This is the most unbelievable consumerism I’ve ever seen, and I witnessed it all first hand.

I was in line at STAPLES in Aliso Viejo, CA to buy a Compaq Presario V5303NR Notebook, which was advertised at $399.98. I arrived at 5:10am for a sale that began at 6am. When I found my place at the back of the line, there were already 40-50 people in front of me. A mere 20 minutes later, there were over 100 people in line behind me!

At 5:30am, a Staples employee emerged from the store, addressing the crowd that he would be walking down the length of the line to distribute coupons for the most popular sale items. He called out various items. People held up their hands. The employee found them and handed them a coupon for the item. Item after item was read off, but no laptop.

As I waited for the employee to walk back to where I was to inquire about the laptop, I witnessed something I’ve never seen before. At the front of the line were two Mexican men in their 30s. They were grabbing every coupon that was offered. Then, it happened. A white mother in her 40s and her teenage son got out of a black BMW 7 series, walked to the front of the line in place of the Mexicans, and the Mexicans handed their sale tickets to the woman and went back to their beat up car and drove off. THIS WOMAN HIRED THESE MEXICANS TO WAIT IN LINE!! Can you believe this? (Well, it IS Orange County!)

Just after this event (Now 5:35am), the Staples employee finally made his way back to me. I asked him, “Sir, I’m here for the Compaq Presario V5303NR Notebook that is on the front page of our ad. Do you have any tickets for that item remaining?”. “Let me check” he replied, where he did an about-face and marched into the store to see what was left. After a few minutes the guy returned to me in line and stated “Sorry, but that item is not available in our district”.

So in essence folks, Staples ran an ad for something NATION WIDE that isn’t even available. This item was on the FRONT PAGE of the Staples circular. False lead, false advertising. In other words, this was a LIE.

In line I overheard even more stories..

A woman behind me described the scene at COMP USA. Apparently Comp USA was open on Thanksgiving from 9pm-Midnight, yet their sale didn’t take effect until the 24th. This meant that people were loading up on items that scanned FULL PRICE at the register. When they complained that the price should have been the sale price, the employees then informed them, “Oh, those items don’t go on sale until tommorow!”, meaning COMP USA opened their stores with the false pretense of a sale.

Another man in line described an experience he had at a CIRCUIT CITY that was just up the road. Apparently some early bird shoppers were using shopping carts to block aisles in the store, and some even abandoned their carts some 10 feet inside the store entrance, so that other shoppers wouldn’t get ahead of them in the mad rush for merch.

I doubt I will ever do this again. It made me sick to watch all the blatant consumerist greed out there. Not to mention I went home with no laptop for my wife! Looks like after-Christmas sale hunting is on at my household!

Tags: black+friday, black+friday+horror, black+friday+nightmare, circuit+city, comp+usa, compaq, compaq+presario, compusa, post-thanksgiving+sale, shopping, staples, wal+mart, wal-mart, sale, christmas