This morning I woke up early (while on vacation) to spend an hour with some flip flop fanatics. You could call it flip flop fever, a flip flop frenzy.
Early morning insanity.
We arrived at 8:45am, the store opened at 9:00am. We pulled into the parking lot and I started cackling with laughter. I really wish I was talented enough to get the video off my damn camera, because it shows the line extending FAR past the store. Sheer madness.
They opened the doors and the running started, because hell, you could buy 5 pairs of flip flops for only a dollar each. Fortunately no one was injured in the running of the flip flops, so I could maintain my hilarity take on the entire episode.
Here is the first guy in line, who told me his wife said to him, "if you don't come to the flip flop sale with me, no camping for you this summer!" I am so not making that up. He was relatively pleasant when I interviewed him and was about 5th or 6th in line, meaning he was up way earlier than he wanted to be.
Here is part of my family waiting in the looooooong line.
Once they opened the door, people actually ran to the flip flop wall. The five pair limit prompted cajoling and bargaining at the register, so on my second trip around as a proxy buyer, I ended up buying a pair for the woman behind me. Like dealing crack on a street corner, but at Old Navy. She slipped me a single and I slipped her the flip flops on her way out. (I did not violate the no shopping rule.)
The big wall of flip flops had 8-10 people deep and at one point people at the back were shouting out their size and color and then you'd see that pair go winging over everyone's head. Sometimes accurately tossed, sometimes not. Like I said, hilarity.
Below is what the wall looked like after about 10 minutes. They also had flip flops in big shopping carts at the back of the store and someone shouted, "more back here", which started a shove in that direction by the moo cows.
I also have a funny short interview with a male store clerk and his thoughts on the binge buying, which I also cannot extract from the damn hyper-technical video camera. He states he thinks they'll be sold out by NOON, but really, I'm thinking closer to 10am.
And here is my sweet son, very good humored about having to carry his family's zillion flip flops. We giggled about this experience all day. Sweet.
