People who wait in line for something special!

I cannot understand folks who will literally camp out for days or stand in line all night, etc. for anything from tickets to IPhones, after Thanksgiving sales and so forth. In our local paper today there was a story about a new shopping center opening, the first store to open yesterday was a Marshalls, some guy got there at 4 am so he could be first in. I don't get the mentality, I wouldn't wait for anything unless there was a bar there...would you wait a long time for something  of fleeting value?

I remember a Black Friday TV interview.  The reporter asked a woman why she was waiting in line.  Her reply, "well, it's nice to be first at something.  Being here first adds a feeling of accomplishment to my life"
 
Now top that one!  let alone figure it out.

I have waited in line on a Black Friday to buy a Crock Pot at Wal Mart for $4.00.  Most of our Wal Marts are open 24/7, so I was waiting inside the store (not out in the cold) for a little over an hour.  I needed it, and at that price I figured I couldn't pass it up.  I realize this wasn't all night, but "after Thanksgiving sales" were mentioned in the original post.
 
Over the years, I have sometimes stood in very long lines at Disneyland, Disney World, Cedar Point and other amusement parks, and have waited in lengthy lines to get tickets to see John Denver and David Copperfield.  Maybe I am just relaxed enough so that I don't need a bar in order to wait what I consider to be a reasonable length of time for something.

I just don't wait in line anymore, period. If there's a line, I either come back later or do without.

Rogo is with Pogo on this one  
 
My standing in line days are over.  Maybe it has something to do with age?  Maybe I'm getting a little ornery as I get older?.........Preposterous!
 
I do everything I can to avoid theme parks.  I did my duty when the kids were small.  No they have to drag me kicking and screaming.  I just spent a little over a grand for Express Passes for six people for one day at Universal Studios.  Just so I didn't have to stand in line.  AND I"M A CHEAP SOB! 
 
 

I can't relate to it either, and I'm not sure I ever stood in such a line (other than the proverbial restaurant waiting list).  The concept of "Hurry up and wait!" doesn't appeal to me at all.

The problem with you Chewy is you have no inner desire to be someone special.  First guy into a new Marshalls ----good golly miss molly----that's an honor no one can take aWAY FROM YA.

the ancient mariner


The problem with you Chewy is you have no inner desire to be someone special.  First guy into a new Marshalls ----good golly miss molly----that's an honor no one can take aWAY FROM YA.

Your right Ancient One...It would make a great obit in one's life's highlites!

Many stores have limited numbers of items. If you are getting minimum wage, and have the opportunity to buy something major that you could never hope to afford otherwise, but only if you are one of the first 20 or so people in the store, that is a very high motivation. More so if others are counting on you.
 
Bart

bartl


Many stores have limited numbers of items. If you are getting minimum wage, and have the opportunity to buy something major that you could never hope to afford otherwise, but only if you are one of the first 20 or so people in the store, that is a very high motivation. More so if others are counting on you.

Bart

 
sort of like dangling a pork chop out the window of the carriage as you pass the subjects huh ?
thats the world we live in.... keep em preoccupied with flash and dazzle, and we "rulers" can do as we please
 
and as long as we as a people put worth on ourselves to the point of "i NEED the new 50" tv. my "old" 32" is beneath me now, they will continue to do so.... and we will continue to wait in lines for BS

It's the annual gathering of the geeks and nerds. Don't you feel the excitement?
Waiting for the iPad 2 at the Minnetonka Ridgedale Apple Store

Davydd - Did you get a good spot in that line?

No. I just snapped the picture and left. I just wanted to look at them and it wasn't worth the wait in line to do that. I did get in line last year for the first iPad and bought two of them. BTW, that photo just showed less than half the people in line. The line snaked off to the left and around a corner.
 
This year if I decide to buy one I can get it at Target with a substantial discount.

We were just at our local Costco today (Edison NJ) and they now have a gas station. The price was all of 6 cents a gallon less than I can find in my town, and yet the lines must have been 30 cars deep.
 
OK, I drive a small car with a 12 gallon tank, but even if I had a 30 gallon tank SUV, waiting on line for probably an hour to save $1.80 boggles my mind.
 
Don't these people put a value on their own time???
 

ken8038


Don't these people put a value on their own time???

In some cases, this very well might be the most exciting thing that happens to them all week!

BackAlleyBurger

sort of like dangling a pork chop out the window of the carriage as you pass the subjects huh ?
thats the world we live in.... keep em preoccupied with flash and dazzle, and we "rulers" can do as we please

and as long as we as a people put worth on ourselves to the point of "i NEED the new 50" tv. my "old" 32" is beneath me now, they will continue to do so.... and we will continue to wait in lines for BS

For a "road food" group, there seems to be a LOT of elitism here.
 
Bart

ken8038
Don't these people put a value on their own time???

If they are reading great literature and improving their minds while waiting, would you approve, then?
 
Bart

A couple things I've stood in line overnight for...
 
1978 Steelers playoff tickets. There were 5000 available for each game for sale to the general public, and each person could buy up to 4. I was about #300 in line. At daybreak, the people in the back started crowding, and at 9AM the ticket windows opened and the entire mass swelled forward. The people at the front had nowhere to go after buying their tickets; they had to be lifted up and passed off to the sides by the next in line. It was a nightmare, I'll never do that again. The tickets were gone as fast as they could move people through.
 
In the winter of 1981/2, at the height of stagflation, when interest rates were up around 18%, a bank in Cheswick PA announced that they had $3 million in money to lend at 12.5%. So I waited with my sister, who was buying a house and wanted someone to give her some security. She got the loan. At the time there was no way of knowing whether that would save her money; a few years later she refi'd. But 5.5% over 30 years is potentially a lot of jingle, it was worth waiting in line for it. She gave me $20, if I remember. I tried to refuse, but she knew I was out of work and could use it.