AUBURN — There's early, and there's Michael Charest.
Kendra Spencer of Livermore Falls waits in line at Best Buy in Auburn on Thursday. Spencer and her boyfriend, Adam Lee, not pictured, got in line at 2 p.m. for the midnight opening. Spencer and Lee were after a 60-inch LCD television for $799.99. "A really quick one," is how Spencer described the couple's Thanksgiving meal.
Michael Charest of Auburn waits at the front of the line at Best Buy in Auburn on Thursday. Charest arrived at 10 p.m. Wednesday to be sure he could buy a 42-inch LCD television for $199.99.
Amy Marraffa of Livermore Falls and her daughter Kaylee, 14, wait in line at Best Buy in Auburn on Thursday. Marraffa arrived at 11 a.m. in hopes of buying a Sharp 42-inch LCD television for $199.99. "I have been tracking Black Friday ads for weeks," said Marraffa, who was Christmas shopping for her parents. "We will celebrate Thanksgiving later in the week."
Amy Rousseau of Greene waits in line at Walmart in Auburn on Thursday. Rousseau got in line at 3:30 p.m. for the midnight opening.
Kendra Spencer of Livermore Falls waits in line at Best Buy in Auburn on Thursday. Spencer and her boyfriend, Adam Lee, not pictured, got in line at 2 p.m. for the midnight opening. Spencer and Lee were after a 60-inch LCD television for $799.99. "A really quick one," is how Spencer described the couple's Thanksgiving meal.
The Auburn man plunked his chair in front of Best Buy at 10 p.m. Wednesday, watching workers stock shelves and turn out the lights for the night. He watched the sun come up. He watched the sun go down. And there he still sat, waiting for 12:01 a.m. on Black Friday.
He was after a 42-inch, flat-screen TV more than half off. A gift to himself.
"I think I nodded off for 20 minutes to a half-hour," Charest said Thursday. "I'm going 24 to 30 hours with no sleep. My brother saved me a Thanksgiving meal. I can eat tomorrow."
His sister-in-law, Carolee Charest of Auburn, had joined him in front of the store at 1 a.m. At 4 p.m., she was sipping hot chocolate, her first drink since getting in line. She hadn't wanted to worry about bathroom breaks.
"I do this every year," she said. "I'm usually at Kohl's."
They were in good company, celebrating Thanksgiving in lawn chairs perched on pavement, fighting back a brisk chill, anxious for big deals. Lines had formed in front of Best Buy and Walmart by midafternoon.
Carl Laliberte of Leeds arrived at Walmart at 10:30 a.m., a little earlier, he conceded, than he had to. He thought the doors were set to open at 10 p.m., not midnight.
"My daughter relieved me for an hour and a half to go have Thanksgiving dinner," he said.
Laliberte said he'd printed out the sales circular days before. He had the store map memorized. He was after electronics for others and jeans, if they had his size.
"It's a sacrifice by being here so you can make other people's wishes come true," Laliberte said.
Celia Yates of Lewiston, second in line, arrived at 1:30 p.m.
"I'm getting a computer for my grandkids so we can Skype," she said. They're 3 and 4 and live in Fort Riley, Kan. "That way, I get to watch them grow up."
Some would-be shoppers wore sleeping bags. Some clutched coffee. Frank Demers of Auburn, sixth in line at Walmart, realized his rookie mistake: "I don't have the map; no gloves, no chair. This is my first Black Friday."
He planned a quick trip home with his brother holding his spot.
About 20th in line at Best Buy, Krissy Berg of New Gloucester pitched a deer blind, a narrow, camouflage-covered tent.
"We have hand-warmers, foot-warmers, Wi-Fi," she said. "We didn't want to be bored."
Joseph Hutchins of Oxford, third in line, had only one gripe: No outhouses. Last year, he said, Best Buy set one up in the parking lot. He got in line with his son at 8 a.m., waiting to shop for a TV and an iPod.
"I've been doing Black Friday since Walmart was on the opposite side of the street," Hutchins said.
Charest was out for the first time for Black Friday sales. He'd made a few Starbucks runs for coffee and sat in his truck every so often to warm up. He killed time shopping online with his phone to go after other bargains.
"I love doing this," he said. "It's almost over; we're home-stretch right now."
Less than eight hours to go.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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Consumerism Gone Wild
Total frickin' idiots, the lot of 'em. Like a "deal" is more important that taking in Thanksgiving with family and friends, and being thankful we live in a free country. This crap says a lot about the state of our nation -- owning more "stuff" is more important than building and maintaining community, or appreciating what we already have, which is more than some 5 to 6 other billion people on this planet.
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is bowing to China. Who's economy are we trying to stimulate? Not ours, that's for sure.
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I've come to despise this corporate brainwashing of the American consumer.
The companies that sell us overpriced junk (that is made in China, by the way) have convinced some of us that waiting for days in the cold, skipping a normal life, forgoing holiday celebrations to worship them, instead, is the way to live life.
Black Friday is the most conspicuous display of our skewed priorities.
What would one do if the 'sale of the year' was actually not just one day, but going on until Christmas? That's what will happen-the stuff one has waited for in the cold for hours or days will be discounted even more by the time Christmas Eve comes around.
You will have wasted your time and energy for something that would have been on sale all the month.
I wish they would ban these sales. I don't really care if the companies lose money by it, but at least we'd get our lives back!
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