Even though I hate the idea of Black Friday

[Curmudgeon] I have been out on Black Friday too freakin' many times. I would rather be shot through the temples than to ever set foot in a mall on That Day. It's worth spending an extra what, $30? on, say, a TV to NOT have to tolerate that display of greed and consumerism run amok. [/Curmudgeon]

FWIW, I was house hunting yesterday and damn if I didn't get stuck in mall traffic. AAAUUGGH. I came REAL close to throwing the Trooper in 4L and powering my way through hedges, etc. to get around the mess.

i like how all these stories of black friday stupidity/violence seem to always originate at WalMart.. one of my facebeook friends was camped out in front of a Cabela's waiting for it to open, and said it was almost a party-like atmosphere and everyone kept their calm once the doors opened..

if i was one of those people that studies the behavior patterns of different groups of people, i'd probably come to the conclusion that the people that go to Cabelas are probably better than the people that go to WalMart and would look up demographic and economic info to back me up.. but that would probably get me labeled as a racist and/or a hater of poor people...

novaderrik wrote: i like how all these stories of black friday stupidity/violence seem to always originate at WalMart.. one of my facebeook friends was camped out in front of a Cabela's waiting for it to open, and said it was almost a party-like atmosphere and everyone kept their calm once the doors opened.. if i was one of those people that studies the behavior patterns of different groups of people, i'd probably come to the conclusion that the people that go to Cabelas are probably better than the people that go to WalMart and would look up demographic and economic info to back me up.. but that would probably get me labeled as a racist and/or a hater of poor people...

Might just be that the Cabelas crowd is probably armed.

I refused to go anywhere. I can't stand shopping (and traffic, and crowds, and advertising, and finding parking) during a normal day, let alone the day where everyone goes nuts. My wife and mother-in-law went out, though, for the midnight stuff, I think they went to Target. I stayed home and drank beer. Much better use of my time. Plus I was drunk when they came back, which made my mother-in-law almost bearable.

No money, no problem.

SWMBO needed printer ink so Friday afternoon we went to Office Max and bought the half price ink, it was totally calmed down by then just bad traffic, but no worse than any other time during the holidays, Found a sale price on Book shelf speakers on Best Buy dot com for the weekend and just bought them for later store pick up, half price, now I can just cruise by during the week and save myself the grief of going this weekend.

Oh and I forgot the "winning" part of the Black Friday experience, went by CVS and picked up to new Hot wheels cars for $1 R34 Skyline and a GT500

novaderrik wrote: if i was one of those people that studies the behavior patterns of different groups of people, i'd probably come to the conclusion that the people that go to Cabelas are probably better than the people that go to WalMart and would look up demographic and economic info to back me up.. but that would probably get me labeled as a racist and/or a hater of poor people...

As someone who worked in retail in a store that was on a bus route, in a lower class area with a large "urban" customer base, I can tell you that you're hitting the nail on the head. Absolute misery.

novaderrik wrote: i like how all these stories of black friday stupidity/violence seem to always originate at WalMart.. one of my facebeook friends was camped out in front of a Cabela's waiting for it to open, and said it was almost a party-like atmosphere and everyone kept their calm once the doors opened.. if i was one of those people that studies the behavior patterns of different groups of people, i'd probably come to the conclusion that the people that go to Cabelas are probably better than the people that go to WalMart and would look up demographic and economic info to back me up.. but that would probably get me labeled as a racist and/or a hater of poor people...

It won't get you labeled as anything. It's still acceptable to hate walmart customers.

Joey

Mosey'd over to Target at 6pm, picked up the last copy of Forza4 for $28. Parking was easy, I was in and out of the store in 15 minutes.

We went camping....was awesome. I hate shopping.

Toyman01 wrote:

novaderrik wrote: i like how all these stories of black friday stupidity/violence seem to always originate at WalMart.. one of my facebeook friends was camped out in front of a Cabela's waiting for it to open, and said it was almost a party-like atmosphere and everyone kept their calm once the doors opened.. if i was one of those people that studies the behavior patterns of different groups of people, i'd probably come to the conclusion that the people that go to Cabelas are probably better than the people that go to WalMart and would look up demographic and economic info to back me up.. but that would probably get me labeled as a racist and/or a hater of poor people...

Might just be that the Cabelas crowd is probably armed.

Or it could simply be that the Walmart is the biggest retailer in the nation, so it'll have more examples of bad shopping behavior even if it's the same per capita. But the chain is one of the worst at hyping up the whole Black Friday rush, so it's their own doing.

I must be missing a gene or something. I despise shopping. A mall or department store during a big sale would be my idea of hell on earth. I vowed I'd buy nothing on Black Friday – and other than gas, didn't.

