Black Friday, anyone?

[Lilithdrff]

I'm too poor to enjoy black friday :?

[lunar_scythe]

I only went to Longs Drugs, there was no crowd there, lol. I got a 5mp digital camera for $39.95(after $30.00 rebate.) for myself, and a portable DVD player with a 6 inch screen for Sober Grad Nite, for $69.99.

[Plumeria]

I got a laptop from Best Buy for $700- a pretty powerful one that normally goes for a bit over $1,000. I got it online though, shipped to me for only $12 more. Way better than standing in line all night.. at about 8 p.m. my husband and I drove by our local Best Buy and there were already over 200 people camped out.

We also went to Kohl's to get a couple Christmas presents for a couple of our close friends in Australia- we got the little talking plushes- the ones where you can record your own greeting and they play it back for only $6 each. We thought that'd be a nice way to send them a personalised message for Christmas and let them know we're thinking of them.

Other than that, no big shopping for us. Most of our Christmas shopping is done already and I didn't see anything that eye catching in the ads this year.

[Nightsea]

I work retail. :x

Believe me, it's not nearly so much fun when you're on the other side of the register. And I had to be at work at the butt-crack of dawn - oh wait, the sun wasn't even up yet! Ha! Opening the store at 5am was easily one of the stupidest things I've ever done.

[Manna]

Well, I didn't get up too early- thank God. I got up at 5:30am, and left a little after 6am. The fog was SO bad here, we had "Dense Fog Alerts" and everything else, because visibility was so darn bad!

We went to Best Buy first, and their line snaked all the way back in the stove section, and around and around back there. But I went in, found the DVD set I wanted (Pokemon-first season), and got in line. We weren't even in the store a 1/2 hour! Whew! They were SO great with their service. I'm impressed! Makes me want to write a letter to their manager to say how pleased I was. Picked up a Lightning McQueen nightlight there, too. My friend's son will love it!

Then to Kohls-- What a nightmare! First, there were SO many people, you couldn't hardly get through any section. I finally found the throw I was getting for my mom, and then this cute little snowman pillow-thing (on sale for $12!). My mom loves it already. (I gave it to her since she had to deliver mail today.) Then I shoved my way over to the ornaments, and FINALLY found the Fluttershy one. And a cute deer ornament, too. After I found a line to stand in (there were two, and they both snaked all over the store, so you couldn't tell which line went where), and found a cute kitten ornament while there. After about 40 minutes of standing in line, I found a sweater that I just thought was really pretty for $10! Score!! Stood in line over an hour and a half there. At 8am!!

Then I went to Borders, which didn't open until 8am (STUPID! Good thing I was in line so long at Kohls!). They made me so mad, because they had their "holiday" hours posted so far away from their regular hours... everyone (including me!) thought they didn't open until 10am! Didn't find what I went there for at all.

Went to Wendy's to eat, and their drivethru didn't open to 10, so I looked stupid for about 5 minutes (and a line started to form behind me, too). Why wouldn't they open earlier? McDonald's sure did! And they were raking in money for it, too!

[Rebeldream]

I had NO intentions of dragging my newly-pregnant butt outta bed any earlier than 9 am. However, I woke up at around 8:30 and dragged dh out of bed, too. lol

I wanted to check out WalMart (not holding out any hope of anything being there, but just in case) so we got dressed and got there around 9. The store was busy and they had armed police officers standing up front, but NEARLY EVERYTHING WAS STILL THERE!!! I was shocked. What I was really after were the 1 gig SD cards and flash drives for $14 and there was a ton left (so I was really happy). I also got my 4 year old an Easy Bake Oven for $10. I wanted the 2-pack board games (like Operation/Candy Land) but those were gone, as were the $14 sheet sets. Ah, well. At least I got my Gig cards!!

I expected the 42" plasma TV's (for $990) to be long gone, but there were still around 30 left! We also browsed through their movies, but nothing caught our eye. I'm certainly not disapointed about not being there at 5am!

-Kelli

[Dancing Butterfly]

Funny you mention your WM was still pretty stocked later in the morning, Rebel. The one Black Friday I did get to experiance 2 years ago was at my Grandmother in VA's "local" walmart (almost an hour drive away). She's out in podunk VA, and while there was a huge crowd at wally world, there still was pleanty of stock throughout the morning and into the next day when we went back to get accessories for my dad's black friday digital camera he bought. I got several SD cards for $14 both days, but back then they were only 128's :? Ah well.

And yes Nightsea, every single person who had to work retail today gets my sympathies. I think mandatory overtime should be paid on days where store hours are drastically changed. I use to be a florist, and trust me, roses are now the last thing I want to think of for Valentine's day. It's amazing how aspects of retail can haunt us years later. :(

[Kar Red Roses]

I got sucked into the SHOP-OCALYPSE today. :eeek:
I didn't want to! I actually got off work a little early, and was looking forward to a quiet, relaxing (extended) evening at home with my TV.

Mikey and I went to the Verizon store and got new cell phones. His n' hers razrs for $49 bucks was too good a deal to pass up.

[diet otaku]

Originally Posted by Nightsea

I work retail. :x

Believe me, it's not nearly so much fun when you're on the other side of the register.

that's exactly what i was thinking as i was going around to those stores. i was with a friend, and she suggested trying to get the DCPI for the ponies i was looking for to have someone bring them from the back. i just looked at her like she had 3 heads. there was no WAY i was going to be such a complete JERK as to ask someone to dig around the back for a few ponies on BLACK FRIDAY. gah.

[Nightsea]

Originally Posted by diet otaku

there was no WAY i was going to be such a complete JERK as to ask someone to dig around the back for a few ponies on BLACK FRIDAY. gah.

Thank you for your consideration!

What irked me the most were the customers who wanted their jewelry cleaned. On Black Friday. While we were mobbed with wall-to-wall people needing purchases rung up.

Look "Lady with two-dozen cruddy pieces of jewelry that haven't seen a bath since Nixon was in office", it should be a form of polite consideration to observe the state of a store before you decide to bring in something that you know is very time-consuming.

Another lady laughingly made the following comment: "Oh.. I guess I should have waited until after Black Friday to bring all this stuff in!"

Really..... ya think? :evil: