Worst of both worlds

I stand before you the worst of both worlds: the Consumer, and the Anti-Consumer.

Today, being that all-too-consumeristic-for-my-taste "Black Friday Run Up The Credit Card Bills Buying Useless Crap For Your Loved Ones Else They Won't Love You" day, I fully wanted to take part in Buy Nothing Day. It's basically a big "Fuck You" to the ridiculous BUYBUYBUY attitude that the Xmas season is. I heard about it via the Adbusters mailing list, which I joined when I bought my "Corporate America Flag" a few months back.

Well, as much as I wanted to support that ideal, I'm a weak, cheap bastard. There were just a couple of *really* good deals on gadgets that, while I may not have *needed*...I certainly wanted really bad. Specifically, a 200GB hard drive for $30 (instead of $110), and Radio Shack 1000 Channel Dual Trunking Scanner for half price (by the way, I'm not 100% sure what the hell all that means, but it certainly sounds cool, no?). While my life would continue without them, they were calling to me.

So in my usual half-assed sorta way, I woke up around 9am (well after prime bargain-hunting hours) and decided that I'd go to my local Staples and see if they had the HD in stock. If they did, that was fate telling me I was supposed to buy it. If not; fate again telling me it was frivoulous. While I was out, I'd hit the Radio Shack and see what fate had to say about that scanner.

Got to the Staples and found a bigass empty shelf with a "SALE - $30" tag on it. I asked the friendly customer service dood if they were sold out (knowing full well they were). He confirmed. He then went on to say they had people lined up at 0430am for the bargains, and the store had to issue vouchers so my fellow man wouldn't kill *his* fellow man in the melee for cheap stuff. I listened to fate and hit the road, destination: my local bagel shop.

Luckily, my "local bagel shop" is two doors down from my "local Radio Shack". Unluckily, my local Radio Shack had sold out of the scanner long before I got there. Regardless of what fate had to say, however, the words of the friendly RS nerd were clear: "You can order it for that price on-line...oh, and it's free shipping". Fuck you, fate, I win this round. I drove home and bought one.

I'm so weak.