Black Friday - boycotting or shopping? What'd you buy?

I'm not a hard-core BF boycotter (except for events that start on actual Thanksgiving), but neither am I a BF fan, but I did pick up a couple things online yesterday, like a $200 Xbox 360 bundle and a nice coat from JCP.

So were any of you in line at a Best Buy at midnight or whatever time they opened? Did you trample or get trampled anywhere? Will I see your corpse on CNN? :)

Oh, and from a CNN story about Wal-Mart's early BF opening:

Kayla is fucking idiot, nobody's holding a gun to her head making her go to Walmart.

I boycott. It's all a scam anyway, and the stores know it. You're going to get better deals closer to Christmas for most stuff, if for some reason you're incapable of considering NOT getting everyone on your list something hugely expensive.

I admit, I went and bought stuff. On the way home from Thanksgiving dinner with the family last night, I noticed it was 9:45, so we swung into Walmart because there was a $78 24" HDTV that we could use for my wife's craft room on their 10pm deals. Went in (24 hour store means no waiting outside), got in the line, got our TV around 10:05, paid and went home. This morning, my wife had to work (Michael's opened at 7am), I got up early and made her breakfast. She left for work at 6am, and I went to Walmart to picked up one of their 5am deals. A sewing machine that was 35% off and clearly no one else cared about because at 6:15 they still had about 20 of them. Bought it and left.

I was going to go to Five Below and get the Trivial Pursuit they were selling for $5, but I looked closer at the ad and found out it was the "Bet You Know It!" edition where you actually bet on whether other not a person will know the answer before they get the question, which adds an element to the game that I find annoying, so I didn't go buy it.

Update: My sister told me about a color Nook tablet that WM has for $99, and we've been in the market for a just-above-basic e-reader for my mom. So I grabbed that this morning on the way to the office. WM was dead as a doornail, and there was no waiting. So that was nice.

I haven't noticed much of anything worth dealing with the physical Black Friday slog since 2008/2009 and Cyber Monday has become an equally large joke. I say this feeling the need to qualify it with how I shop: anything I want I put a slickdeals alert for and forget about until I get reminders for. If it is a big ticket item like a TV or something I actively research it to find the best price for the feature set and pull the trigger when the price line has been reached. If it is something I need NOW (rare) then I'll spend a few hours finding the best price, research past prices to make sure I'm not getting double plus ripped off, and go for it.

I get that all of this makes me weird, but the whole I HAVE NO FISCAL DISCIPLINE SO I'LL SPEND $130 ON THE SHITTIEST LCD TV BRAND EVER AT WAL-MART mentality is bewildering to me. And it isn't because I'm not poor and think I'm too good for sales (obviously). I've been poor my whole life. Up until 2009 we were canned beans and ramen poor. Maybe having that little money forces you to spend wisely (doubt it) or I'm just a miser, but I have no tolerance for the entire Black Friday scam.

Edit: I guess I should clarify here. It's the doorbuster part of Black Friday that annoys me so much. You can find "decent" stuff on sale just like any other day of the year but the doorbusters are all limited supply, bait-and-switch and/or low quality items. No thanks.

Edit #2: Someone could probably do a pretty great psych study on the often-posited "rich people have more money than time" "poor people have more time than money" claim against the back-drop of Black Friday.

Boycotting. Hiding. Last year's experience working at Sears Outlet on Black Friday was plenty. >.<

I am finding Black Friday to be a strange form of not-quite-torture?

I'll look around, find something I want, freak out about how badly I want it to myself for roughly two minutes, then get over it. I figure I'll need that money for something more important in the future -- in fact, I know I will. But that ability to whine is strangely refreshing. Being able to tell myself no reminds me that my self-control is still intact. C:

that said, i got Assassin's Creed 3 on sale. it's the first time in my entire life that I've had money on a black friday, i think $34 is okay leave me alone i feel no shame

EDIT: Also worth mentioning that, if you're into it, Steam's having big ol' sales on things. ...they kinda have sales every day, but you know. Just...thought I'd bring it up.

NCIX has some amazing black friday deals. Like this mobo/cpu combo for $454!!!

And don't bother to check how much that cpu costs on it's own. Nor do you want to look at the mobo. Adding them together will not get you a total of $384, about $70 cheaper.

I'm with you there. I'm not opposed to buying shit on sale right after Thanksgiving if it really is a deal, but lining up at 9 p.m. for a midnight opening is just about never worthwhile.