I got a new prepaid cell phone at Target. I went to the closest one at 9:30pm and the line was long. I went to another one 8 miles away and the line was still short at 10pm.

I got in line, maybe 120 people back. The doors opened at midnight. It was frantic but orderly, as they were admitting people 25 at a time, in 30-second intervals.

I got in the door at 12:05. Picked my phone off the peg, took it up front, and was paid and out the door by 12:10.

I saved $80 for a couple hours' standing around. I'm ok with that.

I bought a bunch of gin and tonics at a bar, does that count?

I was also amazed at how many people were out after midnight after leaving the bar. But don't worry, my amazement was from the passenger seat of my friend's RX-8, not the driver's seat.

Lesley wrote: I must be missing a gene or something. I despise shopping.

Why can't all women be like Lesley?

Lesley wrote: I must be missing a gene or something. I despise shopping. A mall or department store during a big sale would be my idea of hell on earth. I vowed I'd buy nothing on Black Friday – and other than gas, didn't.

Marry me.

Guess I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape trying to avoid "Black Friday". You just have to go with the right mindset. I live 45 minutes from the second largest mall in the United States. My wife and I go every year on Black Friday. It's not a big deal. We don't fight for the up front parking spot. We pull into the parking garage, drive all the way up to the roof deck. Plenty of open spaces there. Take our time, stroll through the mall. Pay no attention to anyone acting like an idiot, which is actually not too many. Most people are in the holiday spirit, so no big deal. The lines at most stores weren't bad at all, and even in the long lines, we just relaxed and waited. Granted, we're not those people who rush the mall at 4am. That's a little nuts to me. We left our house around 7:30am or so.

At the end of the day, we came home with a Volvo wagon packed with goodies for our three kids, and saved a bunch of money. Plus it was a day out, away from the kids, for the wife and I. Not a bad thing.

I put down a hardwood floor. As badly as my knees and back hurt today it was much less painful for me than shopping would have been.

I will order everything I need for the holidays, on sale, with free shipping this week and the UPS guy will wait in traffic for me.

In reply to Klayfish: Walking across a mall parking lot or through a mall does not bother me, in fact I prefer to hoof it. It keeps the old bones and joints freed up.

The reason I don't care for all the Black Friday hype is the crass commercialism that drives it; there's too much pressure to buy something, ANYTHING so that a person can be loved. If I have to buy someone's affection, I can't help but wonder what are they really looking for? Also I'm not a big crowd person, never have been.

I kept seeing a verizon ad on TV for a Droid Incredible 2, free after mail in rebate if you read the fine print on screen.

I went on their website and they offered the same free price instantly with no rebate, and free shipping.

I've been eligble for a phone upgrade for a few months and not wanting to shell out money for a newer Droid. So this was awesome.

I never go out on black friday. I prefer to do all my shopping online if possible.

Let's see, here in my part of the world we had two incidents at Wal Mart. One guy got tased because he was apparently intoxicated and just couldn't wait for that $79 Kindle, and at the second Wally world there was a stabbing over a $2.84 waffle iron....people are idiots

I did some black Friday shopping and got parts for my Yamaha and didn't leave my house. Hooray Internet!

EvanR wrote: I got a new prepaid cell phone at Target. I went to the closest one at 9:30pm and the line was long. I went to another one 8 miles away and the line was still short at 10pm. I got in line, maybe 120 people back. The doors opened at midnight. It was frantic but orderly, as they were admitting people 25 at a time, in 30-second intervals. I got in the door at 12:05. Picked my phone off the peg, took it up front, and was paid and out the door by 12:10. I saved $80 for a couple hours' standing around. I'm ok with that.

And today it went on sale online for $52 with free shipping. Ugh :(

I was bored at the in-laws on Thanksgiving, so I was flipping through the ads. Interesting, Sears had a boy catalog and a girl catalog. Tools and electronics vs clothes :) In the boy catalog, I found a nice digital SLR at what seemed like a decent price. Only 2 in store, no rain checks, yadda yadda. I checked online - and the regular price at Amazon was actually better. So there went even the smallest glimmer of interest in waiting in line.

Saw a good quote by one of the local retailers as to why Black Friday is so amped up. He figures there's only so much money that will get spent each year, and so they want to grab as big a share as they can as early as possible. Wallets get picked over as we get closer to the end of Shopping Season.

I did stop in at an Apple store to get a warranty issue taken care of on Saturday. It was actually very impressive to watch - those stores are set up like nothing else, with roaming Appleings wandering around with iPads. You corral one and they take care of everything right there. If you need to make an appointment (I had made one before heading to town), they just grab the nearest computer or their iPad. Completely decentralized, cool to see. And it made a small store full of gadget-crazed shoppers surprisingly effective.