Friday, November 27, 2009

Your Turn

The Friday after Thanksgiving. Did you do Black Friday? Your favorite Black Friday story? Best deal you got? I know lots of you went today. I saw those Facebook status updates counting down the hours. It was like watching those old commercials when the people would be standing outside the store saying, "open, open, open."

43 comments:

headrot said...

went out this morning at 7am. tried to leave at 5 but the bf wouldnt budge. dragged his poor ass around for 5 hrs. hes napping now. got 4 people all gifted for under 90 :]

Sinjin said...

My sister went at 5 a.m. to spend her "grandma money". I slept in. I've only been twice and it was enough. We pulled names out of a bucket this year so I'm shopping online. :-D

mooshki said...

I watched the local news last night so I could laugh at the people sleeping outside while I was warm and comfy with my dog. And then I gloried at sleeping in until 11 today instead of hitting the sales at 3 am. Does that count as participating in Black Friday? :)

mooshki said...

Oh, and as someone who worked in retail for 8 years, to heck with Black Friday, the day after Christmas is the busiest shopping day of the year. It's just that everything is hugely discounted, so the $ totals don't show that. I would wake up early for a post-Holiday bargain. Those are the real deals!

headrot said...

true that. post holiday discounts are the best. im pro belated gift giving

Anonymous said...

i'm in canada so we don't have Black Friday

but i do go on Boxing Day (dec.26) cuz everything's dirt cheap AND it's a holiday!

Treesap-Covered Lady, the Humanist said...

I experienced my first Black Friday when I was working in Starbucks (within a Target) as a college student; I was definitely traumatized when 50+ people came flying into the store and took off at a run towards electronics--I’d just never experienced anything like that. Growing up, my mom and aunt would take us shopping at these little boutiques rather deal with the crowds at department stores. Even after hearing my Black Friday survival stories from years past, my sister decided she wanted to see what the hullabaloo was about and I agreed to go with her. We left the house around 5:20 AM and arrived at the shopping centers around 5:40 AM to a population out-of-control. I knew what to expect, but it just completely blew her mind into smithereens. Needless to say, we didn’t find anything we couldn’t pass up (mostly because the line was wrapped around the inside of the store) and agreed to never do this again.

Amazon has great Black Friday deals from the comfort of my home.

brakewater said...

quit spending money and start saving. I'm not trying to be a scrooge, but we are in a recession. George Will wrote a good article about this today.

Anonymous said...

Today was the first time I've ever participated in the Black Friday orgy. Rather than going for big-ticket presents, I actually bought lots of needed personal/household items. For example, Bed Bath & Beyond had 20% off everything. Since this one includes toiletries, I used coupons and bought a 6-9 months supply of some items and only spent $70. An example of a deal: I got the expensive Schick Intuition razers, normally $9 each, for $0.12 after sales, coupons, and discounts. Ditto for vitamins, makeup, etc..Who can pass up $230 worth of needed stuff for $70?

All that being said, I'm not doing this sh*t again next year!! It's 4pm and I'm in my damn pjs.

Sinjin said...

Agree w/ Mooshki and breakwater.

BTW Mooshki, your facebook avatar is adorable :0)

Ol Cranky said...

I don't do black friday and just do not get it when my friends get up to be at a store at 4 am for sales (especially when they aren't that great).

BTW - what is the big friggen deal over this zhu zhu hampster thing? I never heard of it before it was declared the must get of the season (the thing even has it's own habittrail).

my big black friday deal was a 36% (the drug was $3.35/tab after the discount) discount on my dog's chemo at Walgreen's pet prescription plan. Luckily, I didn't have to get out of bed early for that savings :-o

smooches said...

I work in retail and had to be in at 11pm last night and left at 12:30pm today. I have been awake 28 hours straight now and can't believe I'm not in a coma yet. And...I have to be in at 6:30am tomorrow.

I will say this - it was crazy, fun, frustrating, exhilarating and exhausting!!!

mooshki said...

Thanks, Lisa (o)!

Kimberley, you did find some good deals!

Ouch, smooches. That's a long day.

Little Miss Smoke and Mirrors said...

Staying home, don't want to get trampled.

smooches said...

