Comments on: ‘Black Friday’ is patently absurd

By: Mom trumps TNG

Mom trumps TNG — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:17:43 +0000

5 P.M.? Try 9 A.M. on T’giving day, according to local news stories! Next year it’ll be earlier–maybe even the night BEFORE T’giving–and there WILL be people in line. After all, one has to do everything to be first in line; even Best Buy’s ad stated “be the first in line…” I agree: yeah, right! T
There will be many more sales before C’mas, many almost as good. People get crazy over these “deals” and it’s just not worth it for most of us.
Maybe we should all try to get our priorities straight and think: What is this season really about? Even if one isn’t into the religious significance, this season of the year should be about enjoying friends and family and less about how much stuff we can buy and how many good deals we can get. Maybe those old-fashioned C’mases where the kids got an orange in their stockings and everything was snowy and magical aren’t such a bad thing.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:42:20 +0000

Working in a supermarket close to Christmas is the most sickening thing, you see the depths that people will stoop to for a couple of quid/dollars off an item. Its shocking, and far too revealing about the human condition

By: Jereny Short

Jereny Short — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:21:24 +0000

That’s why you find a Best Buy out a way from town. Go drive an hour south of town and stalk it. I live about an hour south of Ft Worth, Tx, and the lines in Burleson, the southernmost city with a Best Buy, never has really tremendous lines. During the whole Playstation 3 craze there were only about three people camping out in front of it. No big mobs like shown on TV. Heck, the Apple Store in Dallas wasn’t even mobbed back when the iPhone released.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:39:28 +0000

You think you have a story? Check this out. So the mall here in Boise, Idaho opened at 1:00 in the morning on the Friday after thanksgiving. They’d advertised that the first 500 people to reach the customer service desk would receive a bag with a prize of some sort inside. Some of the bags were even supposed to contain a Nintendo Wii.

So my brother figured why not, and went there to hang out with some friends and maybe win a Wii.

10,000 people showed up to this thing. 10,000 people. There were no lines. No tickets. No semblance of order. Just a giant mob of people hoping to win themselves a video game system. When the doors opened (the crowd broke the doors in at one entrance) this mob stormed the customer service desk where there were only two people working.

Two people to deal with a crazed group of 10,000. It was sheer madness.

No one was crushed to death, but that must have been luck as much as anything else.

To make things crazier apparently there weren’t many prizes at all and as far a I know, there were no Wiis to be found. And then the customer service people said they were out of bags, only to find some more a few minutes later.

People started to throw things.

That my friends is the definition of madness.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:14:46 +0000

This is the third year I did Black Friday, and the first year I did it in NYC (Long Island, technically.) The previous two years I’ve gone to the Best Buy in Brighton, MI (in the middle of nowhere, kind of), and there were no lines out the door - just hectic craziness inside. But still, no need to wait in the cold! This year we did have to wait, for 30 minutes (we should up right at 5AM) at Circuit City. Wasn’t bad, and there was a great 399$ 34-in LCD HDTV sale. I didn’t end up buying that, mostly because I am poor, but they definitely still had some when I got in, and the salespeople were very friendly, and they held stuff for us at the registers.

By: Malnurtured Snay

Malnurtured Snay — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:42:10 +0000

Best Buy had some deals I wanted — THE WIRE 50% off — so I … logged online and bought them online! Even got season IV for preorder for the same price.

Black Friday is BS. Never done it, never will. Thank goodness a lot of retailers are moving their deals to online availability.

By: stef

stef — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:30:08 +0000

This all sounds like the Boxing Day sales here in the UK.

At 1 minute past midnight on Christmas day, the shops seem to open for the ’sales’.

What ’sales’ actually mean though is they have 1 item at the advertised ’sale’ price, and everything else costs the same as usual. Every year people queue for hours as you describe, and every year they walk out with overpriced goods. (Remember, everything over here costs double what you US guys pay )

Out of interest, what is “This year’s hot item”?

I remember the news reports on CabbagePatch mania, and then the Buzz Lightyear and Power Rangers. So what is it this christmas that is going to put people in the Grab-Frenzy?

By: dss

dss — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:35:22 +0000

I agree with Jereny Short: scope out a store away from a major population center. Sure their stock may be more limited than a more populated area, but the crowds are likely to be smaller too. Last year when the PS3 and Wii were released, I camped with a friend for both of them. Much different experience than Black Friday stuff you mention above and what I’ve read. The line people were much more civilized and cooperative. We were 1st and 2nd in line for the PS3 and the front 10 or so people, whom I had never met before, were all cooperative and we helped each other ward off line jumpers, getting coffee and food for each other, keeping everyone’s position if someone needed to use the facilities, etc.

Another key is reconnaisance: scope the store layout before the actual camping. Meet the staff. I learned the names of some electronics department employees and the manager. It helps to get permission to camp too. We explained what we were doing and if it was ok. We explained we’d stay out of the way and wouldn’t bother the other customers. Management thought we were crazy but allowed us to camp.

I’d do it all again.

You picked a bad store too, Best Buy. I’ve heard that’s the worst place to camp for Black Friday.