Black Friday

[filkertom]

I know that many people begin their Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, but that's not the way I work. I've been slowly acquiring Christmas gifts for a couple of months now.

Black Friday is for me.

I've been waiting for info from Best Buy and a couple of other stores, giving me some clue as to whether or not I would be insane enough to line up for a 5:00 a.m. opening this Friday.

I just may be. They have a buttload of DVDs I want -- recent bestsellers and new releases, like X3 and Monster House -- dirt freakin' cheap. And they have not one but two flat-panel monitors at prices I literally can't believe. (My trusty old ViewSonic has been going wonky for months now, and I'd determined that if I could hold out till Black Friday I would get an LCD.)

They have Neverwinter Nights 2 for $24.99. Half price. Released three weeks ago.

I've gotta check CompUSA. I will NOT go to Target or CostCo. (And I will NEVER go to Wal*Mart.)

So. Are you gonna go shopping Friday?

Comments

[dubheach.livejournal.com]

::pout:: Nope, I'm working, but I tell ya, I'm getting a boatload of gift certificates for others this year.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I usually don't leave the house on Friday; I just can't stand the jostling crowds, and usually there are excellent deals later in the month as well. This year, I'll be at a convention, which makes it a bit of a moot point.

Rumor has it that there's a website listing the Black Friday sale items all over, but I don't know the URL.

[aiela.livejournal.com]

www.bfads.net

[ashlupa.livejournal.com]

No, but I'll be at a local mall at 5 am nonetheless. In a Victorian gown, supposedly bringing cheer to the consuming masses through song, along with three other oh-so-lucky troupe members...

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Watch it with NWN2...reports are coming back that it's several serious patches away from playable.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That's what I've heard. But I'll wait for the patches, if I can get the game for half-price. :)

[armb.livejournal.com]

I've heard it's a shiny new graphics card away from playable, but you may already have a suitable shiny new graphics card.
I'm English, so this Friday isn't anything special.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The SNGC was snagged so I could play Oblivion. The one they've got on sale is more powerful for half the price of that. I frickin' hate that.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

In a couple of words, *hell no*! LOL, after the last three Black Fridays spent working in retail, I am staying holed up in my apartment for the first half of the day, then going out to the movies with friends in the afternoon. I'm going to *enjoy* this one, gosh darn it!

But dirt-cheap X3, you say...??

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ten bucks. Which, by itself, isn't enough -- but with Monster House at ten, and several other things at five, and a few at $2.99....

[dhstein.livejournal.com]

NWN2 1/2 price! Now, how can I get my hubby out the door at 5am?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Too late. Their doors open at 5:00 a.m. We're talking standing in line no later than 4:00. I wouldn't be contemplating this at all if I weren't an insomniac.

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

Alas, we are now in the midst of what my friends have termed "The Moratorium." Starting at some fluid point in November and going through approximately New Year's, I'm not allowed to buy things for myself. The Moratorium stemmed from two facts:
1) I'm the kind of person that, if I see something I want and have the money for it, I buy it;
2) My birthday is 11 days before Xmas.

At one point around mid-November several years ago, my girlfriend at the time looked at me in frustration and said "That's it! You're not allowed to buy anything more for yourself until the end of the year, or else we won't have anything left to buy you for your birthday or Christmas!!"

After echoes of agreement from several of my other friends, a tradition was born. ^^;;

[celticmom1967.livejournal.com]

We never go shopping on Black Friday. It is just WAY TO CHAOTIC for us. Plus we can't afford to go anyway even with the sales. So we just stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet and football.

Enjoy your day after Thanksgiving. They call it Black Friday for a reason... maybe it is the mood people are in after all the lines and craziness. (I know the real reason too. )

Have a good Thanksgiving too!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Thanks kindly, and the same to you. :) Actually, Thanksgiving should be superb -- I'm invited to huskiebear's place, and I might see Anne, and I might see Hal, and I'll see my family on Saturday (travel considerations), and when I get back to Ann Arbor this afternoon I'm picking up a pit-smoked turkey half-breast just for me from Zingerman's Roadhouse. I intend to graze on that for several days, and graciously bow out of the Leftover Wars. ;)

And, I've worked retail -- Toys R Us -- on Black Friday. I know exactly what goes on, both sides of the register. I've had some lovely times there, and I've consciously avoided it for several years now. Need, e.g., the monitor, has to outweigh pricing for me to drag myself out there.

[killernurd.livejournal.com]

I figure that I'll skip the rush at the retail locations and do all the Black Friday shopping online... Newegg looks to have good prices on the equipment I want!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've gotta check them too. It's worth an extra fifty bucks to not be up at 4:00, outside at 5:00. Not a hundred, though.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

But no, I don't have any specific plans to go to any retail store on Black Friday. I'm up in New York with my family, so I might stop into a store somewhere, but I don't have any plans.

