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- Tilted Life (https://thetfp.com/tfp/tilted-life/)

- - Black Friday (https://thetfp.com/tfp/tilted-life/110647-black-friday.html)

Here is what I bought:

Sylvania's 6620LG 20" LCD TV $320 mail in rebate $200
HP Pavilion Desktop $640 mail in rebate $450
80 Hour Tivo $219 mail in rebate $220

Total on credit card bill: 1180
870 mail in rebate
Grand Total of credit card bill after rebates: 310

19" LCD Monitor/TV - $239.99

Which is regular price. After getting up at 4am, dealing with the insane people, the long lines....it just wasn't worth it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonomAnny

80 Hour Tivo $219 mail in rebate $220

Things like this just confuse me. So its basically free? In fact... theyre paying you a dollar?

I understand the idea is to get you through the door to buy the regularly priced items...

But... ???

I think its funny how this day works. Its like, probably the main reason why other countries hate us.

We had a good morning, the people were not bad at all. Driving around was a bit of a fun task but it wasn't really bad at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halx

I think its funny how this day works. Its like, probably the main reason why other countries hate us.

No kidding, though I'd think pity would be the appropriate response.

I woke up at 5:30, walked the dog, had my coffee, and spent the day catching up around the house. Nice, quiet, productive day. Until the OSU game anyway.

After the game I stopped by a couple of the big sale stores and chatted with those lucky enough to be on evening duty. Both said sales were well below goal - and lower than last year. Prices weren't all that amazing which might explain why they had plenty left of most draw product. I was able to pick up the few things I might have purchased this morning.

We were speculating this was testing the waters for a more drawn-out Black Week/Month. Given the purchasing hysteria today why should they bother cutting profits beyond what sustains the legend for next year? Makes me wonder how things went in other areas.

Oh , and to confirm the report above, both stores had two each of the cheap desktops and laptops. I could have blown off once-a-year family time last night to rush home, get the rain gear and camp at the store to maybe save a couple hundred on a low-end model? Not likely.

Ya.. why go through all that trouble for sub par electronics that aren't worth much to begin with? You get what you pay for.

I did get the TIVO free, but I still had to sign up for a subscription with the company, which added on $200. But, I am still saving around $220.

i think overall it was pretty quiet this year. i got off work at 3 that day and i did a bit of shopping to take advantage of the really good deals and i was pleased to not have to throw elbows or get one in return. I think people are wising up.

I got the evening shift (I work at Kohl's). The horrendous disaster I walked into defies description. No department, no shelf, nothing, was left intact. Merchandise was strewn as if a tornado had blown through. Customers were acting as if we were a flea market and were trying to bargain down prices! "Well, it's got a small chip, can't you take something off for that?" Uh, how about you find one without a chip....Kids were left by their parents to play with the toys as if we had daycare or they'd walk around with the stuff, then when done playing, dump it wherever. Quilt sets ripped apart and left on the floors. Wrapped merchandise unwrapped and strewn everywhere, boxes ripped open, looking like the stuff inside had exploded.
Meanwhile, next door, the manager of the Circuit City refused to open his doors at 5am as scheduled because people in the line were fighting.
All I can say is, thank the powers that be I'm a graphic artist-everyone on my list gets something I designed. One online order to a tshirt printer and, except for maybe 3 or 4 things I need from stores, I'm done!
Black Friday, my ass...HELL Friday is more like it. People are nuts....

That'd be hell. ng, I'm trying to decide which shift would be better: The early battles or the cleanup. I still vote sleep.

"Black & Blue Friday"

Quote:

Attention, Holiday Shoppers: We Have Fisticuffs in Aisle 2

By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: November 25, 2006

Perhaps it should be renamed Black-and-Blue Friday.

For decades, the day after Thanksgiving has been called simply Black Friday, because it is the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, when retailers supposedly move into the black, or start turning a profit.

But bargain hunters competing for scarce quantities of “doorbuster” discounts have given this day an increasingly sharp-elbowed, close-fisted and purse-swinging edge.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, an estimated 15,000 shoppers pushed and shoved their way into the Fashion Place mall in Murray, Utah. Police soon joined them, responding to reports of nine skirmishes.

Once inside, shoppers ransacked stores, overturning piles of clothes as they looked for bargains. A retailer’s dream — too many customers! — quickly turned into a nightmare, forcing store clerks to shut their doors, and only let people in after others left. The mall even briefly closed its outside doors to avoid a fire hazard.

“It’s like a mosh pit,” said Lexie Dewegel, 19. “You get pushed everywhere.”

At the Finish Line shoe store, one employee enlisted his mother, who happened to be shopping in the mall, to guard the entrance.

“We were not prepared for this,” said Amber Friedrichsen, the store’s manager.

Customers behaved badly across the country yesterday, but the mayhem can be traced in part to an escalating battle among retailers to be the first to open their doors and offer the steepest must-have deals.