PS...I also work at Woodbury Commons Outlet mall - 50 miles north of NYC and filled with every designer known and tourists from every country!!!

Rickatoo said...

the "Week before Christmas" deals are way better than "Black Friday". Either way, Chanukah shoppers generally are all done well before the best prices come out.

CDAN Mod said...

absolutely have never done a black friday. i don't need to as i am BLACK. ha ha, i slay me!!

not my thing, but for some reason shopping the day after christmas is okay for some reason. i'm also not a REAL shopper and never have been so far...

Sinjin said...

@ Ol Cranky: I soooo want that zhu zhu hampster because they don't bite, defecate, or die, lol. I want one for my niece, yeah.....my niece. She can play with it at my house, I only live one town over. ;-)

Momster said...

Today I got an xbox 360 for $199, a game that's usually $50 for $10, and some Wii accessories for cheap. I didn't even go until after lunch, I was tired from yesterday and too much wine with dinner lol.

There was an article in the Tulsa World about a woman who takes her shopping so seriously that she has Thanksgiving on Wednesday. Stupid bitch, she doesn't understand the meaning of the holiday. I wonder if she has Christmas a day early so she can be ready for after Christmas sales.

Miss X said...

I had to go to work. :( But a friend snagged a cheap printer & glass food storage containers for me. Thinking about heading to Walmart for some needed stuff (closest grocery store to my house).

I've never done the full on, get up super early Black Friday thing.

WednesdayFriday said...

I work retail- I hate black friday.

stacers said...

This is only my second year of Black Friday shopping. BUT, I go with my girlfriends and we have a blast. The first store we hit was Walmart and there were no parking spaces left. We had to park in the back of the store where there wasn't any real parking. There were no carts when we got in there, so after our arms become too loaded with stuff, we had a genius thought of going to the luggage aisle and putting our merchandise in a rolling suitcase. Imagine the shoppers surprise behind us in line as we unloaded all this stuff when they thought we only had a few items.

Anonymous said...

ditto that Lauren - I worked 6am to 3pm at Macy's, and only reached 32% of my "sales goal". Bah Humbug!

Pookie said...

best. day. ever.

slept in all morning (i so never get to do that)...and shopped all afternoon. scored huge at target, sephora, aeropostale and ikea.

Merlin D. Bear said...

I have only done one "Black Friday" sale and that was about 7 years ago. The reason? Kmart had DVD players on sale for a ridiculously low price and I thought I'd beat the insanity by going to an older store that generally didn't have much business.
Boy was I wrong.
The employees opened the downstairs doors first,then going upstairs to open the doors where I was standing.
Did I get that DVD player?
No, in the 2 minutes it took me to get from the front door to electronics they were gone and more than a few people were screaming at store management about "how because of what the employees had done in opening the downstairs first instead of both at the same time, they were "cheated" out of the opportunity to get the deal".
I shook my head and vowed to never waste an opportunity to sleep in again, but despite no DVD player, I did end up getting a 19" TV for under $100 - but I've never ever bothered to do something so inane again.

ItsJustMe said...

Didn't go out early, but scored big time at Staples, of all places.

sunnyside1213 said...

Had to go out to get the mp3 player I promised my granddaughter. (She leaves tomorrow.) Got to Walmart about 7 and all the bargains were gone. Someone told me they were gone in less than 10 minutes. Even the regular priced items were sold out. Thanks to Best Buy, Miss Sweetpea has her player. Will I ever do it again. Hell no.

Judi said...

Have never done it; never will. I started at the outlets last week. Also have items purchased earlier in the year. Just have to remember where I put them. :-)

Christina said...

Well, considering my checking account has $15.86 until my husband gets paid on Monday, no, I did not participate in Black Friday. I think I'll be making many of my Christmas presents this year.

empyrios said...

can someone American please define for me why they call it "Black Friday"?? Does anyone know where the term comes from?

I would much rather hear it from the horse's mouth than look it up ;)

TinselSass said...

