Black Friday
 

I admit I have really enjoyed Black Friday the last few years. Since my shopping is usually completely or at least partially completed by the time Black Friday rolls around, I am not stressed about it and can just run around enjoying the sales and madness. This year I'll be a bit more of an observer than a participant (no more standing in line at Best Buy at 3am for a Wii), but I do still have some gifts to get, so I'm sure I'll be out and about anyway.

So if you're into the Black Friday thing (either online or brick-and-mortar), what's got you interested this year?

(including things you won't be buying but would like to)

For me, it's the Cobalt Blue Kitchen Aid Mixer for $209 on Amazon! (To see the $209 price, you have to click on one of the following colors: White, Cobalt Blue, Empire Red, Onyx Black and Metallic Chrome)

If you don't know about it already, you can track all the Black Friday deals on www.bfads.net

What interests me about this year's Black Friday is how much it will indicate the slippage of Consumer Confidence and perhaps the realization that we don't need to buy all those gifts ... despite the fact that Christmas spending accounts for 40% of all annual retail spending, and the economy will further tank if we stop having our decadent Consumer Christmas.


I'm sorry about the economy, but for the sake of the meaning of Christmas and the sake of Americans coming to grip with out-of-control consumerism, I'd like Black Friday and the entire Christmas season to be an economic disaster. And a spiritual awakening.

I think it will be (a disaster).

But regardless, there are some of us who still enjoy discussing the deals, Mr. Poopypants. Black Friday is the shopper's holiday. And for those of us who plan (shop) ahead, Black Friday is not necessarily about Christmas and Christmas gifts. But some of the coolest random products are not readily available throughout the year, just around this time of year. And it's fun to talk about stuff that's on sale, even stuff you don't end up buying.

Actually, from the stuff I've been reading, one of the reasons Black Friday is predicted to tank this year is consumers know that MUCH BIGGER SALES will come closer to Christmas.

Retailers are DESPERATE this year, and are reportedly willing to discount deeper and deeper as the season progresses.


Black Friday sales will be better than usual.


After that, they will practically give things away.


One less shopping weekend this season + ya know, national economic meltdown = major, major sales getting more outrageous by the day thru Dec. 24.

I only went out on BF twice, about 5 years ago. After that I said screw it, too much hasstle. But this year I need Blueray discs for my new system and there are some good deals out there like $15 each. I won't go out at freaking 2 in the morning, but I'll venture out a little this year....

I always schedule myself to work on Black Friday. I hate shopping, so it's no hardship.

Black Friday has a hugely different meaning for me this year. I found out that a friend who gave me endless grief about turning 40 is herself turning 50 on that day. Revenge is a dish that is best served cold.

I have a friend that works for big retail. He says now is the time to buy. All the big stores are overstocked because they had to order for the holidays months ago before all this economic mess really kicked off. So while demand has dropped of supply is still running full steam.

Come January, everyone has drastically cut their orders so supply starts to dry up. If the ecomony picks up even a little bit it will lead to a real mess with demand up and supply down.

I love crowds in Disneyland, but I loathe crowds in malls and stores. So I try to avoid shopping in a store (as much as I can avoid it) between Thanksgiving and end of January. I may miss out on big sales, but the truth is, if there is a big expensive goodie to be bought, I'm probably going to be the selfish one and it would be an unecessary necessity for me. :blush:

I would really like to spend less this Christmas. But it just doesn't work that way.

We have Christmas with both sides of our family - mine and my husbands. For the adults, we pick names and there's a $50 limit to spending. This generally means that everyone spends $50.

For the nieces and nephews, of which there are 6, we buy them something.

So, not spending what everyone else is expecting you to spend makes for some wierdness.

Frankly, I'd be happy to just spend the day with the family and not buy any of the extended family gifts. Or just buy something for the kids.

I'm seriously considering a 100% gift card year here. I'm so not into it.

Even with our kids, I'd prefer to cut back. Just how badly to they really want/need that crap?

