Look at culture: Black Friday

By David Cathey, LOOKatOKC Editor

Published: November 12, 2008

So you’ve shooed from your rich uncle’s couch, tryptophan sufficiently slept off and have neither work nor class Friday morning.

You really could use a new laptop. The current one is almost a year old. Did someone say Guitar Hero World Tour? And that blank wall above the futon would look a lot better with 42-inch plasma TV. Futon could go in the middle of the room and it’ll be a Blu-Ray Christmas with or without one.

And we haven’t even started blindly following ever word from the Apple Marketing Machine.

Wants and desires + credit card + free time = Black Friday.

It’s a simple equation. Perhaps too simple. This isn’t relativity, this is retail. Retail is supply and demand. Supply will be running out and demand will be sleeping in a tent on asphalt in a parka with only a thermos of coffee and Kahlua for sustenance.

Despite the fall of Circuit City, the home electronics retail kingdom is still a civilized place — revolution to be determined. So, for now, you’ll need a plan to succeed on Black Friday.

First, you need a wish list and a budget. Then, you need intel. Just call the stores in question or visit in the days ahead — a lot. They’ll tell you about the “unadvertised specials.”

Then you need to get ready for urban camping.

The person who first said, “No pain, no gain” wasn’t talking about sleeping on asphalt. Nor was this philosopher familiar with fierce, Arctic breezes that are generally the only winds sweeping over the plains in late November.

Keep in mind, swapping wish lists will get dull by midnight. Playing “find the constellation” will never be fun. Booze would be great, but is most likely illegal. Bringing your guitar and making like Jack Johnson sounded like a great idea until some guy watching “Animal House” on his portable DVD player decided to make like John Belushi on the stairs at the toga party.

Just make sure your handheld, laptop and Nintendo DS are properly charged, your cell phone is set on low or vibrate and that you make friends with your line-mates as there’s going to come a point when you need to run over to the nearest Conoco to use the can.

Your thoughts!