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#1
11-23-2009, 07:10 AM
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Are you shopping on Black Friday?
I'm not. But I have the benefit of only having one person to buy gifts for. (no, kids, just a wife).
A coworker told me the other day how she plans on going out around 3am to get in line for the Black Friday rush. Theres no way I could do that. Are the deals that good? My wife works in retail and I am a little bit concerned about the wacky stuff people do in a shopping frenzy. Remember, last year some poor guy got trampled in New York. 
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#2
11-23-2009, 07:33 AM
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I've looked through the ads and didn't see anything that would have me shopping, however there's a deal on Thursday at KMart for an 8GB flash drive for $10. So I might try and pick up a couple of those.
I may get up early and eat at a local restaurant that is giving away free breakfast entrees between 4am and 5am, my SO is always up at that time and I know he wants to go. So we'll probably do that.
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#3
11-23-2009, 07:48 AM
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This will be the first year in a decade we're not really doing the whole Black Friday thing. In the past we'd meet up with a group of friends at 4am, plan of attack in hand. This year just TheKid and I will be hitting Menards and maybe KMart, but that's it.
stpauler - free breakfast? Where?
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#5
11-23-2009, 07:56 AM
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Edina Grill, Longfellow Grill, Highland Grill, and 3 Squares. 4-5am free breakfast entree 5-6am 75% off any breakfast entree 6-7am 50% off any breakfast entree
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#6
11-23-2009, 07:58 AM
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Oh hell no. Let me amend that, no fucking way will I fight with crowds that are abusive to customer service people to save $.29 on something I really don't need. I really wish business would give the poor people a break and let them have the day off.
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#7
11-23-2009, 08:15 AM
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No way. I don't see the point.
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#9
11-23-2009, 08:34 AM
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Never. I don't like crowds; there's usually nothing I'm interested in buying; the best deals are scams; and the items will be on sale the entire month anyway.
I really don't see why it's worth the aggravation.
__________________
"One never knows, do one?" Provider of quality fantasy and science fiction since 1982.
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#11
11-23-2009, 09:09 AM
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Not if you woke me at 4 a.m. with either a gun to my head and orders to get up and out of the house - or - if you gave me a wad of $100 bills. Thanksgiving kicks my ass as no other day - I have to do ALL the work, in TWO households, and the day after I am near-comatose. I spend it sitting on the couch, wrapped in my blankie, watching whatever TV marathon is on. Hopefully House, Dirty Jobs, or Deadliest Catch. No, black Friday shopping is, like attending an all-night rave, an activity for the young and vigorous!
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#12
11-23-2009, 09:14 AM
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I'm thinking this should be in the IMHO forumm (would do good with a poll too), but I'm not a mod, so ...
As to shopping on Black Friday, why the hell not? I'm Canadian, so ...  (hell, any of you Yanks feel pressured just take a drive up north and find regular mall crowds!) We even had Thanksgiving already (6 weeks ago), so you don't even have to worry about feeding us, we're still full!In Canada, the equivalent to your Black Friday I guess is Boxing Day, where everyone, especially the big box retailers (no relation to day name) has their ginormous sales, several with long lineups at the door on midnight to get things like an 18th century mohagony table for 89 cents or something like that. However, Boxing Day is December 26, I still have yet to figure out why people do massive shopping *after* Christmas, at least Black Friday makes sense! (Well, it works for me in a way because my sister's birthday is December 31, so I usually get her gift after Christmas).
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#13
11-23-2009, 09:16 AM
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My poor roomie has to be at his job at 5 am. I will almost certainly not be out shopping. But I may do a little internet shopping.
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#14
11-23-2009, 09:17 AM
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I prefer to pay the extra $100 for my merchandise and consider it the "not waiting in line in the freezing cold for six hours while battling other shoppers for three items" fee.
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#16
11-23-2009, 09:24 AM
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Yeah, but probably not until 10 or 11, whenever we get up and ready. We don't buy the big-ticket items that really go on sale that early, and I'm not looking for anything specific, but I do like to go and see what deals I can find, especially since I still have some Christmas shopping to do, but have no idea what I'm getting a few people.
A lot of stores are extending their sales all day this year, too. Target definitely is, they open at 5am, but their sales are going on all day - some are even starting on Wednesday, to drum up more business. Last edited by badbadrubberpiggy; 11-23-2009 at 09:24 AM.
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#17
11-23-2009, 09:28 AM
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Seeing as rent is due a few days later (what I like to call Gray Tuesday) I think not.
Actually, I typically spend the day after Thanksgiving hosting a gingerbread house making party. So although I don't shop, I'm up at the ass-crack of dawn making the gingerbread pieces. (I supply the house parts & royal icing, my guests bring bagfuls of candies and other construction type items.) I may do some online shopping between batches.
