Craig Darr shook his head as his wife, Mary Kay, had her late-night Thursday epiphany.
The Hammond couple braved the rain Thursday after the Bears beat the Packers and headed to Highland Grove Shopping Center for their first-ever pre-Black Friday excursion. As she stood there in front of Dick’s Sporting Goods, she suddenly felt bad.
“I can’t believe I’m here, and I’m really kind of conflicted now,” Mary Kay Darr said. “We just finished watching the game, and out of sheer boredom, I said, ‘Let’s go shopping.’
“I’ve never shopped Thanksgiving before, and we really didn’t even find anything.”
And the two won’t be trying to find anything else this weekend, either, as the idea of shopping almost frightens her.
More Top Picks Best Hoka Shoes For Plantar Fasciitis Men
“Oh, I won’t come out on Friday. I don’t want to experience the crowds and the people beating each other up over an item,” she said.
Neither were Akai Carter, of Homewood, Ill.; and Courtney Rogers, of Calumet City, Ill., impressed with the late-night consumerism. It was also their first time ever, and they were looking for a specific makeup palette at Ulta.
“I was hoping to find the Lorac holiday palette,” Rogers said. “They had some, but I wanted the one they had last year.”
The women were going to continue shopping because they were there and Rogers needed to shop for her siblings, but Carter was over the whole thing.
“I can wait it out. This is not all it’s cracked up to be,” Carter said. “I could’ve had a V8.”
Friend group Ben Bokun, of Schererville; and Jacob Adams, Brian Brzycki and Luke Pospychala, of Griffith, meanwhile, aren’t new to the pre-Black Friday scene, having gone the last couple years. The young men hit Best Buy first for FIFA 16 and then went wherever the mood struck them.
“Best Buy had all the steals. Dick’s (Sporting Goods) has no steals, though,” Brian said.
“It’s fun to just hang out,” Luke added. “Usually, we don’t even buy anything.”
Shawn Smith, of Pittsburgh, had a different idea for bringing in the shopping season. In town to visit family, he wanted to spread holiday cheer of a different sort – by walking around Kohl’s in a Darth Vader mask.
“I asked people if they believe in the power of low prices,” Smith said. “They were kind of (jerks) to me.”
Smith did purchase a Charlie Brown Christmas tree replica and bags of gummi candy from Five Below.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.