We’ve survived our first CompUSA Midnight Madness Sale. Madness it was, indeed. I knew something was up as soon as we slammed the doors on the jalopy. People were running from the parking lot into the store. Not jogging, running. It was 6:00 PM and the madness was officially on. Entering the store, I saw something I’d never seen before: a full house. I quickly headed off in search of the cheap Seagate 200GB hard drives …

The Seagate end cap display had every capacity drive except for 200GBs. It soon became clear that the goods were in the stockroom.

As I walked closer to the back of the store, I heard an employee shout out, “that’s it for the desktops. We’re all out of the desktops.”

Disappointed bargain hunters streamed away from the stockroom door.

A few rows down, the aisles were packed with folks lined up waiting (somewhat patiently) for the bargain Seagate hard drives and other goodies to emerge from the back room.

“Back up!” a store manager shouted. “Back up or we won’t bring out the carts!”

Most of the line hardly budged. The folks at the front of the line moved back just far enough for the first cart to be wheeled out.

Then it was pandemonium. Rabid geek shoppers clawed their way to the cart to retrieve the sacred gift of cheap hard drives. I wasn’t about to wade into the crowd. I had a secret weapon. A renegade remote controlled bot on a search and retrieve mission.

I sent my kid into the fray to get the job done.

He emerged within seconds, the Seagate drive clutched in his hands.

“You owe me Dad,” he said. “I risked my life for this. Some &%*#@! guy stepped on my foot.”

We came, we saw, we conquered, we walked out with a bargain hard drive.

Now all I have to do is mail in the rebates, install the hard drive, and I’ll be one step closer to a quiet PC, on the cheap, no less …