Black Friday today in the US of A: What are you buying?

Post Reply New Topic

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/27/news/ec ... /index.htm

Nothing for me, I am in Canada.

Passing on the whole mess this year, good thing too my husband got called in to work at 8am

I just bought a TV, online.....

Nothing. I was too tired.

oh oh oh! black friday is today! i can almost smell the probably warm, hard cash! i hope there will be ample deliveries today from everyone too tired to cook from shopping all day! yay!

The kid got me up at 3:30am. We were at Sears at 3:55am, long line. We let them all go in first (sat in the car waiting). Was like watching cattle stampede through a narrow gate.

We had scouted a couple of days earlier and knew what we wanted (kid had tried on the clothes that were to be on sale, knew what fit, what didn't, etc.). Went straight for the advertised goose-down comforters. Got there, picked out four advertised at $20, joined the very long line at the check-out.

Catch was, the store had planned a sort of "bait and switch" - we got to the register and they tried to tell us the ones that were on sale were in another spot - we went and checked, very few and of vastly inferior quality. But someone at the store had put the sale sign on the ones we got, which were the normal ones - at $20 each, any size, any weight. Huge sign, no mistaking it.

Went straight back to the checkout and reclaimed our comforters. After holding up the line with a "your sale sign says $20" and 'no it doesn't' and "YES, it DOES" "these are not on sale" "YOUR sign says they ARE on sale", "the computer says they are not on sale" "well, go down there and get the sign yourself and look at it!! !!," etc, one of the clerks went and got the sign and it said $20 each, any size, any weight.

So I got my king size down comforters, heavy, medium, and light weight, for $20 each. Sixty bucks for the lot, plus tax. The rest of the line cheered, as that meant they were going to get them for the same price (not the $279 and up sale price they were trying to get us to pay). Came home, checked online at Sears to see what the usual price was for them. Looks like I've gotten $800 worth of down comforters for $60.

That has to be my personal best, as far as bargain shopping.

Kind of wish I hadn't put that last one aside at the last moment at the checkout. Coulda done "ebay" and paid for them all with the proceeds. But the guy behind me wasn't going to get one, because we'd got the last of the size he wanted, so I let him have it.

We wandered into a few other stores, nothing much - "New York" had everything half off, but I didn't see anything I liked.

Then went to Old Navy, kid got a coat half price, some tights, half price. She has gone back out and is over at the yarn and crafts store. My feet won't take any more, so I'm in for the day.

We did stop in Target for a few minutes to check it out, but the lines were horrific and we really didn't need anything in there that badly. We never went near Walmart, you have to almost be insane to brave that madhouse on Black Friday.

Heard there were some really, really good sales on all over. Sears had a limited supply of clothes washers and clothes dryers - $500 for the pair. But you had to be in the line and get a ticket to get them, and they only had a very few tickets. Clerks were having to explain that to a lot of shoppers who had showed up waving the newspaper advert without having read the small print.

Glad I'm not a store clerk today! But, all in all, there were not nearly as many people out this morning as in past years. Last year people were camping in tents outside Sears, inside the mall, all night. I think there may have been about 200 people in the line this year, nothing compared to last year. When we did a little mall-walking, even when it got to be 6:00am and a lot of the other stores opened up, the crowds were just not there like last year.

Last edited by Nan on 27 Nov 2009, 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nothing. (Although I am in Canada, I am close to the border).

The prospect of dealing with the crowds, noise, lights, sore feet, etc. just repels me.

Also I have a bad ankle sprain, and that would be just too much!

NOTHING! I'm not going to risk having a meltdown in order to appease the ravenous god of Consumerism.

^Ditto^


Safe in me hidey-hole, rockin' the iPod, reading WP to my heart's content, while the wild NTs ravage the countryside snatchin' and snaggin' and buyin' and baggin', until the landscape is awash with castoff receipts and McLitter...time for me to chill and recharge...yes, all the time I'll want - all the time I'll need...

(glasses slipping off)

:::CrUNcH:::











son of a Bi*CH! !!

Gotta say, my non-consumer compatriots, that it's better to have a good blanket in cold weather than it is to NOT have a good blanket in cold weather.

Sometimes one must brave the crowds, lights, noise, insanity, to get what you need. I can't imagine shopping without a purpose, but I understand people do....

nothung

I shop before and after black Friday.

If its anything like West Edmonton Mall on Boxing Day I would hide under my bed for a week

I didn't buy anything. I don't buy into the whole Black Friday phenomenon, nor do I agree with the gross commercialization of holidays. I think there's something wrong with an economy where retail businesses depend so much on holiday spending. To me holidays are for spending time with family and appreciating what we have that can't be bought.

I always shop before and after Black Friday. On Black Friday, I went to target and got a Philips Sonic toothbrush, a Razor scooter, Bakugan toy, and some clothes. I then went to Game Stop and bought, New Super Mario Bros for the Wii and a new Black Wii Mote with motion plus and a black Nunchuck. I also stop by Petsmart and got some food and toys for my dog. Of course I still got more shopping to do.

I used to work at Toys"r"us and Black Fridays were Absolute Hell working their.