Black Friday shopping

[Narei Mooncatt]

Anyone else here hit up the Black Friday sales? Or the "Moonlight Thursday" ones (just the name I am calling it) that started late in the evening? Turns out I didn't have to work last night, so after I got done with the run I was currently on, I headed to the local Walmart at about 8pm. I was going to try for the Xbox 360 bundle that went on sale at 10pm, and expected them to be handing out tickets (if not already "sold out" like some other stores were by 5pm) but turns out they had a line set up and was still relatively short. They also had a lot of the bundles in stock, which surprised me. After scoring that and running it to the car, I came back to see about the 32" Emerson TV's that were going on sale at midnight. While in the 360 line, I heard that the TV lines were pretty long, so I didn't have my hopes up much. Besides, it was an impulse buy of sorts anyway. We have a tv, but its' over 10 years old, and is pretty small. Not exactly the best thing to play something like a 360 on. I got lucky again that the line was short and they had a ton of those TV's. I'm used to stores only getting 5-10 of the really hot items like this. Not 56 360's and 82 of the one TV I wanted. So after getting that, I also picked up an HDMI cable and checked out.

When I got back to my truck, I found out the Kinect that is bundled with new 360 systems now uses a special port for power instead of the original USB only connection. I also found out the bundles to come with a power adaptor for use with an older 360, or to use with a computer. Yes, I said computer. I've been working with a guy to beta test a motion capture program and he created a port to use the Kinect for it on the PC, so I had to find a power adaptor for it. That order I placed online, but I was able to get that plus 2 day shipping for only $11, which is pretty dang good considering the normal cost of the adaptor alone is well over $20.

Personally, I'm not so hot on the idea of starting the sales on the night of Thanksgiving and would have been more than willing to wait until the older times of 5-6 am on Friday. The stores all claim that the customers wanted it like this, but I'm not buying it. I think they just wanted to get a jump on other places, and thus the customer has no choice BUT to come in then if they want the deal. I will say I liked Walmart's tierd system of putting things on sale at different times. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get both items.

[Wereaibo]

I've only gone out on Black Friday twice. The first time was when Furby was the hot hard to find item and I wanted one. The second time was similar, I was after a Super Poo-Chi, which was a robotic dog made by Sega/Tiger Electronics. In the early 00's I was hugely into the various robotic pets that were coming out at the time.  I wish I had kept all the robot dogs I had back then. Maybe a few Furbys too. I think they'd be fun to dissect and see what makes them tick. Furbys are loud, shrill, annoying and incredibly expendable.
I'd never go out on Black Friday these days. Crowds freak me out.

[Drake Blackpaw]

My wife and I got a couple of things for black Friday, but I'd say only one of them was a hot bargain.  Neither of us got up (or stayed up) to try and get a super deal at a store like Best Buy.  However, I did watch the flash sales going on all day at Amazon and snagged a copy of Forza 4 racing game for the Xbox for 27.88 bucks.  Amazon's regular price is 39.99 and Gamestop sells it for $59.  The other thing I got from Amazon is a Black Friday weekend deal that you could get from a lot of stores.  Microsoft lowered the price of the Kinect for the weekend so a lot of retailers are selling it for $99.  I picked up one of those as well.

Tonight we actually bought something at a physical store for my wife.  My wife had been drooling over the new ski jacket I got through a pro deal since I help edit a section of a ski website.  She wanted something closely to it for herself.  Well, we ended up at Eastern Mountain Sports by chance tonight and they are having an almost everything 20% of sale at the store.  We were able to pick up a nice North Face ski jacket shell for her for 20%.  Not a killer bargain, but nice, and she is very happy with it, which is the most important thing.

[MWBrantley]

When the weather is cold, or I have a cold or whatever, I like to go to the mall to get my exercise (at least 1 hour per day of walking briskly, as prescribed by my doctor). I felt much bette rthis evening, and went to teh mall to do as metioned above.

I swear, I cannot imagine why people have to walk so slowly in the mall; nor do I undestand the mentality of people who deliberately get in the way and cut people off who are obviously trying to walk alittle faster (what's the point? It's not like there's a prize or a finish line or anything). There's plenty of that when the mall is at normal load, but today, it was exponentially worse. About all I could do was squirm around in a long-distance circle; I finally gave up and went home (and that was a horror story all it's own).