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#19
11-23-2009, 09:39 AM
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Sure I am. I find it festive. I don't even really have plans to buy anything this year. I just like the experience. We avoid Wal-Mart, though. The people there tend to be a little more confrontational. The crowds at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Target are much friendlier, especially earlier in the morning before people start to burn out. My mom and sister and I usually start around 4 AM and then knock off for lunch around 1 PM. Good times.
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#20
11-23-2009, 09:41 AM
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Quote:
 My condolences!I went out once. The first Thanksgiving I hosted, I was tearing down the turkey carcass to make stock, and realized I did not have a large enough stock pot. So, off I went the very next day. I went to a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which itself did not have big crowds, and although it was in the same strip mall as a Best Buy and a Toys-R-Us, I was fortunate in that there was an access road between those halves of the mall, controlled by a stoplight, so it was separated physically from the crowds over there and from most people looking for parking. Got in, grabbed a great stockpot (with deep and shallow steamer inserts), got out.
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#22
11-23-2009, 09:49 AM
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My condolences to Wheeljack, also. Have you worked Black Friday before? Can you entertain us with tales of shopping idiocy and madness?
I went two years ago to Walmart for a very good deal on a Garmin. That was my first and last experience with Black Friday shopping. I could tolerate the long lines, but some of the shoppers were just nuckin' futz -- pulling stuff off the shelves for a quick once-over and just discarding it in the middle of the aisle if they decided against it, piling their carts with stuff when it was obvious from their conversations that they didn't have any idea what they were buying for whom. It was an interesting experience, but one I need not repeat. Last edited by freckafree; 11-23-2009 at 09:50 AM.
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#23
11-23-2009, 10:01 AM
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I'm going there are occasionally good deals although if you're not up early enough you can lose out. A couple of years ago I was going to buy a digital camera at Best Buy which was on sale for 50% off unfortunately they only had 15 of them is stock but I still found a couple of other things. This year I'm looking for a wine cooler for my mom that the leaked prices have at 60% off.
I normally go looking for a specific item, only go to one store and do some shopping for myself as my reward for getting out. Besides I already wake up at 5 am so a couple of hours earlier balances out with how much earlier I go to bed on thanksgiving night.
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#25
11-23-2009, 10:10 AM
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Do you ask questions about the sex gifts and embarrass her to death, or do you seek out the merely tasteless gifts?
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#27
11-23-2009, 10:13 AM
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Not in a million years. No sale is worth getting up early and braving a crowd of crazed shoppers! And besides, all of the really good deals are on items in (deliberately) serious short supply, no doubt to draw shoppers in hoping they'll spend their money on the other not-so-good deals. I'll just wait, thanks.
But I do have a friend who gets up at the crack of dawn and goes shopping every year. I think she's insane, but it's a tradition for her, and she wouldn't think of missing a Black Friday.
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#28
11-23-2009, 10:23 AM
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I didn't mind it in years past when the stores opened at 6am or 7am, but now you have stores that have their first "tier" of sales over by that time.
I am certainly not going to get up and wait in line. But then for some people it's fun. And if you're one of them, the bargains are only second to the experience. I knew one guy, he was a single male, making over 74K a year and he loved bargains. I have never seen him express so much happiness when he could 10% off something.  I say if it's fun for you, and frankly despite people's complaint, I think most of those very early shoppers get a kick out of it, whether they want to admit it or not, then go for it and have fun.
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#29
11-23-2009, 10:44 AM
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#30
11-23-2009, 11:08 AM
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I might do some online shopping, or go to the grocery store. Otherwise, no. I find shopping in crowded stores very stressful.
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#31
11-23-2009, 11:29 AM
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I usually avoid it like the plague, but, now I live downtown St. Louis and it will be kind of fun to check out the fray for awhile and then be able to retreat for a drinky and watch from above. Plus my fave vintage clothing shop is having a huge sale just down the street that I MUST check out.
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#32
11-23-2009, 11:31 AM
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Last edited by Wheeljack; 11-23-2009 at 11:33 AM.
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#34
11-23-2009, 11:45 AM
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If you do the research, you rarely find the deals you need or in the right quantity. For example. We saw a deal where you get a washer-dryer combo for $600. Sounds pretty cool, right? And we need a set. Whirlpool, too! But then we did some research and found out that each store is only going to get two sets and once they're gone, that's it. You can't order it or anything.
So I don't want to get up at 4 Am to try and get a washer-dryer after fighting the crowds. Plus most of the sales, as other people have said, are all month. And really, if it's for ourselves anyway, better to buy after Christmas.
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#35
11-23-2009, 11:56 AM
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Not this year. I'm ending my streak at three consecutive years. My wife is still going though. She has no idea what she's buying, she's just very fond of spending my money.
