Here's my long winded 360 ordeal...
10 PM - My partners in crime and I arrive at Wal-Mart at for the midnight sale. Anywhere else, this would have been too late. Our Wal-Mart's hillbilly idiot management decided that it would be a good idea to announce that no line would form until 1115 and everyone had stay outside in the pouring, freezing rain and await an announcement detailing how the whole deal would go down.
10:30 - My friends and I mill about the store until the announcement time. An employee comes out and tells the increasingly agitated mob that they should gather around the fire exit (which had a big old sign reading "do not block") and await further instruction. 150 people formed a "U" around the fire exit. I work my way to the front. The rain continues.
11:00 - A number of cops arrive on the scene and watch from their vehicles.
11:15 - A pair of power-tripping retail mangers emerge from the fire exit and try in vain to move the crowd back before the cops declare the scene a fire hazard.
After realizing that no one was listening and people were beginning to push, one manager makes the official announcement that "THE LINE FORMS TO MY LEFT...NOW!"
A sea of humanity pushes from back to front, slamming half of the crowd up against the wall of the Mart. I see bodies dropping left and right. I throw off a couple tackles, catch a block from a rampaging beast of an obese trailer park skank and leap over the pile to emerge in about 10th position in the line.
11:20 - The cops shut down the Wal-Mart in the interest in public safety. Score one for incompetent management.
11:30 - I camp at Kmart and score a Core system.