Black Friday and Cyber Monday

On Thanksgiving, Ella announced that she wanted to go shopping on Black Friday.  I said go for it.  Oh, wait, she wanted me to drive her.  While I tend to get up early, I had no intention of getting up early, braving the cold and the long lines just to save a few bucks on something/anything that we probably didn’t need.

So, we compromised.  In order to get my beauty sleep on Friday, I had to take her to Wal-Mart on Turkey Day.  A fair trade, I thought, and dutifully drove her to Wally World around 7:45 on  Thursday night.  Now, Wal-Mart has a huge parking lot, and it was full, totally full. I dropped Ella off at the door, and parked at the IHOP, about as far as you can get from Wal-Mart, and not be in the middle of busy Watson Boulevard.

Apparently, Wal-Mart was doing some tiered sales, with the first one starting at 8 p.m.  As I walked in, Ella was nowhere to be found among the mass of humanity, most of which was just standing around.  At 8 p.m., however, it became a madhouse.  People running around, laughing, and generally having a good time, I suppose, as they grabbed, fought, kicked, and screamed for the bounty that lay before them.

Sorry for the blurry picture. I was trying to take the picture with one hand
while holding Ella's DVDs in my other  hand

Since I had no desire to participate, I found a post, put my back to it, and just watched. I finally saw Ella as she made a beeline toward the media sale. It was amazing that people, including Ella, would actually push and shove for a discount DVD.  OK, maybe Ella didn’t push and shove, but she darted in and out like a madwoman until she found what she wanted.

Luckily, with DVDs in hand, Ella was done shopping, and we quickly checked out (kudos to Wal-Mart for such speedy service).

I actually spent Black Friday, as well as Saturday and Sunday, listing in preparation, hopefully, for a big Cyber Monday. I’ve had three nice Ebay sales so far this morning, so maybe my hard work will pay off.

Even though the Christmas selling season has just begun in earnest, we need to be mindful of post office shipping deadlines.  December 3, which is just a week away, is the last day to send Priority Mail International for Christmas arrival, and the Express Mail International deadline is just a week after that.  Domestic Parcel Post deadline is December 15, First Class deadline is December 20, Priority deadline is December 21, and Express deadline is December 22.

Of course, after December 22, we can all rest, right?

Have a great selling week.