Posted on 12/28/2007 8:22:54 AM PST by GQuagmire
Merchants long have tried to lure shoppers into rising at ungodly hours to snare blockbuster bargains on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. But are the deals actually better? Turns out that often they are not.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Ha - I knew it...
Ha! You stupid consumers! You spend your money foolishly! It’s like Bill Clinton said – Every time we give you a tax break, you spend the money badly! Socialism is the cure for this wayward behavior.
It’s not just the deals. It’s the inventory. If my ex-wife wasn’t at Target at 6:00 that morning I would not have been able to get Guitar Hero II for my daughter. She got one of the last three from the back room.
So what you are saying is that anybody who would go near a shopping mall on the day after Thanksgiving is a fool, or a female.
So what you are saying is that anybody who would go near a shopping mall on the day after Thanksgiving is a fool, or a female.
Many deals aren’t better—no doubt about it. But the “doorbuster” sales are indeed better, which are designed to drive traffic into the stores and create sales of other, normal priced products.
Ok, who here didn’t know that? Everyone with your hands up, I propose you never shop again.
“But the “doorbuster” sales are indeed better, “
exactly.
I went this year for particular door busters, and it was worth my while.
When I was done with that, I looked around at other deals and didn’t see anything spectacular.
Bravo Sierra, over. I bought my wife a Kitchenaid mixer for only $130 that day. It normally sells for $200 or more.
“To be included in the survey, an item had to appear in the circulars for three of the five weekends before Christmas”
That would eliminate almost 90% of Black Friday ads. They always get the pre prints at the last minute and send out emails.
I’ve been a black friday shopper for 5 years, and have never been let down. Are there instances of lower prices? Of course. As a former salesman, I always said, if you shop long enough, hard enough, and make it your mission in life to beat this price, you will.
Some stores have “secret black friday” sales. Like Wal Mart, Best Buy, and Costco. You’ll only get those prices, which are unbeatable, by email from black friday.
This year, I bought two Toshiba Laptops with a Cannon printer for $229.00 each at Best Buy.
Like always, do your homework, and let the shopping begin! :)
You were taken also. Guitar Hero III is this years big deal. Guitar Hero II was hot 2 years ago.
My wife and MIL did Black Friday for the 1st time this year and they weren’t at all disappointed in their bargains.
My 22” monitor at Target for $167 certainly was.
When I was in WalMart last weekend they had gobs of Hero III.
The shortages of these “must have” gifts are artificial in some cases. But it builds desire.
The real bargains come right before Christmas. Depending on how well they’ve done, they start their ‘after Christmas’ sales a day or two before the Holiday. (One year, when the economy was really bad, they started about a week before.)
If the sale runs for 3 weeks, it isn’t a black Friday sale.
Even the 50% off retail DVD sale I purchased from online lasted less than 2 weeks.
There are also times where stores do not print the prices of the items (I believe it is an agreement with the manufacturer).
This is a lazy bit of research and so it gives a false answer.
I got the Magellan 3000 gps unit for 120 at Radio Shak. It was on Black Friday sales for 150 elsewhere and normally sells for 200. It was my Christmas present for my map reading challenged mother.
Not for the Wii.
Armchair research; had they actually gone out to the stores, fought the crowds and then reported on how many shops were actually stocked with what they advertised, they would have learned that the real plan is to catch the disappointed folks and hope they buy the dusty old crap that had just been wiped off and lined up at the checkout counter.
I’ll bet it looks nice against that scoop neck sweat shirt.
What caliber was the printer?
That Guitar Hero Game looks like alot of fun.
Yep. My wife (and her sister & mother) went out on Black Friday again this year, and found *nothing* on their shopping lists. Every item they had intended to purchase was already out of stock.
Office Depot seemed to have the most blatant “bait and switch” operation. The wife walked in at 6AM when the doors opened, and the clerk snickered when she asked for the Zune that was on sale. He said they only had 20 to start with. Somehow, those were already gone at opening time...
Later that day, from the comfort of my easy chair, I bought a Creative Labs “Zen” from Amazon, and had it in 2 days with no shipping or tax.
From now on, no Black Friday shopping. I’ll probably get everything possible online. This year Christmas sales were up 3.6% in the stores and 22% online. I wonder why...
Fletcher J
It all starts with Guitar Hero. Next thing they something a little strong and they are on to Heroin Hero.
How did they handle the tough decision on wether to go back or not?
.45 LOL
They’re MP210’s. I gave them as Christmas gifts to my employees. My wife was supposed to get one, but she wanted a desktop that I had just got.
man = mall. Sorry.
I don’t call “Christmas shoppers” “amateur shoppers” for nothing. :-)
Now that CompUSA is gone, I usually buy everything online except for special sales and the like.
This year, I had to get to the Best Buy at 3 am to get a ticket for the sale at 7 am. It was actually kinda’ fun. I got there at 2am, just to be sure.
...Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do
But feed all the Kangaroos...
Black Friday - Steely Dan... one of my all time favorite songs...
I found the regular prices for some Canon cameras at Amazon were a lot lower than Black Friday prices.
There’s a FReeper who slipped a salesperson some dough a couple of days before black friday to set aside a couple of door busters for later pickup.
I don't understand.
Once you go black...
You have a strange idea of fun..
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