El Pasoans camp out for Best Buy’s Black Friday opening
While Friday doesn’t officially start until midnight, BLACK Friday is starting this evening at lots of stores across the U.S. — and here in El Paso.
If you didn’t know better, you’d think that Best Buy started selling outdoor gear.
But on closer examination, you’ll find that these campers are waiting for the doors at the Best Buy at 1834 Joe Battle Boulevard to open at midnight tonight. Some have been here since midnight Wednesday.
“You gotta make friends with the people in front of you, behind you. Just keep preoccupied, talk to them,” said Jonathan Hernandez, as he relaxed in a folding chair outside his tent.
He’s warming himself with sweaters, scarves, portable heaters and thoughts of door-busting deals.
“You can’t beat the prices on Black Friday, you know?” he said.
Hernandez is no stranger to camping — outside stores, that is.
“We did this last year, but it wasn’t at Best Buy, it was at Target,” he explained.
And he’s a hunter — of bargains.
“The sale they have this year, it’s a 40-inch TV for 179 bucks. C’mon,” he said, smirking. “Regularly, it’s like $500. You can’t really go bad on that.”
Hernandez admitted to ABC-7 that the TV is a Christmas gift for himself.
But what about the holiday before Christmas? Are Hernandez and the other campers actually trading Thanksgiving dinner — the king of the eating holidays — for pizza, eaten outside in the cold?
“No, we have it brought to us,” Hernandez admitted. “My mom is really generous about that. She doesn’t mind bringing it out here.”
Perhaps he should reconsider giving that TV to his mother. If not, he has plenty of time to think of what to buy her — and the rest on his Christmas list — until midnight rolls around.
