I Joined the Mess!!

For the past month I have been in search of new tires for my truck. I had priced tires at Sears several weeks ago, and walked away a bit disillusioned that the prices for the circular chunk of rubber could be so expensive. Yes, I have bought tires before and yes, I have had the same disillusioned feelings about the upcoming purchase.

My train of thought had me looking at a pair of BF Goodrich all-terrain tires. I have never been a fan of Goodyear tires; abhor General tires; feel Uniroyal tires were made of soft rubber; feared Firestone after its problems several years back. Those heartfelt reasons limited my selection. I had priced Cooper and Bridgestone (which I eventually purchased) and considered Michelin (which I have run many times). However, the Goodrich tires have long had an appearance that seemed appealing.

So on Friday morning--YES, BLACK FRIDAY--I ventured out at 5 a.m. (awake due to my never-ending insomnia) to see if the Sears advertisement, with many tires being shown as on sale, included the Goodrich tires of my desires. When I arrived, Larry greeted me by name and began the search. To my dismay, the Goodrich tires weren't on sale, because they are a DAILY SPECIAL. Hmmmm...pretty expensive tires to be labeled as a "Special."

The Bridgestone tires were some $40 less per tire (a total savings of some $160 which eliminated any appeal I had for Goodrich). The installation process would begin eventually, but the typically quiet garage I am familiar with when I arrive at the usual 8 a.m. opening time, was flooded with patrons who had the same "beat the crowd" idea I had.

So, what do you do on Black Friday at Grand Central Mall at 5:30 a.m. A quick look out the auto center entrance showed me that lots of people were shopping at Sears, so I decided to take a walk through the mall.

Sears was bedlam. It seemed to the untrained retail eye that there were way too many customers standing in line to pay at the way too few functioning cash registers. And this was a storewide dilemma. People were lined up eight to 10 deep at every cash register--and it wasn't even 6 a.m.

A 10 minute walk out of Sears (which should have typically taken maybe 3 minutes) put me on the extreme north end of the mall. A quick look led me to believe that 90 percent of Wood County was up before the sun began to climb on the eastern horizon. And, surprisingly, only a small percentage of the mall establishments were scheduled to open prior to the 6 a.m. chimes.

People were standing at store portals, staring through chained off entrances, salivating at the possible purchases that were pending when those stores did open. The big stores--Sears, Penney's, Belk, and Elder-Beerman were taking in consumer cash hand-over-fist. Smaller stores, such as Bath and Body Works were jam-packed and the food court was serving "breakfast" to a large contingent of shoppers.

Certainly the start of the Christmas shopping season was well underway. Case in Point. A national tracking agency said sales were up in 50,000 establishments by some 8.3 percent on Black Friday, 2007. The monetary count was $10.3 billion this year as compared to $9.5 billion last year.

At least at the outset, the retail segment of the economy was ready to have a Merry Christmas! And to think, I was a part of that hysteria.