My husband and I don't exchange xmas gifts as money is usually very tight and it seems wasteful when we already have to spend so much.

yes- I've got some Bah Humbug going on.

I need to get an HDTV, so I may venture out to get a good bargain.

A great deal on a Blu Ray might be the only thing to get me to venture into the insanity known as Black Friday.

Okay, thanks Goonie, I had to look.

Me wants

We're not exchanging gifts this year, so no shopping for either of us.

We're trying to pool together some extra holiday funds (thanks to family) to hopefully buy a Wii, which will occupy our holiday time nicely, and also help provide some long term budget entertainment after. And that we'll just get at Target with the employee discount, which is nice and convenient, because Ken can just pick it up early at work someday.

However, I am tempted to break my usual personal Black Friday ban... just to go to Disneyland to buy a handmade candy cane, since they debut that day and expect to sell out within hours.

But, I'll decide that morning... or afternoon... whenever I wake up after recovering from a long Thanksgiving night with tequila and lots of turkey! :D

I'll be doing my shopping on the internetz and on Saturday at Target and wherever else is having weekend sales. I've started doing a donate toys/stuff to charity rather than a gift card exchange with my friends campaign that almost everyone is on board with.

I'll be buying some jeans and sweaters from Gap and sweaters from ON; their BF sales are usually really good. I'll also see what Illuminations, Amazon and Sephora have going on. Also hoping to find a new toaster oven at Target, on Saturday or Sunday since their sales run all weekend. I'd love to find a Dyson deal for my parents, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'd rather pay token shipping costs then deal with the crowds.

Ooooooo.... I'm adding that to my Amazon wishlist... :D

Unless Fiesta ware or Bauer Pottery go on sale, or I find a Roadtrip Grill cheaper than on Craig's List, I don't need anything. I woldn't set foot in a mall on BF if you paid me.

:snap: Dagnabbit, that's purty!

FWIW, the bfads.net site has a page just for online BF sales.

On second thought... Call me when they come out with a 1 PB model.

Wimp. I'm waiting for the 1 YB model.

YB = yottabyte = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes = 1,000 terabytes

I don't know if there is a higher value than yottabyte in computer language.

You yotta be kidding me :p


I probably should go shopping on Friday. I have to get gifts out to Alaska ASAP.

Actually... A petabyte is 1,000 TB. A yottabyte is 1 trillion terabytes.

A petabyte is 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes

A yottabyte is 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes

Those are pebibytes and yobibytes respectively, and they are the binary values. Petabyte and yottabyte are the decimal.

My God, you guys are geeks.



(I mean that in the most sincerely flattering way.) ;)

No kidding! Where's my google-byte? (that's the extent of my techy talk - so yeah - not so techy.)

Especially since you spelled googol wrong ;)

My favorite tidbit of useless techy trivia is that while 8 bits is a byte, 4 bits is a nibble.

Seriously!

I love that. That's my learned something new today thing. :snap:

What colors of fiestaware are you looking for NA?

I also need an HDTV - it's our joint xmas to ourselves this year, assuming we find a good deal. I don't know about the crowds, though - I hate that part.

No self respecting computer professional would use that term.

I'm thinking turquoise, persimmon and sunflower. I've given up on finding more of the Metlox plates I have. They are IMPOSSIBLE to find even on ebay. So I'm going to move to Fiesta (Bauer is expensive!).

Those are great colors!

The green metlox plates? Those are pretty. Speaking of which, you know times are bad, the antique mall I told you about in San Mateo, gone with the wind.

If you want to spend money on this stuff, replacement or Naomi's in SF (the most obnoxious owner, too) I refuse to shop at Naomi's for that reason, no matter how much of the vernonware I love he may have.

Shamrock may be a good addition as well.

It's funny that the Metlox isn't available. It is from the 70's and not an antique, but the colors are very retro. I have a great green, a turquoise, a pale yellow and a pink. Even Replacements doesn't have much. I have had a watch on ebay for a year now an the only plates that come up are white. I'm just tired of having 5 plates. Salad plates are not a problem, dinner plates - nothing.

