Nerve Endings Firing Away

Black Friday couldn’t get any blacker as shoppers stalk the retail outlets that peddle out the freebies. Rain doesn’t stop the early bird from lining up outside the stores as early as 2am on a chilly morning. Contrary to popular belief, the day after thanksgiving is not the busiest day of the shopping season; according to AJC, that honor belongs to the Saturday before Christmas, which in fact does mean that there are more last minute shoppers than we think. But yet the Black Friday garners an average of $734 consumer spending and that surely is a lot of money exchanging hands in a 15 hour time period.

But this year, the markdowns and free rebate stuff was definitely lower. This may be due to the fact that retail chains have finally managed to hook the consumers on the psychology of Thanksgiving Sale shopping and thus already expect heightened spending, deal or no deal.

For three years, I have managed to withstand the shopping binge but given my not-so-crazy attitude regards shopping, I almost manage to spend the entire Black Friday out stalking the stores with friends. But I finally succumbed this year and found an “auspicious” occasion to launch my long-postponed DVD collection. I had given up on my VHS collection on grounds of obsoleteness, only after one measly online purchase of MASH and was thus was waiting for an opportune time to launch my DVD collection. I launched it with a bang, picking up no less than 17 DVDs. They are (in alphabetical order):

28 Days Later
A Few Good Men
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
Beatles, The: Unauthorized
Black Hawk Down
Cast Away
Disclosure
Jerry Maguire
Mask, The
Men of Honor
Nine Months
Patton
Ring, The
Saving Private Ryan
Under Siege
Wall Street
When Harry met Sally

The collection is as eclectic as I. These, however do not completely reflect my preferred genre and the collection was driven primarily by the monetary aspects, which ranged from $5 to $12 per DVD.

I know that Matrix and The Lord of the Rings series are conspicuous by their absence but I plan to get their box sets as soon as they are released. No stinginess there. Another genre I want to collect is war movies, which I already have begun but hope to complement by adding Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Born on Forth of July, Where Eagles Dare, Good Morning, Vietnam, Bridge over River Kwai, The Thin Red Line, etc.

These selections and other first-choices were significantly upwards of my upper limit and will have to wait until I am significantly well-off.