[aiela.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to, but Best Buy has an "eh" Toshiba laptop for $250 that would do just fine for me to schlep it around to coffee shops and cons and other places it would be nice to have a laptop.

Now to just convince my fiance I should spend $250 on a laptop. :P

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Just tell him, "the one that would be $600-900 any other time".

[kshandra]

Holy crap - $250?

I'll help you work on davehogg if you help me work on gridlore ;-)

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

For the first time ever, I'[m crossing the Border into Buffalo and standing in said line-ups for a flat-panel monitor! Wish me luck! ;]

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Luck for both of us. I'm really torn between the Samsung 19" for $129 and the Westinghouse 22" for $199.

Yes, gang, you read those prices correctly. Why do you think I'm gettin' out of bed? :)

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

You make me almost regret that I'll be comfortably ensconced at my mother-in-law's home. There is a Best Buy in that area too though. Hmm...

As for choice, Samsung monitors are a known good quantity.

But a 22" widescreen LCD for $199 ... ye gods. I may have to sneak out Friday morning and drive into town. Even if it doesn't perform as I'd prefer, I'd bet I could sell it for $199 the next week if I wanted. Time to do some googling and find out who makes the screen Westinghouse uses.

"Mmrrr. Where are you going at 3am?"
"Insomnia. I think I'll take the dog for a walk. Or take a drive. Yeah, that's it."

[poltr1]

Good luck! I just have this vision of trouble with customs, or heavy traffic on the bridge.

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

I will not be leaving the house the day after Foodmas. Nor will I voluntarily walk into a store that is not a grocery store between then and Giftmas, perhaps even as late as after New Years. I loathe the crowds, they make me twitchy, and the floating stupid might be catching - you never know...

[annechen-melo.livejournal.com]

Heh, Black Friday has been decorating day for us. The only reason we would be at a store would be for an excellent deal such as you have found, or to get MORE LIGHTS!

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Kim and I tried the Black Friday 5:00am thing once, in an attempt to get her a cheapass laptop.

ONCE.

Neeeever again.

Incidentally, I applaud your boycott of Wal-Mart. We limit our shoppings there, but to some degree we're stuck in the (mostly psychological and monetary) trap where we basically NEED them for certain items. This frightens me.

-=ShoEboX=-

[kshandra]

I feel your pain. My mother found her birth-mother three years ago. murphymom's "new" stepfather works at Walhalla, meaning whenever she goes to visit, she comes home with presents for us that were bought there. We occasionally get gift-cards at the holidays, too. It drives me out of my tree, but they're such lovely people otherwise, I grit my teeth and let it slide.

[jonnorthwood.livejournal.com]

I would love to, but I was told last week that I'm being sacked: 1 December is my last day, so I need to save my funds while I look for another job.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The crowds are way too much for us. Besides, we'll be traveling to Darkover.

Why won't you do Costco? I can sort of understand not shopping at Target, although I also mostly like it. But Costco has great policies both for its workers and its customers (you can return ANYTHING, even opened perishables!) as well as generally terrific prices. If it weren't immensely more convenient for us to do all our warehouse shopping at BJ's, Costco would be our main place. (Costco is incredibly far and in the opposite direction from anything else we want to shop at, unfortunately.)

Complete agreement on Wal*Mart; if they could save my life, I'd shop there. Nothing less.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

You misunderstand me. I'm a CostCo member. But, even moreso than Best Buy, which is a general multimedia store, CostCo is a general store. Same with Target, Meijer, KMart, Wal*Mart, etc., etc. And I don't even want to think about what kinda crowds they'll be looking at.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

True enough. The crowds; well, I intend not to be in a mall again until after New Year's. (I enjoyed a nice walk through a mall today; it was calm and, save for the unnaturally early Christmas music, pleasant to be there.)

The pretty shinies in Best Buy are very attractive. Getting up at 4AM attractive? I dunno. But v e r y pretty :-)

[warinbear.livejournal.com]

what kinda crowds they'll be looking at.

Is that the only reason you don't want to shop Wal-Mart? I have significantly less trouble with the idea of giving them my business now than I did a few years ago; the fact that some of their recent policies would make Sam Walton start, not rolling over, but spinning in his grave has something to do with this, as does the fact that I'm usually doing my shopping between 1 and 4 in the morning, after finishing my second-shift job for the evening.

[celisnebula.livejournal.com]

I'll be dragging my ass out of bed at 1:30am on Friday morning, to be at my friend Kim's by 2, where a group of 6 of us will converge. After splitting our lists, and deciding who gets to sit at what store, we will then head over to Speedway, fill up our 64oz mugs full of hot chocolate (or rather coffee for me). From there Kim will drop off one of us in front of Best Buy, Staples, the Mall, Walmart (cause hours is only open from 6-11), and various other places.