Also, we've never had a problem with rowdy crowds. Each time I've gone, I've met nice people and made some friends. It's more like a camping trip.
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#36
11-23-2009, 12:06 PM
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#37
11-23-2009, 12:06 PM
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The one time we did Black Friday shopping was last year, when my MIL took the kids and we got up and to the Toys R Us around 7:30-8:00. There was a healthy crowd, but it wasn't hellish, and we bought about 80% of our kids' xmas gifts in under an hour. I would avoid the big boxes with ridiculous doorbusters, though.
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#38
11-23-2009, 12:16 PM
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NFW.
I can't understand why anybody would want to do this. Fighting with lunatic fat ladies to get a few bucks off a Gameboy? No thanks. In our extended familes, we have have kind of an unpsoken agreement to only buy gifts for the kids, anyway. Adults don't give each other gifts in our families, and there's a lot you can get that kids will like that don't cost an arm and a leg. We're not buying TV's or anything. My kids are expecting a PS3 this year, but those will be the same price on the monday after Thanksgiving as they are on Black Friday.
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#39
11-23-2009, 12:18 PM
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If those crowds are so friendly, then why are there stories about people being trampled to death every year by stampeding, fevered mobs, desperate to get ten dollars off a sweater?
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#40
11-23-2009, 12:26 PM
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NM
Last edited by badbadrubberpiggy; 11-23-2009 at 12:28 PM.
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#41
11-23-2009, 12:28 PM
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I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it is rare. You're basing your opinion by what happens at a handful of stores. Thousands of stores around the country have lines of people waiting for the black Friday sales. There are lines of people outside virtually every electronics store in Dallas and I can't remember the last time someone was injured much less killed by a rowdy crowd.
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#42
11-23-2009, 12:37 PM
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We're going out for my birthday dinner that night (in Canada, thank God) - thanks for the reminder to get cash to pay for dinner, since you Murkins might crash the whole North American interac system again.
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#43
11-23-2009, 12:45 PM
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#44
11-23-2009, 12:58 PM
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No. We're not big BF shoppers anyway, especially the early-morning hoopla, but most years we swing by the Hancock's and Hobby Lobby at home while my parents are doing their bowling league. This year he has to work, so we'll be leaving much later and probably won't make it in before the stores close.
I tried doing the 6 am thing once a few years ago. Never, ever again. The crowds weren't aggressive or rowdy or rude, but I've never had such an awful case of crowd claustrophobia in my life. Maybe it's not quite so awful in bigger towns with more shopping options, but around here you've got your choice between Walmart, Kmart, and Penney's for early-morning Black Friday shopping. Well, that or you can drive a couple hours to Lexington. It looked like every shopper in 4 counties was in the Walmart that morning, often in huge family groups driving trains of carts and trying not to get separated by other cart trains. You could hardly move for the crush, even without a cart.
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#46
11-23-2009, 01:26 PM
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#47
11-23-2009, 01:30 PM
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I would say the friendly/festive crowds are overwhelmingly the norm. I've seen people blatantly leave the line for hours at a time and be welcomed back at the same spot they were when they left. I've shared tents/food/blankets/pipes with people I'd only met a few hours before. Last year, there was a game of touch football. Now that I think of it, I might actually miss being out there.
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#48
11-23-2009, 01:37 PM
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I've never gone shopping on Black Friday, but I've always wanted to. I'm ordering most of what I need online, so I don't really have a shopping agenda, but I want to see if it's as bad as everyone says. Maybe this will be the year, if I can convince anyone to go with me.
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#49
11-23-2009, 01:42 PM
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If they announced the end of the world Was coming soon for certain there would be two kinds of people; those that riot and loot in order to get what little they can even though they risk serious injury or death in order to get some stuff they may enjoy for a very short time. The other type of person will stay in their homes cherishing what they already have or spend time visiting loved ones. I am in the latter group an there is no way I would go out amongst the other group that is out in full force on Black Friday.
Or in the words of Will Smith, Aw hell no!
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#50
11-23-2009, 01:42 PM
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No, I won't be out there.
After reading about and then finding out first hand about "derivative" products I'm not in the market for downgraded products just to save a few bucks. We were in BestBuy the other day shopping for a laptop. We decided on a Sony with a Core 2 Duo processor. It's $649. The salesguy tells us (psst, that's the one in Black Friday's ad for $399, we've got tons of em.) So I figure to save $250 I may venture out around noon. Till I called my BBY friend who has a copy of the ad. "No, you were looking at the VGN-NW240. It has the Core 2 Duo. The one in the ad is a VGN-NW235. It's got the budget processor Pentium Dual Core."
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