We've got shamrock large cups in fiesta. They're really green

I would like to point out that I, both the biggest thread pooper in the world and one of the great anti-shopping advocates, resisted the urge here.

Only to see that everybody rushed in to fill the breach. I'm so proud of you all.

Have you all seen the new chocolate fiestaware color? Yummy!

I may be the owner of a couple of fiesta platters. I believe there's a yellow and a torquoise one. Once we're allowed to remove stuff they're yours if you want em.

Anyone see a good deal on a laptop out there? Though I am sure it's gonna be nutso at Best Buy.

Whaddya need? There are some super cheap NetBooks on newegg

Ohhhhhhhhhh yessssss!

Check out Dell. Also consider stores like Office Max and Staples. They have BF sales and sell laptops. I strongly recommend the extended warranty (because of the screen0, but I'd recommend buying it through the manufacturer vs. the store.

When I was shopping for my laptop I used NoteBookForums to find coupons and deals.

I second the "netbook" concept. For work/study they are a very good deal.

I need to figure out what to give my brother for his birthday, which is today (though I won't see him till tomorrow).

Oh, very true. I think that it is why it is all the more amusing: because it is so obscure.

I also like what (unofficially) TWAIN (a scanner interface protocol) stands for.

Does it not actually stand for Technology Without An Interesting Name?

From the Wiki:
although,

Hence the "(unofficially)"

No, you are not alone.

Nope i don't set foot out on Black Friday ever. I am scheduled to work and i'm glad i am working. I have my list already started and 3 people bought for with a few others almost wrapped up. I don't set foot in a mall on the weekends now thru January. Most deals were able to be had before Black Friday and also now online as well. No need to fight the crowds or camp outside in the wee hours of the morning. Matt and i already bought our Wii and we usually do a little gift exchange to eachother. My family we used to draw names but this year opted not to. So i'm planning on going a bit more on my nephew but other than that just a little something for my family since there are 5 plus my brother in law. For only 2 of my closests friends we ship gifts and my one friend goes overboard with gifts for me. That's about my only lavish presents i get. :) Last year she splurdged and got me a painting of Jon Bon Jovi from Keep The Faith/These Days era that is hanging in our bedroom. :)

Good luck going out on Black Friday those of you who are brave enough. I got an early Xmas present from my parents LG Voyager cell phone and i LOVE it.

Nope

I love it. People going completely wonky. Buying stuff for no apparent reason other than they think it's cheap. It's a people watching extravaganza.

Hey Chernabog,

Check out TigerDirect.com and Newegg.com for some good notebook deals (I like TigerDirect because they don't charge tax)

OH man i love watching people go nuts crazy out there...lol it's hilarious. People think they're getting deals. This year though as it gets closer to Xmas there will be better ones out there. I know most years we'd wait til the end to do Xmas shopping and there were awesome deals out there better than Black Friday.

But for once i wish that this world wouldn't concentrate on the Material part of Xmas. That's not what this holiday is about. But of course everyone makes it that way (i blame the media).

Yes it is. It would be un-American of anyone to not spend beyond their means for Christmas.

I'm so glad I'm long past the material side of Christmas. Heheh, even when I did buy gifts for all my friends ... it was always stuff to crack each other up when we opened it, rather than items of any actual use, value, or keephood.


But it's probably been almost a decade since I've limited gifts to my ex-wife, my kid, and - in happy years - my sig. other. It's been SO fantastic not to have to spend the entire season shopping, not to have such a gigantic money-suck, and not least of all to return to experiencing some of the seasonal spirit apart from the gift-giving (whose spirit of generosity and bounty I do not decry, btw).


As it turns out, this year I have occasion to buy more gifts than usual. But that won't get me anywhere near a store on Black Friday. I will be scanning for good deals on a good TV ... but that will be a Christmas gift for me.


Heheh, and that's ANOTHER problem with Christmas Shopping. It's always been one for them, one for me, one for them, one for me. Magic Spell for $$$$$ be gone!