We should be done by 6am, at least we were last year. I only hope I don't get as scratched up and as brused as I did last year (and getting something that wasn't even on my list).

[poltr1]

Heck, no! I'll be observing "Buy Nothing Day" by staying at home or visiting with friends or relatives I haven't seen in a long time. Besides, the stores are too crowded for me that day.

[ifics.livejournal.com]

Any shopping we will be doing that day will be in the dealers room of Loscon in Los Angeles. We've done about 70% of our shopping and most of it is done on the internet or from catalogs.

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

I dunno, sweetie - a 19" flat panel for $129 and a 22" flat panel for $199? Maybe we could stop on the way up? (Checks web site for store between San Diego and LaLa Land...)

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

Black Friday shopping? If my mother-in-law, darling woman that she is, takes "her girls" (which included me when I was girlfriend, not even fiancee yet - let alone now, as daughter-in-law of 19 years standing), I will go. Nothing else can get me into a mall between T-day and Yule. Nothing. Not even a cheap laptop. I'm a little crowd-phobic to begin with, and it's all I can do not to run out screaming when the crowds are that pushy and oblivious.

Unfortunately, I'm kinda stuck with Wally-world unless I want to drive an hour to get another fully stocked grocery. I believe I've mentioned that I live out in the middle of absolute rural nowhere....? When we lived in the burbs, though - no, I would not darken their door for love nor money. They do not pay their employees enough to live on; that is unconscionable.

[shaharazad.livejournal.com]

I've always kinda enjoyed the chaos of Black Friday. Will definitely hit Best Buy early, looking for some Christmas gifts and also some of those cheap DVDs for me. My collection is pretty small so there will probably be some in the $2.99 category that I'll actually be interested in.

Might also try Wal Mart. Cheap DVSs again. Planning on hitting Borders as well, but probably Saturday unless they have some major deal that's only good on Friday.

I enjoy the excitement of the day. It's not the kind of thing I'd like to deal with on a regular basis, but once a year is cool for me.

[jss]

> Are you gonna go shopping Friday?

Yes, but only for the perishables (crudités, grapes or berries for the cheese platter, leaf lettuce for the seafood cocktail platter, etc.) I'll be using at Saturday's dinner party I'm throwing. The grocery opens at 6am, so I can be in and out within 30 minutes, including driving, and avoid the worst of the maul¹ traffic. Not all of it, though; my grocery store shares a strip-maul¹ parking lot with a Target and is across the road from the area's Real Maul.¹ But at 6am or 7am, it won't be too bad.

Otherwise, I too avoid in-store non-food shopping between Foodmas and Giftmas.
__________
¹   No, that's really not a typo.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Oh gods NO!

I had a panic attack in freakin' WAL-MART on a Saturday. I am not going anywhere Friday. And I'm doing all my shopping on-line, or in little local botiques.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I hate heavy city traffic, I hate crowded stores, and I really hate standing in line. I would not consider shopping on Black Friday even if I didn't have more important things to do (and I do).

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

My mother and I used to hit the Fred Meyer "socks for 1/2 off" sales. And when there's good stuff at Toys 'R' Us, she'll brave those people fro the kids at her school.

But this year, I have an unveiling, two in-laws to visit, an interview with a professor, and dinner with a dear friend to fit in. I've got no *time* for shopping.

[signy1.livejournal.com]

Aargh. I work in a bookstore, and will be working Black Friday. I will not be shopping. If I'm lucky, I also won't be

a. hiding in the storeroom in a fetal position muttering 'make the bad people go away' over and over for eight hours,
b. making voodoo dolls out of cash register tapes and price stickers, or
c. seen on the 5:00 news bashing people over the head with a Websters Unabridged and screaming 'There is no such thing as a 'nonfiction' section!'

...Although for a ten buck X-3, I might have to reconsider...

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

Ooh, better than "non-fiction section"

IdiotCustomer: Excuse me, there's this book I'm looking for. It's blue and it was on that display over there 4 months ago.

Me: Uhhhhh, I need a little more information. *weak smile*

*also works in a bookstore*

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

I might swing by Best Buy (the local one is usually fairly uncrowded after noon) to take advantage of some of the cheaper deals you mentioned, but otherwise, no.

[wwetuesday.livejournal.com]

I won't be shopping Friday. Mostly because I have to work both Thursday and Friday.

Price to pay for working at an airport.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

I'll probably hit one of the malls. Of course, I approach Christmas shopping as if it's a full-contact sport -- one that makes the NFL, NHL, and pro wrestling look like tennis by comparison.

Now, where did I put that cattle prod . . . ?