Waiting for Black Friday

I'm at the electronics mecca Best Buys in Atwater Village Tuesday night.

I'm not the first media person to come by this week. Many are fascinated what's become an annual ritual for the consumer elite--getting a great place in line for Black Friday sales.

Atwater Village residents Janel Bisnar and her boyfriend Jeff Oda are third in line.

They're snacking on pizza with the friends they made last year, who are also in line.

"This is our Thanksgiving," Bisnar tells me. "And our reunion."

The friends stayed in touch and decided to meet up again this year, making it a bit of a party, a bit of a festival, a little bit of Occupy.

They say they will stay in line through the holiday, rolling out their tents late at night after the security guards leave.

"Security's really cracked own this year," says Oda. "We used to be able to keep our tents up all day."

The line's already snaked all the way down the left side of the very large Best Buys building.

Come Thursday night, it will explode, they tell me, twisting  back into an adjacent parking lot, around the front of the near by Toys 'R Us, finally looping back to Best Buys.

Everyone seems to know their place in line. There's no one enforcing the number-taking. It's reached by consensus, with maximum respect going to the guy who's holding down first place.

He's been there for two weeks.

Bisnar and Odar tell me they are not in it for the money. They make a couple hundred dollars reselling to parents and friends who don't have the patience for this kind of vigil.

Their buddy Arotin Arakelia, from Glendale, tells me he does a little bit better, but his friends urge him to keep the dollar figure under wraps.

He doesn't want to attract competition, does he?

I do learn this: the goal's to get in the store quickly and grab up all the advertised specials before they're gone, usually long before dawn on Black Friday.

Television and laptops are the biggest moneymakers.

Tablets, not so much, Bisnar tells me, though she's going to buy one for herself.

The group doesn't plan to have a special Thanksgiving meal.

Picking up some extra cash while while putting their own spin on urban camping is good enough for them.