Only online. I refuse to go out amongst the unwashed masses during gift-grab season.
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.
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.
Normally no power on earth would drag me to a retail establishment on Black Friday, but my daughter recently got a job at Spencer Gifts, and she’s working that day, so I think I’ll swing by, an act simulataneously supportive and mocking. 
That could be awkward.
Do you ask questions about the sex gifts and embarrass her to death, or do you seek out the merely tasteless gifts?
Oh, both. Definitely both. 
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.
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.
I’ve said that for years, but people still go to the sales. I have no proof or citessm but I’m guessing that a lot of stuff (thats going to be on sale all month anyway) will probably be cheaper around Dec. 23 as the stores will be trying to unload the stock.
I might do some online shopping, or go to the grocery store. Otherwise, no. I find shopping in crowded stores very stressful.
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.
No, I’ve never even shopped it before. I’m pretty disgusted by the whole process to be honest, but beyond that I’m afraid of crowds. (Misbehaving crowds, anyway.) My job is to guard a bunch of cheap laptops until the starting bell. Without any security support or real instructions from management as to what to do if there are problems, I suppose my only concern at this point is whether to get a new blade for the boxcutter or stick to the jagged rusty one.
Absolutely no, no way in hell, never have, never will. My sanity and already-tenuous belief that most people are fundamentally good would never survive.
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.
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.
This has been my experience, too.
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.
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.
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?
NM