And people were supposedly lining up and camping out at thebloody mall as early as 11pm...

Yeeeeshhhh...

[Kobuk]

I absolutely can't stand Black Friday. IMO, it's just corporate greed run amok.  I'll have more time to post on this issue either Sat. or Sun.

[redyoshi49q]

I technically did go shopping today.  I went to IGA to purchase toilet paper and pumpkin pie.  Having said that, going to a grocery store in a town of about 3,000 people on Black Friday is not representative of the Black Friday shopping experience.  I think at most, I saw a single other customer during my time there.

[TheComet]

I worked a gas station today.


OH GOD MAKE THEM STOP o.o;;;

[Wereaibo]

It was nuts this year. I heard on the news that there was one woman in a Wal Mart pepper spraying people and a grandfather in another Wal Mart got knocked unconcious for about ten minutes. Plus several other incidents. People are crazy.

[Drake Blackpaw]

I can't believe I'm about to turn this into a debate, but here it goes:

I absolutely can't stand Black Friday. IMO, it's just corporate greed run amok.

I'll agree that opening at midnight was excessive for the stores that did it.  I do think it would be better if they stayed on the schedule they used previous years.  However,  without some of this type of corporate "greed", there wouldn't be as many jobs out there.  Right or wrong, most of our economic output comes in the form of consumer spending.  With as bad as this economy is, anything that spurs that spending helps the economy.  If people buy a lot now and through the Christmas season, stores will need to restock after the season is over.  That means goods will need to be manufactured, and shipped.  Some or many of those jobs may not be in the US, but some will.  The transportation component has to take place in the US.  

I want retailers like Best Buy, Sears, Target and yes, even Walmart to do well, because that means the economy will do better.  If opening up even earlier on Black Friday is what is needed to spur consumer spending then it's worth a try.  If people don't like it they can vote with their wallets and not show up.  

I'll gladly support arguments that CEOs make too much money, that business don't give their employees enough benefits, or that too much of the money that is made by corporations stays at the top and doesn't make it down to the everyday worker.  But, I'm not going to argue against a store trying to increase sales, it's what a store is suppose to do.  

[Shim]

I went to a local gaming store, bought 3 Magic: The Gathering boosters for $2 a piece and pulled a $15 card from one of them . I think that's a small victory on my end.

[Gearbox]

I lazed around in PJ's and had leftover pie for breakfast while laughing at all the people who were scrambling and pepper spraying each other to get 20% off an LCD flatscreen.

[Acton]

I absolutely can't stand Black Friday. IMO, it's just corporate greed run amok.  I'll have more time to post on this issue either Sat. or Sun.

Kobuk it take two to tangle; the issue is the consumer. I seen the black Friday reports and I hat to say these shoppers made the most criminal CEO  look like  saints.  Let me remind you in a capitalist system trade exclusivity exist on voluntary transactions, people are fee to vote with their wallets.
For the record I prefer to sleep in, I do not care how good of a deal, it not worth the time with the mob and the problem of impulse buying.  I did go to the Big and Tall store for clothing. The had a buy one free get one free sale. I needed pants and shirts. It been three years since I can afford to buy clothing.

[Avan]

Things I bought yesterday:

A hotdog and fries
Parking permit (went hiking)

Not sure if it was really early yesterday or really late thursday, but I also got the two books for housepets! (you know, the furry webcomic. For those who don't know: http://housepetscomic.com )

[Richter]

I don't go out on Black Friday in fear of a horde of overweight shoppers trampling over me because they heard there was cheap toys over on the other side of the store. People stop acting civilized when it comes to christmas, has anyone ever noticed that?

[Katra]

I was working on Black Friday, but I don't go for those sales anyway.

[Alsek]

I did most of my Chirstmas shopping on that sat.  I nearly died trying to find a place to park at least 4 times,  but once i was inside everything was pretty mellow.

[Mylo]

I went out just to go out...in actuality, I enjoyed watching people actually buy things.  ( people still do that??)  As for myself, I just bought lunch and caroused the various stores with a few friends.  It was actually a lot of fun.  We started shopping around 10am, so we missed all the hardcore shoppers.