LOL ISM that's why i make my gifts to my friends other than an item bought here and there. Plus i make one for me too. :) I hear ya this year my list is the shortest it's ever been i think. Something we all agreed upon this year to spend the very minimum. I can't imagine going shopping and having bags upon bags of material things and not being happy or being happy til Xmas morning or when the bills start rolling in.

I wish one year we'd just not do gifts but that won't happen considering my mom is the most giving person i ever know or known making sure there are gifts under the tree. Plus my new nephew his really first Xmas he'll remember so. But for me material things don't make me happy. It's being with family and seeing Xmas thru my nephews eyes and having my friends call me or email me that they love their homemade gifts. :) I'm tempted to go to midnight mass on Xmas Eve. Did it once a few years ago. Since i'll probablly be up anyways. But we'll see.

Check out Costco online. They have a 2pk of LCD TVs for $1700. They also have some good prices on other LCDs. I heard they were good as far as those types of TVs go. My knowledge is limited, so I cannot say for sure.

Matt would know he's a geek at this stuff. :)

Nothing like standing in line at 3am for 5 hours to save $20 on something that was $30 off six months ago, with the additional hope of having the remote chance of getting a very limited (i.e. quantity 5 - while supplies last!) item, and see people fight over it. 'Tis the season! ;)

I value my sleep and time a LOT more than that.

I'd also rather spend that time making gifts for people instead.

A big portion of my Black Friday Bah Humbugness stems from my old retail days, when I seriously had to call mall security over two ladies beating the crap out of each other in my store over the last stupid 50%-off windchime. :rolleyes:

I'm not past it. I think a material Christmas is a GREAT thing. As long as it other people buying stuff for ME!

I just wish Walmart would go die...

I blame friends and family, if we didn"t have those, there'd be no reason to exchange gifts and we could return to the true meaning of Christmas.

No, people decide that WANT Christmas to be that way. What's wrong with doing it that way if that's the way they want to celebrate? Give gifts, bring joy, spend yourself into a hole, make all of your gifts, don't give gifts, go to church, kill a tree, don't do anything....it's really up to the individual to decide how they want to celebrate.

Lisa, here's my Christmas gift to you...

The missing "THEY" form the post above. I knew you wanted it. I made it myself.

:D :evil: ;)

A post about a typo, with a typo. :D ;)

I view the commercialization of Christmas as just desserts for religion forcing its way into the civic sphere. If you force secular society to celebrate your holiday and don't whine when your holiday gets secularized.

That said, I'm still not shopping. I just ignore it.

VAM!

(I can hear Emeril saying that.)

I heard a story this morning about a German man (Frank Oynhausen) who decided that he was tired of the commercialization of Christmas. "I started thinking about how I could reintroduce traditional religious values into this commercial world". He launched his company "Sweet Lord" which produces and sell foil-wrapped chocolates in the shape of Jesus.

The church is not amused. I'd like to direct Mr. Engel's attention to the local Catholic Articles store. ;)

Silly man - Everyone knows Christ comes in wafers

I thought that was a fraternity hazing stunt.

Oh... "in".... never mind.

I'm a big fan of Jesus at Burning Man, myself

Gap and Old Navy shopping has been completed.

I've looked through the ads an there's really just not much this year. If I had the dough I might get excited about the Kitchen Aid deals, but that's literally it. I'm disappointed.

What a snooze-fest.

We hit Target at 6. Got a few things, $8.88 2G jump drives, something for Madzer. It wasn't too crazy. They still had a bunch of the $299 flatscreens. Then we went up to the mall to get our traditional JC Penny Snowglobe. Parking wasn't bad there, we just got our globes and left. Now we can go back to bed for the rest of the day.

Tom Waits was way ahead of Mr. Oynhausen with the Chocolate Jesus!

Surprisingly, Apple is actually doing a Black Friday sale. I don't think Apple has EVER had a sale.

Freakin' morons in Long Island trampled to death a Walmart employee and ran over a pregnant lady enough that she miscarried.

Good lord. Makes me want to puke.

