Friends get in line for Black Friday deals 3 weeks early
Taking "you snooze, you lose" to heart, two friends in Beaumont, California, have been camped out in front of Best Buy since last Wednesday, hoping to score big screen TVs at low prices when Black Friday finally rolls around in more than two weeks.
Vicky Torres and Juanita Alva take turns sleeping outside of the store at night, and sometimes Alva's husband will take a shift, in case the women both need to be gone at the same time. Torres and Alva have stocked up on food and drinks, and they make sure to wear appropriate clothing, depending on the weather.
Both have their eyes on the Black Friday special of 50-inch high definition TVs for $199. Over the past week, they've met a lot of people; some say they're "dedicated," while others call them "stupid." Alva's husband said that shoppers walk by and call the women crazy, but then return later and ask, "'Can you save a spot in line?' or 'Can you do this for us?' We're not here for that. We're just here to get our stuff and that's it."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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