RE: The origin of the term "Black Friday"... I heard this story on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" a week or so ago... just confirmed it c/o Wikipedia:

The earliest uses of "Black Friday" to mean the day close to Thanksgiving come from or reference Philadelphia and refer to the heavy traffic on that day. The earliest known reference to "Black Friday" (in this sense), found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the American Dialect Society, refers to Black Friday 1965 and makes the Philadelphia origin explicit:

JANUARY 1966 -- "Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. "Black Friday" officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.[13]

The term Black Friday began to get wider exposure around 1975, as shown by two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, both datelined Philadelphia. The first reference is in an article entitled "Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor," in The New York Times:

Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it "Black Friday" - that day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army–Navy Game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion.

The derivation is also clear in an Associated Press article entitled "Folks on Buying Spree Despite Down Economy," which ran in the Titusville Herald on the same day:

Store aisles were jammed. Escalators were nonstop people. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the economy, folks here went on a buying spree. ... "That's why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today 'Black Friday,'" a sales manager at Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a crowd of jaywalkers. "They think in terms of headaches it gives them."

Usage of the term has become more popular in the Midwest since 2000.

Unknown said...

For my Black Friday deals....Walgreen's, Walgreen's, Walgreen's!! They have 6 items that are free after RR's and I am stocking up, baby!!

chihuahuense said...

I work nights in surgery so I did not go.

Many years ago I worked at a restaurant next to a Best Buy and the manager made us hand out hot chocolate and coupons to get shoppers to come to our place when they were done with Best Buy. I was there when they opened the door. A little boy about 7 years old got knocked down, his mother was long gone trying to get "stuff" and some guy trampled over him and said "MOVE THE FUCK OUT.OF.THE.WAY!!!!" Not to sound like freaking superwoman, but I picked up the little boy and held him until everyone had stormed by, then we went in and found his mom. I was thoroughly disgusted and choose not to be a part of the fuckery.

hammyjam said...

People at my work were talking about how last year some guy got really upset and started throwing toys at the associates in the jewelry department...he is lucky he didnt break open the glass or anything. What a jerk.

empyrios said...

Thanks TinselSass!

the idea of looking it up at 1am while drunk on a martini and numerous glasses of red wine didn't appeal ;)

i'm a HUGE hockey buff so it didn't surprise me when the origin seemed to come mostly from Philly, lol.

they're hardcore about


ya gotta love the Philidelphians... they're a loyal bunch ;)

empyrios said...

i meant *they're a hardcore bunch*

yipes...

empyrios said...

WOW chihuahuense

that's fucked up

kudos to you :)

Lian said...

I went this year. For me, it's a ritual/tradition/fun. Even though I got mostly small stuff (DVDs, etc), I just enjoy the experience. We got up at 5:00 am and got back home at 8:30 am and napped :)

Kim said...

I went, but not until afternoon. I will be online at dawn for Cyber Monday though, for some of the stuff I can't live without at Overstock.

selenakyle said...

Hell to the NO. Never shopped on BF and never will.

Haven't seen the news yet to find out whether any people got trampled to death or not...

I don't agree with any of the Wal-mart and big electronics store BF practices of bait & switch, rain checks (my ass!), etc.

Total BS. If they can sell it at 5:00am on BF for cheap, they can sell it all dang month long for just as cheap.

Sorry to rant, but it bugs me.

dbfreak said...

No thanks. What a clusterf^ck that whole Black Friday thing is. If I want to watch people who look like they've been infected with the "fast zombie disease", I'll watch it on the news, thanks.

Plus, I feel BAD for the people who work in retail.

I don't need another reason to hate humanity. Also, I'm broke as all hell due to the impending job loss. Yes I get severance, but it looks like I won't actually get it until January and my last day is this coming Friday. I'll be needing my money for stuff like food and my mortgage.

I have never will never participate in that BF f^ckery.

KathyVermont said...

Left my house @ 5:20 am in the pouring rain w/my grown son & daughter - we have gone for the past 5 years! Her giant SUV was full & I'm 90% done with my Xmas shopping. I even got a ZuZu hamster for my cat - but at CVS! The lines are just part of the fun!! Saved almost $400 so I got over $1000 for $700.

MCH said...

I haven't been shopping on Black Friday in years and not sure I ever want to until I have kids and it becomes a necessity. My sister went in Walmart several years ago and had someone steal something from her cart and she had a verbal altercation with the person. Its kind of put me off the whole thing. That and that poor man that got trampled last year. People are animals.

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