It was Spring cleaning today at work.  The company was selling old computers, laptops, and audio-visual equipment.  I thought it would be nice to get 1 Ghz laptop for $100, so I showed up for the sale about 15 minutes before it started.

Way too late.  There were 300 people there.  40 people into the line was someone who told me he had shown up at 6am.  I got there at 7:45.  So no laptop.  I did buy a similar laptop from E-bay for $300.  Not quite as cheap, but OK.

I noticed an unanticipated benefit for the company.  All around the office there were people at work very early.  Like I had, they showed up early for the Spring clearning sale, but gave up when seeing the long line.  Perhaps the gain in productivity from an early start offset the loss from all the people waiting in line at the sale.