What are you going to buy this Dark Friday?

[Guest georgia003]

Black Friday Shopping is coming. As always, it tastes like dead...

 

I want to know what every one is planning to buy.Here is my shopping list.

 

http://www.idlemanstudio.net/user/upload/BFridayList.pdf

LOL. Any feedback is welcome.

 

 

[Craig Th 0]

I just got back from work. 6AM to 10PM. Then we had to close up, so I got out at 10:45.

 

Great day.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

I bought a Dunder Mifflin hooded sweatshirt and all four Lethal Weapon movies for $50 minus whatever I get for the House Season 2 DVD that I bought and am selling on eBay.

[Copper Feel 0]

What's "Dark Friday"?

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Black Friday is not PC.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

What's "Dark Friday"?

I'm guessing its some American thing where the stores are open from 6am-10pm (Opening and closing before and after the hours of Sunlight) and they have crazy sale prices on. That's just a guess, so I could be WAY off track, if I am, I'm going to patent the idea, open a store and old a Dark Friday sale.

[Slayer 0]

Apparently something got lost in translation

[Timmy8271 0]

What's "Dark Friday"?

I'm guessing its some American thing where the stores are open from 6am-10pm (Opening and closing before and after the hours of Sunlight) and they have crazy sale prices on. That's just a guess, so I could be WAY off track, if I am, I'm going to patent the idea, open a store and old a Dark Friday sale.

 

Actually some stores opened at midnight Thursday night. It's a big day here in the states. People camp out on Thursday night and line up for blocks around the store. Then when the stores open, It's like running of the bulls and people get trampled for the low money sales.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

What's "Dark Friday"?

I'm guessing its some American thing where the stores are open from 6am-10pm (Opening and closing before and after the hours of Sunlight) and they have crazy sale prices on. That's just a guess, so I could be WAY off track, if I am, I'm going to patent the idea, open a store and old a Dark Friday sale.

 

Actually some stores opened at midnight Thursday night. It's a big day here in the states. People camp out on Thursday night and line up for blocks around the store. Then when the stores open, It's like running of the bulls and people get trampled for the low money sales.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, sounds pretty... well... insane.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Black Friday is the reason sane people don't go out the day after Thanksgiving if they can help it.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Ha, the guess at what Black Friday is up there was pretty amusing. For foreigners who aren't accustomed to American consumerism, let me make this clear: most retail in the USA is open past dark year-round, unless you live in some hick town that can't afford to stay open late.

 

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, and it's called such for two reasons: If a retailer is in the "red" (i.e. business is doing poorly and they're currently negative in profit) then that day is the day they'll go into the "black" (positive profit). The other reason is for those who work in the retail industry- it's absolute hell, and honestly while there are some great deals out there to be had, it's not worth the hell you have to go through for it. It's pretty much the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season here, and we sure LOVE buying shit here.

 

It's also ironically "Buy Nothing Day", presumably because people who are decidedly anti-consumerist feel they want to make some kind of difference, although it's largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things since people are going to keep buying shit anyways.

[Nighthawk 0]

most retail in the USA is open past dark year-round, unless you live in some hick town that can't afford to stay open late.

 

Or the middle of the ghetto.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

But why after Thanksgiving? I figured that Boxing Day would be more consumerist because people are expected to buy shit for Christmas and there's a bunch of stock left over. I don't understand why the day after Thanksgiving would have more people buying stuff.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Boxing Day isn't celebrated in the states and is largely unheard of outside of regular readers of For Better or For Worse. Also, Americans like specific days to celebrate/start things, so why not the day after Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday shopping season?

[NoCalMike 0]

A lot of people get suckered on Black Friday because they don't read the fine print in the ads or they are just stupid. Most ads clearly state that there is a limited number of quanity on the "door buster" or really really good sale items, but fools will still lineup all night long when there is already over 100 people ahead of them, and then still expect they will land one of the 10 of said items in stock.

 

DVDs for $3 is a nice deal but it isn't worth standing in line all night long when most of the DVDs for $3 or normally in the $5-6 bargain bin on an everyday basis anyway.

 

Unless I know for a fact that I am getting that $199 laptop or that $750 flat panel, it isn't worth the waste of time.

 

And yes, this is coming from a guy who camped out all night for a PS2 at launch, but that was because at the time, if you didn't get it at launch, you had to wait a few months, or pay 200% more. Also, I worked for the franchise I camped out at so I knew how many were in stock and that I was guaranteed one.

[Vanhalen 0]

I see what you guys are saying, but surely a week before christmas would be better for your "black friday"?

[Nighthawk 0]

Black Friday is self-fulfilling. The day after Thanksgiving has traditionally been the busiest shopping day of the year; people like to get it out of the way and focus on other holiday concerns. Knowing this, the merchants play into it and throw all these crazy sales out to entice the already busy shoppers, thus making it an even busier shopping day, which can then be used to justify even more sales.

 

It is truly out of hand. I bought a Gamecube once and didn't have to show up more than an hour before the store opened (I stayed up all night normally at the time, so it was no big deal). Now... if you don't camp out, you're outta luck, although there are some exceptions.

[Golgo 13 0]

Clearly there's something lost in the translation here, but aside from not being as symbolic, there would be so much violence on the day of if you slap it right in the middle of the shopping season, with only a week to go no less.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

A lot of people get suckered on Black Friday because they don't read the fine print in the ads or they are just stupid.

 

Oh God yes. And I'm a Black Friday regular. There's a reason I don't start my shopping at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

The Daily Show's had a few good pieces on Black Friday, at least in past years.

 

I'm sure KKK was all over those.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

You assume I watch the Daily Show.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

You assume I watch the Daily Show.

 

Of course I don't. I was merely worried; you hadn't called me a hippie in a while.