Many merchants angered shoppers by trumpeting huge discounts — like $70 portable DVD players and $600 flat-screen televisions — only to announce they were sold out moments after they opened.

The fact that so many people were sleep-deprived probably didn’t help.

It was the earliest Black Friday on record. Trying to one-up its rivals, CompUSA started its annual Black Friday sales at 9 p.m. on Thursday, just as many Americans sat down for Thanksgiving dessert.

A dozen malls, from Utah to Maine, opened at midnight. And Wal-Mart, Best Buy and J. C. Penney began ringing up sales at 5 a.m. (A 6 a.m. opening at Target seemed so 2005.)

A final tally from yesterday’s sales will not be available until tomorrow, at the earliest. But retail executives, who were constantly checking sales figures on their BlackBerrys yesterday, said the numbers suggested that the holiday season was off to a strong, if uncivil, start.

“I have not seen a crowd this size in years,” said Terry J. Lundgren, the chief executive of Federated Department Stores, after surveying the lines outside Macy’s Herald Square at 5:30 a.m.

Gerald L. Storch, the chief executive of Toys “R” Us, said reports from store managers around the country were the same: long lines at the checkout counter. “Sales results look really good,” he said.

Merchants had been wringing their hands throughout the fall over higher gas prices and a weak housing market, worrying that they would make consumers wallet-shy in the crucial November-December period.

But with prices at the pump falling, the industry is now predicting an above-average holiday season.

The National Retail Federation, a trade group, has forecast a 5 percent sales increase, to $457.4 billion, over last year. That figure is well above the industry’s performance from 2000 to 2002, when retail sales growth topped out at 3.4 percent. But it falls short of the last two seasons, when they rang up gains of more than 6 percent.

To lure customers, merchants dangled all sorts of discounts. Macy’s, Sears, J. C. Penney and Kohl’s all placed the same bet: that a $10 coupon on the front of their circulars would draw crowds. Gap offered 30 percent off everything if customers spent more than $50, and Kmart reduced the price of some apparel by 50 percent.

But once they were in the store, many customers heard a deflating message.

“Sold out, sold out, sold out,” announced the manager at a Staples on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan yesterday at 7 a.m. “When?” asked the incredulous customer. “An hour ago,” replied the manager — in other words, the minute the store opened.

In Lewis Center, Ohio, near Columbus, Cindy Milsap, 43, and her daughter, Ashley, 20, woke up before dawn to drive to the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter, which advertised a 52-inch high-definition television for $474. “We don’t really need a new TV, Ms. Milsap said. “But at that price? C’mon.”

But the bargain eluded them. The “limited quantity” in the ad, she said, was three TVs — all sold by the time the pair arrived.

Those customers left in peace.

But at the Wal-Mart outside Columbus, customers dashing toward 5 a.m. deals pinned employees against stacks of merchandise.

“Oh, my god, stop pushing me, oh, my god,” screamed Linda Tuttle, a 47-year-old employee at the store.

Grace Smith, a 22-year-old customer in the store, was stunned by the scene. “I heard it would be crazy but I never thought I’d see anything like this,” she said.

Black Friday was once the province of a few hard-core bargain hunters, who camped outside stores waiting for deals. Stores barely advertised the event. ...end of page 1...

I'd think insurers would be looking carefully when renewing policies for these retailer. One lawsuit could quickly turn the black into red.

I got out to the black friday frenzy!, first timer!. I got a call from a friend I hadn't heard from in awhile at 1:30 am. Said she knew i'd probably be up and if i was planning on going to best buy to get there because the line already had a few hundred people. Unfortunatly I was a few hours away. When I got there, the line was maybe 500 long, at 3:30 am. I was a bad boy and kinda cut in line with my friends. I ended up getting a Sony Vaio laptop for $600 (price on the box is $899.99). I originally came for the $379 HP, but the vaio is a better laptop anyhow. After that I headed over to the sears clusterfuck. Got out of there for $169.99, with a 263(?) peice craftsman mechanics set, it was $100 off. Then I went to walmart, picked up a 1gb SD card for 13.88 and some JVC digital camcorder for $200- ended up taking the camcorder back today though, cause it turned out it was some damn made for wal-mart thing, and I could get better, cheaper elsewhere. Also went to best buy again saturday and got 2 webcams for 24.99(normal price is 29.99 each), another 1gb sd card for $14, and Battlefield 2142 for $24. All in all, I spent a fortune, and had a good time. I kind of found the massive line, and the excitement to get into the store kinda fun, will be saving up and participating again next year, but I'll make sure I show up earlier with a good book and lotsa clothes.

Tons of deals online. Screw waking up early to shop. On Outpost.com, they had a DVD burner for $40 after rebate. And a 300GB hard drive for $60!!!

Also, it just dawned on me yesterday morning. Price adjustments! Lots of store will let you buy their stuff at regular price, and when their sale starts a few days later, give you the difference from the sale price. Of course, you have to check the store's price adjustment policy. Coupons and the "10% off with your card" deals may not apply. So let's remember this for next year.