Black Friday is a truly interesting beast. A slash in prices all over the United States causes a storm in countless malls and shopping centers. People rush down the road, storm into malls, and crowd the isles searching for that perfect deal. All the while, people are sitting at home ignoring the carnage and finding better deals on Amazon. While it has to be acknowledged that Black Friday is an absolute mess that can at times be terrifying, I think that Black Friday is just great.

I’m not an avid shopper myself. If I’m buying anything it’s either on pure impulse or necessity. But every year, I try to make it out to the local mall or other shopping centers. Sometimes I’ll buy something (the impulse I mentioned earlier kicks in), but I like to just take in the atmosphere.

There’s something about Black Friday that I find hilarious. The deals are cause for excitement, but I feel that people mostly go for the experience. For the most part, I find that Black Friday shoppers are as sensible as the people around them let them be. What always gets me is that there’s usually a couple of instances where two people are arguing over which of them gets to take a particular item home.

“No it’s okay, you can take it!”

“Are you sure?”

These conversations are happening, but in the next isle there’s people nearly diving on items and cramming them into a cart.

Black Friday is just all around fun for me. It’s a kind of unique sensory overload, where you get to see some genuinely nice people, as well as people who turn the local Wal-Mart into a consumeristic battleground.

The night of Thanksgiving is like the calm before the storm. Maybe you’ve just gotten home from a nice family dinner where you discussed school and work with relatives you don’t get to see as much as you’d like. Outside the snow might be lightly cascading down, with the streetlight reflecting off of each flake outside your window. You could be sitting, with Silent Night playing softly in the background. Then you slowly drift off to sleep.

The next morning, you head out. You walk into Target. People are screaming, and practically running down the isles with their carts full of clothes and electronics. The crowd is a consistent drone, and you can barely hear yourself think. You can almost see items flying off the shelves. Over the intercom, an employee is reporting a child who had been lost in the men’s clothing section. You do what you need to do, and you eventually leave. By this point you’ve probably seen some things you’d rather not have seen, but for some reason you’re okay with it and you live to see another day.

Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. I like to joke about Black Friday, but I do genuinely enjoy it every year. If nothing else, Black Friday gets some people excited for the upcoming holidays and, for me, that’s a good enough reason for it to exist.