Had to be a Walmart, didn't it.

WTF???? That is disgusting. I cannot imagine wanting something badly enough that I literally step on another human to get it.

Your Freedom?

Um, please say this is made-up stuff.


No link provided, so I have hope. This is just tooo much. Can't believe it. Won't.

Disgusting.

Nothing is worth that. :(

It can happen at any store. I recall reports of people being trampled at IKEA and Best Buy openings in the past.

Horrifying. :(

Partially made up

I was referring to the trampling. But yeah, the miscarriage thing was reported as a rumor anyway.

I still haven't gone out... I just couldn't find anything exciting enough to warrant dressing before noon.

I did go to Sports Authority and pick up a Road Trip Grill this morning. I figured $129 was worth the extra 2 miles out of my route. I didn't see any trampling there, however. I really didn't see a crowd.

There were about 20 tents set up outside Best Buy last night. It took me a minute to realize that Best Buy doesn't sell tents.

There was a trampling at a Wal-Mart las year as well.

Yeah, but last year it was for the Wii... there's nothing that great this year, what's the damn rush?

Last year's mob wasn't about the Wii - it was just general mob mentality.

That's also why there is a huge increase in theft and shoplifting this time of year.

According to that same mall security that I mentioned in an earlier post, they told me that many shoplifters or people caught breaking into cars in the parking lots often state, "Well, I don't care about anyone else. MY family needs a Christmas and they're going to have it." :rolleyes:

For a time of year that's supposed to be loving and giving.... it's also quite the opposite.

I'm just saying that I can see people getting all worked up into a frenzy over something that's in high demand and hard to get (not that that's an excuse for the behavior, but I can see that causing it), but was there anything really spectacular this year? Not that I saw.

I still think the frenzy is a mob mentality, because it's caused by people buying into the groupthink of "everyone else is getting one, so I must also!"

Not sure if it's due to upbringing or not, but, for example, as a kid if I wanted the "latest and greatest Barbie" for Christmas, my parents would often say, "Santa might have to give that to the Easter Bunny to give to you, because his elves can't make enough of them for everyone right now." And, I was fine with that. I wasn't disappointed or sad.

I'm patient because I was taught to be at a very early age. I was also taught to not follow what everyone else was doing - that being unique and individual is more admirable.

To me, status symbols (like "popular" items) don't reflect who a person is, other than showing that they like to follow trends, and have to be the first to own something, lest they feel judged for not having it.

But, that's just my view on the whole "gotta have it" mess that's common this time of year.

Still not out, though I plan to do so soon.

There was a shooting today at a Toys R Us in Palm Desert. Yes, it's real.

The keep up with the "Jones" mentality scares me sometimes. I take my blessings where I find them and one of my blessings is that Missy will forever have the wishlist of a 4 year old, she doesn't do video games per se, she doesn't care about labels or what her cousins want or have...give her her basic wish list for any gift giving occassion and I have a happy child.

Is there a new "Fondle Me Elmo" out that people just "gotta have"? :rolleyes:

People are effing crazy this time of year. I'm so much closer to becoming a hermit during the month of December. :(

Ok, the shooting was real, but was it a toy gun?

I was making the comment to one of my clients that I very rarely see children in the Coachella Valley, which is why I was surprise today by the location of the Toys R Us shooting.

Well, I did finally make it out this afternoon. Knocked down the majority of my remaining list of people to buy for, and the few gifts remaining, I pretty much know what I'm getting them now.

There's stuff on sale (40% off) in Disneyland.:eek:

I barely noticed it but I heard a castmember mention it as being unusual.

CM's get 40% off for the next 20 days....don't know of any of the general public getting that.

We saw a clearance rack at one store on Main Street. It was bizarre.

Of the closet? I didn't know you were gay.

I bought a bunch of stuff for me, all online of course. The big one is a GPS system so I can go visit friends in [scary] LA.

I thought we already discussed this ;)

Also in the Grand Cal gift shop.

I got a cell phone tonight.

