For many years I swore I’d never battle my way through the Black Friday crowds; then I found a nearby shopping center with an Office Max and a Cost Plus World Market had some attractive deals but no crowds at all (odd since the same center has a Best Buy that one can’t get a quarter mille of on the day). So now I’m hooked.
With that said, I, and anyone I might buy gifts for, have all the hard drives and memory devices anyone might ever want, so OM was a bit dry. They did have some excellent digital camera deals, but I’m happy with what I’ve got currently, so no dice there either.
Cost Plus was a bit better. I walked up to the door not knowing what was being promoted today, and found myself being handed a) a limited edition TinTin Christmas ornament (tie-in to the coming Speilberg film), and b) a voucher for a free movie ticket. So, uh, win. Also picked up some soaps and smelly bath stuff and various cool retro games as they were selling two for one.
So, nothing too spectacular, but at least I wasn’t in danger of getting into any pepper-spray battles with other shoppers. How’d y’all do?
32" TV from Wal*Mart for $188. It’s the only big ticket item I wanted this year. Best Buy had a better deal on TVs but I didn’t want to drive that far (closest one is 40 mins away) and then possibly not get one. Besides, my big baby belly makes it uncomfortable to stand for that long!
Anthropologie was having the most ridiculous sale ever – an additional 50% off (!) sale items. I shed a single tear because I found the world’s loveliest dress, but not in my size, but I got over it when I scored a super sweet white sweater dress for $40.
This is not a Black Friday steal, but earlier this week due to Filene’s Basement going out of business, I scored some Born boots for $85. Yes, the same Born boots that average $200/pair. Who rocks? (Thumbs up) This gal!
I stayed up all night Wed for Best Buy’s $179 Lenovo laptop. Their stores were opening last night at midnight, with only 10 for each store, with tickets required to purchase. They were going to start handing out tickets at 10pm. Tents were already up Wed, and well before that I’m sure.
They were also available online, and the online sales were going to go live on Thanksgiving which meant anytime after 12am ET on Thurs. I started reloading the page at 11pm my time (pacific) and kept at it every few minutes. Best Buy posted that they would announce on Twitter the opening of the online sales, and to be sure and get up early in the morning. I set up Twitter to text my phone with updates and kept refreshing. Figured early morning could start at 5am, which would be 2am for me.
Just after 3am, the “Coming Soon” button changed to “Add to Cart” and I got it in. As I was paying, the text hit my phone. By the time I finished payment, the page for the laptop showed “Sold Out”. Anyone who waited for the Twitter alert would have found the laptop and the $200 42" TV sold out already.
Most of the really good deals were available online, so those missing Thanksgiving to freeze in tents are even bigger fools since they could have spent a few hours obsessively refreshing a web page instead.
Apparently a lot of stores up here in Canada are getting on the Black Friday bandwagon as well. I just went to the mall during my lunch break and got $200 worth of clothing from The Gap for $60, a bunch of stocking stuffers from The Body Shop for 50% off and some nice picture frames from Papyrus for 50% off as well.
Banana Republic (my fav store) was having a 40% off sale but the line was nuts, so I skipped it.
I might head to the outlet mall tonight to see if there are any deals there too. Might get my Christmas shopping done today!
You’re breaking my heart, MeanOldLady. I woke up early to get this cardigan I’ve been looking at for the past two days and they were out of the yellow (first choice), but still had it in gray. I bought it and went back to bed happy for the next few hours. I woke up to an e-mail from Anthropologie telling me that they cancelled my order! Guess they sold more than they had?
I’m waiting for tomorrow; some people are promoting “Small Business Saturday” for gift shopping. I’m going to try to shop local and small business when possible for the holidays this year, even if it means spending a little more.
Oh, and I goddamned scored last year, but on stuff for myself, and didn’t even walk outside my house today.
Same here I went to Staples, then Office Max.
I was checking the internet beforehand for a new monitor, and saw a Samsung 23 inch widescreen that almost everybody on Earth had for $140 this weekend. I went to a strip of the road that has Best Buy and a couple other things including Staples. Went into Staples, it took me almost 7 minutes because one of the bored looking sales dudes had to go into the back to get one, and they hadn’t put the retail bar code on it yet, so the checker had to do a manual lookup. They also didn’t have any DVI-DVI cables. So I thought screw it, I will have to go to Best Buy after all. I walked inside and the line was at least 90 minutes I figure.
Then a brain storm, half a mile down the road is an Office Max, went back to my car, popped in and out of the Max in about 3 minutes, and got back to Skyrim in a total time of about 40 minutes.
I live in the Detroit area and by looking at the license plates I’m pretty sure most of Southern Ontario was in the Best Buy line.
that new Batman game for XBox 360 for $30 instead of the $60 I later saw it for at the mall…thus eliminating one of my brother’s gift requests at a bargain price
bunch of DVD sets for $10-13. Supernatural, One Tree Hill, and Carnivàle for me, and the two final seasons of Heroes for Dad.
I went halfsies on a new TV too, but I don’t know if it was one that was on sale specifically for black Friday or not.
I scored a $30 set of Legos. It had 1,600 pieces. :eek: The current advertised price is $39 for the weekend, but it was $30 at the store. The off brand ‘plastic blocks’ sell for $30 as well, but they only have 750 pcs a set. The regular Legos brand large set is 450 pcs at Wal-Mart and it’s $30.
So I got quite a deal.
I also got my son a $188 laptop from Wal-Mart. We got our tickets and stood in line for two hours. He fell asleep. He chipped in the next $19 from his cash stash because he INSISTED he needed his own printer. We got home at 1:30 am and he said it was worth it. I don’t know how to explain how happy I am that I could get him that. Things are so tight, but he’s almost seven, it’s his birthday and Hannukah and I feel like EVERY kid should have their own computer.
About to hit the Gap and Banana Republic outlet sales tomorrow. I need work pants and everything is 40-70 per cent off factory/discount prices.
My sisters and I went to an outlet mall that’s about 20 minutes from me. At one store, we got $5 off coupons for that store’s sister stores, so at one, I got a set of bracelets and she got a blingy ring, and the total for both was $2. At the other store, she got a very nice golf shirt for her husband for $2.
The crowds were very hit and miss. The Bath and Bodyworks outlet was a total clusterfuck. The Vanity Fair outlet, where I scored a couple of $6 long underwear shirts for biking, was deserted.
I usually manage to avoid BF, but the Elder Ottlet had mentioned that she wanted an external hard drive and Office Depot had a 2TB Seagate for 79USD. Arrived about 40 minutes before opening and was seventh in line. Got in, got the drive, got out.
Most interesting part of the experience was listening to the geekboys signifyin’ on one another about their CPU / RAM / RAID. Reminded me of guys and their cars back in the dark ages (i.e., when I was their age).
That’s the closest I’ll get to Black Friday shopping.
We got home at 1:30 am and he said it was worth it. I don’t know how to explain how happy I am that I could get him that. Things are so tight, but he’s almost seven, it’s his birthday and Hannukah and I feel like EVERY kid should have their own computer.