Commercialism indicted, again

In celebration of 'black Friday', I left the house this morning at 5:40am, to do shopping on the day after thanksgiving, for the first time in probably 10 years. Something about the crowds, the commercialism, and the half-sincere lures have kept me home doing something more valuable to me -- just about anything... But I went today for a few reasons. I saw a couple things I wanted to check out, that i really wanted to get anyway. Also, it will be many years before I'm back here and able to observe this American ritual, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Perhaps more important, I had a shopping partner, and one with an "in and out quick" shopping ethic. The first store we hit opened a few minutes before 6am, with 15ish people waiting outside, and more arriving. Even knowing what we wanted, it took a second to find it, and then one item couldn't be pulled off the shelf without "customer assistance". Given that there were 4-6 crazed customers for each employee, that took awhile. When we finally got to the counter, there were 20-25 people behind us waiting to check out. And it wasn't even 6:20 yet. The next store advertised $2.99 DVD's, so we thought we'd see what was left. Since the store had opened at 5am, we knew that we'd be getting pickings at 6:30, but we weren't prepared for what we saw. I think it was due to fire code or something, because they were letting people in one at a time, and there was a line out the door. The line went down the long front of the store, and around the corner. Needless to say, we went on to the next store. Which, though it had a full parking lot, didn't have a line out front. But maybe it should have. The store itself was easy enough to navigate, but the checkout line went to the back of the store, along the back of it, and then back to the front -- something like 200 people. Fortunately they were each calmly waiting their turns, and I was able to leave the store and be back in bead by 6:40am. Later, in the afternoon, I went back to the store that I hadn't even entered, just to see if anything was left. But no. Lots of cheap junk, and lots of regularly priced stuff still hanging out. So what made me go out twice? Did I really believe that everything would be as cool as the ads promised? Did I really believe that this was a better time to shop than others? Did I really believe that this was anything other than a day to get the stores back "in the black"? Did I imagine that this would be particularly good for me, and not for them? Why would I want to get ahead of all the other guys subjecting themselves to these difficulties to get more stuff? Perhaps this is what the scriptures refer to as the deceitfulness of riches? Anyway, I think that anything that implies they're on my side is a lie.