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The day after Christmas was Friday, and what a day I was convinced it would be. I had set our clocks for the wee hours of that Friday morning with an extra loud alarm. Not only did it wake myself and my husband up, but two neighbors as well.
They yelled, and I apologized. I felt bad, but after all, it was a second chance at a Black Friday fit with all its excitement, and I wasn’t gonna miss it.
After waking up, we dressed in the toastiest of clothing for the early morning shopping experience. However, when we got outside it dawned on me that not only didn’t we get our white Christmas the day before but it wasn’t even chilly outside.
We headed back inside and donned shorts and flip-flops (yes, we moved here from Florida; it was years ago but I held on to my flimsy footwear). After changing clothes, we headed back out to continue our journey to several local stores, including Walmart. Our hopes were to find the same great deals we did on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
My expectations were quickly dashed as I noticed how thin some of the store aisles were with leftover Christmas stuff. In fact, several of the shelves were stripped clean like meat off a chicken bone.
No one was pulling hair, kicking or snatching items from the hands of others. I had wondered what happened to the traditional Black Friday behaviors.
Back in early December, I was concerned that other shoppers would scoop up some of the Christmas items I was hoping to buy before I could return to the store later and purchase them. So I prepared myself by shoving a few things underneath shelving units at several of the stores. I forgot about it until I was back in the stores and it dawned on me. As I reached under those shelving units, there lay my stashed away gifts but now they were 50% off.
One store clerk walked by as I was reaching deep under the display rack. Perhaps thinking I had fallen, she offered to help me up. I simply informed her I needed to rest and that I would be back up in a moment or two. She went about her business, and I retrieved the hidden goodies.
As I was reaching for a leftover meat and cheese tray, one lady eyeballed me intently. She may have even been the same lady who was arrested at a different store after Thanksgiving for swiping a meat and cheese tray from someone elderly. My situational awareness skills allowed me to make sure that she knew I was aware of her presence and her potential thievery.
Although most of the leftover Christmas stuff was gone, I did notice, however, one display rack appeared almost full. There hung a bunch of different tiny food packages in the form of tree ornaments. Maybe folks had just completed their grocery shopping and weren’t hungry enough to purchase anything resembling food.
Among the tasty-looking tree danglers were hard plastic bags of Cheetos. I snagged a mock cheesy treat for myself, so that was a win.
What happened to the days of leftover Christmas items remaining in a store for two months after the holiday? It had seemed as though a mere few days later the items had either been sold or stores just eliminated the excess. Most of the desired items I had hoped to buy for folks later this year were gone except for those I pulled out from under the display racks.
It wasn’t a total loss, however, as I decided to buy each of the 43 people still left on my shopping list a Christmas present from the snack rack. In doing so, I stripped the last full Christmas store display of all its Christmas tree food ornaments. I just hope I’ll give the correct food packages to the right snackers this Christmas.
Anngee Quinones-Belian of Ranger is a staff correspondent for the Cherokee Scout. Her humor column runs every other week. Email her at anngeeq@gmail.com.