I may swing by Best Buy or Target a little today on the off-chance that their games section isn't totally picked over, and something I want is still sitting there. No way would I ever wait in line for an opening, though.

I hope that was $34 you had extra after taking your dog to the vet. Otherwise, (1) posting about your dog's illness on this board and worrying about the cost of treatment, (2) saying you were going to get him treatment and not following up, much to the worry of many dog owners here I am sure, and then (3) posting in a sales thread that you just spent money on a non-animal related issue, all do not add up to Good Things(tm).

Look, you don't owe me anything, and I admit I'm out of line for calling you out on this, but it is also incredibly wrong of you to do what you did. At the very least, update us on Fido's condition so that those of us who have suffered thousands of dollars of debt for our now very dead animals can feel okay with you spending $34 on a videogame knowing that Fido also got his Black Friday deal (see: treatment).

This is me answering after taking many deep breaths.

1) Yes, I took him to the vet. Final diagnosis, clean his ears out with cotton balls + a hint of slightly diluted rubbing alcohol a little more often. He's got waxy ears.

2) Also purchased an ear cream for him. The seasonal change from Winter > Spring and Summer > Fall irritates his ears.

3) I didn't think it was absolutely necessary to report in on the status of my dog after receiving multiple "YOU'RE SELFISH GIVE HIM UP" comments. I really, really didn't.

4) This could have been addressed in a private message. Obviously, it's too late for that now, but something to keep in mind for next time.

Working :(

Considering you posted about it in the first place, and it garnered a bit of negative attention, you could have easily posted a status update, because message boards are about two-way dialogs, in case you were unaware of this.

What did you expect?



Back on the subject, I was seriously considering going to the VA ABC black Friday sale and picking up some cheap top shelf booze, but you can't really ship said booze, so that kinda put a damper on things.

We went grocery shopping a bit ago - Hy-Vee is across the street from the mall, and the mass of cars we could see in that parking lot. No f-ing way.

Matt, on the other hand, has left the house of his own free will to buy a game. I just hope he gets home without getting into a fender bender.

Since this is not what this specific topic is for, I will respond through other methods.

RELATED TO THE TOPIC, yesterday I learned that Amazon selling from third-parties can make it so the normally $169 3DS is suddenly $184!! :D

I am very happy that your dog is healthy, MulMizu. Ecstatic, in fact, and that is no sarcasm, your buddy deserves all the love and affection that I know you give him but he also deserves all the good health that I also know - first hand - is so very costly.

With that having been said, and with apologies to jerri for doing this in her thread, I think you misunderstand how message boards work. It took me a very long time to understand them to the fullest degree - my degree. You see, this is a community, and your involvement in this community MATTERS. Not just to you or the people who care about you, but to everyone. You post about videogames and people who like those same videogames are connected to you; likewise, you post about your ill dog buddy and people who love their dogs, especially those who have lost their dogs, especially recently, are connected to you. You may think you can cut and run, like you so often do, but you can't. If you need to for your emotional health then that is fine and I guarantee that absolutely no one will judge you, however, where it ceases to be fine, and where people WILL ask you to consider THEIR emotional health, is when you cut and run on topics which are of actual import to them: sick animals, sick family... and non-involvement in either.

So, yes, I could have handled this in PM, but I am acutely aware of my place in this community, of the fact that this post is jeopardizing my place in it, of your place in this community, of all of our places in this community, and I know that I was not the only one who felt that there was a need for public accountability as to your pet's health after you so publicly announced that he was ill. You need not account for anything else you post, ever, especially not your mental health or emotional turmoil, and I continue to wish you so very well in those areas, but, again, your right to cut and run ends when it starts to inflict emotional distress on others.

That ABC sale is amazing. I thought state run stores were charged with decreasing alcohol consumption, which is sort of antithesis to a sale, so when I saw that I just about died. Virginia, I salute you.

Well, this seems to be an issue.

LET'S JUSTTTTT FIX THAT.

WALP, went to Walmart at about 7pm last night. found the line for the Vizio 60" LED tv for $668, found i was #20 in line for the 23 they had available. stood for the next 3 hours waiting to get the little bar code sticker to take up to checkout & purchase. stood in the checkout line for another 25 mins. bought the sucker ($743 with tax). trucked it home. went out for a later dinner with some friends who had been there with me so it didn't get boring.

ALL IN ALL: GOOD TIMES!

How the fuck am I supposed to pronounce five "T's" in a row?

Just-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh.

Whatever your heart tells you is right.