 

Jesus Christ, I was so caught up in my gambling today I haven't even checked the KKK Bowl.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I got up at 3:30 a.m. Friday to head over to JCPenney, which opened its doors at 4 a.m., and get a 10-burger Foreman grill for $45 with $10 MIR. Normal was $100, I've been looking for a bigger indoor grill, and since I knew exactly what I wanted and where it would be, I had paid for the grill by 4:10 a.m.

 

I was able to make it home by quarter to 5 a.m. or so and get an extra couple hours sleep before work at 9 a.m. Other than that, I got Death Proof from Buy.com for $1.90.

 

The deals this year weren't anything special, with the ever-decreasing price of standard DVD.

[Ripper 0]

Its the day after thanksgiving because most non retail workers are off work that day so you are open to a larger crowd and more customers.

 

I went to Best Buy at 1 am on friday to get this laptop that wasn't supposed to be a door buster but was on sale.

 

I figured that once all the laptops were gone, the line would thin, and I would be able to get the laptop. Well, at 3 they started giving out "tickets" for the doorbuster items. Limit one per customer. Remember that.

 

So they had out this store map and alist of the door busters on the back. They added the fucking laptop i wanted and two alternatives I was eyeing to the doorbuster list and were going to hand out tickets for them. So they start handing out tickets, first for some cheap POS laptop and the first 20 people in line all get one(BTW, the first 20 customers consisted of 2 families and their 4 kids each....all of which was apparently a customer because 8 year old suzy was going to buy a fucking laptop). So he moves to the next item...and the same fucking people raise their hands and he hands them the tickets again.

 

So of course there was protest, but dumbass best buy guy says "No, it means one of EACH item for customer...not one doorbuster."

 

So basically I watch as the first 20-30 people in line have tickets to 5 different laptops. Each. So I said, fuck this I am going home.

 

And I fucked it and went home.

 

My girlfriend had to go to work at 8 and woke me up as she was leaving. I decided to go back to bestbuy to see what they had left. Plus, the tickets expired at 9 so anything not picked up by then was free for all.

 

So I get there right at 9, I am 4th in line, and I swear, every person in front of me that was checking out asked about that last laptop that was behind the counter. It was the doorbuster I wanted. So I finally get to the front of the line and buy it, and then this lady behind me starts bitching because she has a ticket for the laptop and according to her "That is legally mines".

 

I said that her ticket expired at nines, which I don't think she got, but the lady behind the counter kinda laughed and said that she missed her chance. So...HA!

 

 

So all in all, I got my laptop, but waited in the fucking cold for 4 pointless hours. If I was single though, it would have been a great experience because there were great looking women all around me and we all bonded over cold and the want to beat up this kid for his Chips Ahoy cookies.

[NoCalMike 0]

The Best Buy closet to my house only gave out one door-buster item ticket per customer.

[Darthtiki 0]

I went to Target and picked up 300 & Casino Royale for 15 bucks

[Ripper 0]

The Best Buy closet to my house only gave out one door-buster item ticket per customer.

Thats what they were supposed to do. The ones where I was were idiots.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Mike loves his gadgets so much he has a Best Buy closet in his house? Wow.

[Jericholic82 0]

actually the part about going into the black can be a misnomer, especially when you think about the sale prices on big items, those steep discounts do nothing for the store profit, they actually lose on that. its more volume than dollars.

 

 

anyhow I worked BF last week 4 am - 7pm at Circuit City. Not fun. Though my boss did a good job of controlling the sitaution, by A. handing out vouchers for the cheap laptops, and B limiting the number of customers in the store at any given time to about 600, citing the "fire code"

 

first off I took a cab there and the driver had the nerve to ask about the sales

 

I did arrive in time to see a fight break out when someone tries to cut the line (some waited from as easrly as 6 pm the night before)

 

the doors opened, some walked in , most ran in various directions, not knowing where anything was (clearly not our regulars) one of the smaller lcd tvs that was advertised didnt get the shipment so they literally had 1 of it in stock, that caused some fun.

 

my first 5 hours or so there I worked the cash line ( I mean I literally stood by the line to make sure everyone knew it was the cash line (though a bunch ignored my loud statements and tried to use credit) we had a problem cuz the car elec. depart with the gps line was stretching down one of the cd aisles into my cash line. the line was actually moving slower than the credit line, cuz the price scanner broke early on (damn our equipment from the 1980s era)

 

 

Some fun? I only had to ring up for maybe 3 hours

People waiting in line for hours to buy one cd or movie that wasnt even on sale! I almost strangled a dude cuz he was on line for 2 hours and complaining all the way and he bought spiderman 3 and transformers, neither of which was on sale.

just like people buying game consoles that arent on sale ( I tried to explain to some people that consoles dont go on sale they just jave price drops every now and then to no avail)

 

Later on I tried to refill the dvd sale bins (we had like 200 boxes of dvds literally in the back) and was nearly attacked as people were trying to reach into the boxes I was carrying. so I stopped that.

 

 

some guy came in and said he was at another location and they failed to give him a free ps3 controller with ps3 purchase (which was a deal we had for the day) my boss calmly told him and I quote "Sir, don't take this the wrong way, but how do I know you didn't already get it and are trying to steal one from us?"

 

I got there at 4 and didnt get a break till 12, man I was hungry

 

 

I love how people come there at like 1 pm and are surprised that all the tvs and computers are gone (as If we are supposed to stock like thousands of them)

 

I HATE BF, but at least I left before closing time

 

 

 

 

[NoCalMike 0]

Well my guess is that there is probably 200-500 more people arriving at the stores then there are "doorbuster" items, and the stores figure that if people waited in line that long, they aren't just going to go home, so they end up buying something labled "sale"