Yeah he did since we were out looking and got a digital picture frame for my mom for Xmas. I splurdged on her gift for once. I'm about halfway done with gifts for my friends and family and husband. My sister is the only one i have no idea what to get either. And i did find something for me but going to let Matt buy it for me for Xmas. I don't buy myself presents. My parents bought him a new cell phone which is spiffy :) since he will be working on Xmas.

Yup they are. But it's ok he is taking vacation after Xmas until after New Years so it isn't too bad. I mean ya it stinks big time Xmas day it really does since i will be up at my parents opening gifts and eating too much while he works. It's a shame we can't even celebrate that day together. Everyplace other than resteraunts and movie theaters and Disneyland are closed. I mean people are supposed to get together and spend the holiday together that's what it is about not about presents or working.

In light of discussions elsewhere on this board, I have decided to forgo this racially insensitive shopping day. Until all races can be allowed to shop equally on that day, I will not contribute to this hate-filled day.

Bastard.

In high school I tried to organize a boycott of paper recycling since we were supposed to segregate white and colored papers.

Only I was amused.

I would have been!


VAM

Kevy Baby, you might want to read the article from Slate called "Six Black Friday Bargains to Avoid." The first on the list is Blu-Ray players.

OK anyone else get an image of Yoda eating that icky food?

For some reason I have never understood the attraction to fiestaware. I know there's a big group of collectors, but for me, there are no other dishes as happiness-inducing as Corelles.

Me, neither. The closest thing I ever did was wait for the after-Christmas sales on December 26th. I got enticed into doing it with relatives from my ex-husband's side of the family; they are apparently huge into buying stuff at 50% off. But whoo lordy, it's crowded, cramped, and chaotic. Ick ick ick. Plus, it was cold outside. It thoroughly sucked. And for me, I don't want to buy 4 rolls of gift wrap at 50% off and save it until the next year. And fight people to grab them from the shelves. Crazy!

I agree, it's just nuts. But in order to people-watch requires being there in person, and I like to avoid it as much as I can.

Why don't you lead an effort to create a specially themed Christmas this year? Give it a name, like "The Family Giving Tree" or something. Each person draw a name from a hat, and you can ONLY give to that one person. Everyone have a ceiling of how much they're allowed to spend (say $50), and bonus kudos go to people who are creative, and/or can craft/cook/bake their own gifts. Maybe even set up a food donation bin near your tree, to give to the local food bank. Maybe on Christmas day, bake up a bunch of cookies and then deliver it as a family to local homeless shelter or a senior care home.

For the kids in the family, make it so each child only gets ONE gift this Christmas. I know this may sound heretical but as an only child with no grandparents, I went years with just one gift under the tree. And you know what? I didn't get overwhelmed with too many presents that I all but ignored. I got the ONE gift, and I played with it. Why do we need to train children to believe they should expect a huge overabundance of material goods for Christmas? Teach them that it's a time of giving--not just of stuff, but of the heart, one's time, and one's charity.

I agree... nothing is worth that much trouble.

Yep, it's just terrible. People get so caught up in the frenzy of it that they don't realize they are pushing the people in front and squeezing the life out of them. Amazing how the supposed "best time of the year" brings out the worst behavior in people.

No Black Friday shopping for me, but I did do some Cyber Monday shopping. I couldn't pass up free shipping, no sales tax & discounted items (that I was going to get anyways).

Couldn't find anything of interest. Closest I came was an 8gig jump drive for like $10, but it's one of those things I'd probably only bother getting if I was already getting stuff. In other words, I can totally live w/out it (so I didn't get it). I'm so very "meh" this year.

WOOT runs those on special now and then, for about $10 including shipping.

WOOT is like Black Friday everyday, and no crowds. They usually list their new product deal just after 9pm, so there's no loss of sleep either. :)

I was looking for movies and a Wii game. The game is semi-new, so I knew there could be a problem in the regular stores. I found it on sale on Amazon, plus no sales tax. I am having it shiiped to The Old People's house, so that I don't have to worry about hiding it.