Friday Flashbaxx - Best Buy Days

I've decided to fire up the Wayback Machine on Fridays and post pictures, memories, snippets of journals (!), and other items of interest from the past.

Let's start with a life-changing decision I made fifteen years ago tomorrow.  On that fateful day, I drove to the Best Buy in Richfield, MN on my lunch hour to buy the new John Mellencamp CD, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, on its release day.  I loved the song "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)."  Still do.

I'd been laid off for several weeks from my marketing job and had recently been "called back," but I'd gone on several trips during that time and was in need of supplemental income.  There was a Now Hiring sign at the front of the store.  I loved Best Buy, my favorite place to buy music and movies, and I thought, hey, why not?

A couple of days after I'd submitted my application, I had an interview.  I started as a Media Specialist and quickly learned that I could sort a shuttle (dozens of boxes or totes filled with CDs and, at that time, VHS tapes that needed to be organized by category and/or alphabetically) faster than you could say "Classical - Contemporary."  One of my co-workers told me I needed to slow down because I was making the rest of them look bad.  More often than not, I also sorted a few into a "To Buy" pile as well, indulging my need for new and interesting music.

Shortly after I started, I was introduced to one of my favorite aspects of my career at Best Buy: In-Store Appearances.  On his sixteenth birthday, about a month after I started, Kid Johnny Lang played at our store on the day his album Lie to Me was released.

Me and Johnny Lang, 1996

It wasn't long before I quit my marketing job and was on the fast-track to management at Best Buy Store 281.  Over the years, I was fortunate enough to meet many more musicians and attend some awesome concerts (for free), thanks to Best Buy.  I met my (musician) husband there and we fell in love when I looked up the employee price for a Dave Matthews Band CD for him.  Neither of us have worked there for many years, but we both maintain a fierce loyalty to the company.  And we both still love to buy CDs -- just not as many as we once did.

In grad school I wrote a series of short stories, each taking place on a different day of the week, set in a store very much like Best Buy.  My years with the company provided endless material and characters.  There's a novel in those memories somewhere.

"Fire up the Wayback Machine, Sherman."