Really? Because other than the phrase "later dinner," it didn't sound like it at all.

eh, as i said, some friends went with me. they didn't spend the whole time just standing around with me, they went around and picked up a few things they wanted to buy as well (a few xbox's, games, movies, etc). beyond that, there was decent conversation with random strangers. the later dinner is somewhat of a tradition among this group, as we end up at a Denny's and get to bullshit about things, since we don't often get a chance to hang out any more. so yeah, GOOD TIMES!

Clearly I should get some friends. :)

We woke up at 4 am and went to the outlets. We seem to have found the perfect window--by that time all the crazy people that stood in line at midnight are gone, but you're missing the rush that's getting up at 6 am. We went and got some of our wedding china at about 60% off the usual price (yay covered vegetable bowl!) and then hit a Disney outlet that had an extra 20% off everything to cross off some of the kids on our Christmas list. We didn't stand in line for anything and were in and out of there faster than we usually are on a regular day.

Then we hit IHOp on the way back and fell into bed around 6:30 am. We might go out again to pick up some xbox live cards, but we didn't have any big items we were looking at this year--last year we scored an amazing TV at Best Buy so there's no need to upgrade for at least a couple of years!

Yeah. I was a Black Friday doubter for the longest time 'til Quacks and I picked up a gigantic TV from Best Buy last year at a ludicrous discount. Though in our case it wasn't a doorbuster. Hell, it wasn't even advertised in the main flyer that went out, just online. We were in the market for a new, bigger TV. So when people started putting out their advertisements for Black Friday I put together a list of the best deals on good products rather than store-brand garbage and ultimately we went with Best Buy. We got there at 3 AM and waited maybe five minutes in line. Our TV wasn't even on display, but when we asked they had a few in back. Easy business.

The discounts at Wedgewood last year were better than this year, but we still got a crazy discount for some expensive china. And had we felt like it, we could have gotten some good prices on some All Clad at Williams Sonoma, but we decided to pass.

Advertising has us working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we don't need - Tyler Durden

So quit your job, hippy. The rest of us will enjoy HD entertainment on our ludicrously huge TVs.

On Black Friday, I stay as far away from stores (and major roads) as I can and think people who shop either today or on Christmas Eve are loco, but if you want to shop, go nuts. Personally, I'm willing to pay more for stuff on days that aren't crazytown.

Also, online shopping FTW.

I went to Bestbuy.com and ordered the Blu-ray of the LOTR trilogy for $50, finally using up a $50 gift card I've had for a year.

If, for the rest of my life, I never hear another person quote that damn movie I will die happy. I will be smiling as the rats tear me apart. Why rats? I just don't think my school guidance councilor could have been wrong about everything.
As for Black Friday? My girlfriend is out of town visiting family so I've no need to buy anything :)

I ordered my birthday PC online today. I don't consider that black Friday shopping, though. I avoid at all costs any Stores that engage in black Friday shenanigans.

Went to Wegmans, though. The store was practically empty. Awesome!

I ended up going to Toys R Us today to buy all sorts of loud, annoying toys for my 1 year old nephew. Then I went to Future Shop to look for a copy of Brazil so I could actually watch it for my film studies term paper due on Thursday. They didn't have it. In fact, their dvd section is like half a shelf. They've even cut waaay back on blu-rays. Which consisted of a single rack of new releases and a second rack half filled with movies and the other half with tv shows.

You should do your term paper on the LOVE CONQUERS ALL version, positing that in a post-Taylor Swift world it _is_ the definitive version, and that Terry Gilliam was a sage who could see how a bureaucratic society, driven by materialist lust, would come to eventually be blinded to its own totalitarianism, and as such, would seek refuge in the nooks and crannies of every happy ending, no matter how bittersweet or falsely saccharin. For good measure, describe Gilliam's vision as "deliciously subversive, transgressing against the dark underbelly of the macho independent films (spec. REPO MAN) of the time." Write exactly that.

I am not at all encouraging you to do this because I enjoy seeing film studies professors squirm, nor do I have any sort of sadistic desire to see just how large of a blood red frownie face they could paint on your term paper before they bleed out.

So for the last four years I've been working at Walmart part-time to supplement my income and pay down my student loans. This was by far the worst year. A customer had a heart attack and died in the store before the sale started and then during it a 71 year old drunk guy ran over two people in the parking lot. Of course there was the usual fighting and rudeness I've come to expect.

If I didn't work retail I'd refuse to go out on Thanksgiving or the Friday after. As far as I'm concerned its all very sad that our consumerism has reached this point.