stay clear of Black Friday since it’s maniacal inception, but when granddaughter texted me to tell me the local building supply store had the very camouflage blanket on her Christmas list for only $10 bucks, I decided to don my body armor and head for the trenches.

The parking lot was stuffed fuller than the Thanksgiving dinner of Thursday.  Yet, things were looking up.  I came upon a spot where the occupant just backed out and slid into it without incident.  I made a bee line to the blankets, was going to leave, but  saw the cutest little doggie vests. They were priced at $4.00, so I picked up three for the granddoggies and vowed to go straight to the checkout, which was a line a mile long.

I thought it might slow down, so I opted to look for some things I actually needed.  Unfortunately none of them were on sale, but those memory foam neck pillows were.  In the basket they went, along with a new dog bed for our pooch and some Christmas candy,  which will be gone in a week.

I resisted temptation and headed for the cashier.  The line had now increased to two miles, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. It was well managed until the main line forked into separate lanes leading to various cashiers.

As usually happens to me in a check out line, I got into the wrong one  The cart in front of me was chock full of items.  The woman must have been shopping all night, because she was eating some of her purchases before they were even checked out  I have to give her credit though.  She saved all the empty candy wrappers so they could be scanned,

Little did I know, the woman’s husband was right ahead of her and he had an even fuller cart.  This apparently was their one stop shopping spot.  Their total was well over $800.  That’s more than my social security check!

I turned around and said this was my first and last Black Friday experience.  He kindly agreed.  I noticed he was carrying only one small item.  I admired his patience.

I had no intention of buying anything more than a $10 blanket, but succumbed to the brilliance of marketing.  My $10 purchase turned into $85.  I now can say I have purchased one Christmas present for my granddaughter.  She knows what it is, and the dogs are going to be so happy.