Since 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Mary Louise Hopp has spent her days and nights in a tent outside the Best Buy in White Marsh.
At midnight Black Friday, she and her daughter hope to purchase a 40-inch television for $179.99 and a laptop for $349.99.
"It's fun, you get to meet a lot of different people, and just spending time with my daughter. It's a tradition," Hopp said, curled up inside her tent Wednesday evening.
The Jarrettsville resident has spent the past 13 Thanksgiving holidays going to great lengths for Black Friday sales, she said.
"You can eat turkey any day of the week. My family's always there, which is good, and they understand. My husband is a bank manager so, you know, I'm saving him money," Hopp said.
She emphasized that shopping center security guards and store staffers had been accommodating to her site, occasionally saving her spot as she and her daughter used the restroom.
"The customer service has been above and beyond. They are wonderful people out here," she added.
Until Tuesday, Hopp was the lone camper outside the store, she said.
As of Wednesday evening, a total of four tents lined the store's exterior.
Are you looking forward to Black Friday sales? Tell us where you're planning to shop in the comments.
Do I purchase things I want? Sure I do! However, I do so long before the holiday season begins. Whether you are secular, religious, devout or simply in it for the cookies and ham, the holiday season has nothing to do with things. When we as a society learn this, only then can we truly enjoy life to the fullest. This story is a sad, sad reminder of how far we have to go.
There's absolutely no way I would give up time with my family, or the comforts of home and the use of a shower, to camp outside of a store for 5 days, for "stuff."
What is the actual dollar amount of what you would save? I might donate $5 to prevent people from giving up their lives for five days to save $50. *Figure out what you make an hour... I'm a teacher, and make $31.25 an hour, annualized, before taxes, but it would not be worth me spending 144 hours, or in my case, $4,500 before taxes to call out out of work (therefore NOT earn that money) to save $50.