My Black Friday experience

[RossMAN]

RossWIFE and I wake up at 5:00 AM, fortunately we went to sleep early at 9PM the previous night.

We both shower and get ready.

Arrive at Best Buy on SE 82nd Ave (Portland, Oregon) it's FRIGGIN' packed ... the parking lot was almost FULL just minutes before 6:00 AM. So we finally made it into Best Buy, she went straight to the CD's and bought 3 that she wanted ... I zero'd in on the video cards and the BFG 128MB Ti4200 for $89 after MIR were ALL GONE

So we stood in the "CDs, DVDs and Video Games only" line for about 15 minutes, checked out with my wife's CD's.

Then we went to Staples on NE 122nd Ave. I laughed at the small line of only 50 people. We grabbed some breakfast nearby. Staples opened at 7:00 AM, we arrived at 7:10 AM. Went to the counter and asked if they had any Norton SystemWorks Pro 2003's left? Yep they had 2, so I grabbed 1, paid $50 for it. After $20 & $30 rebates it will be FREE

Now I'm stuck at work and she's going all around the city to find the rest of the Hot Deals.

Next year I'll be taking 11/29 off and unless they have a 42" Plasma TV for $1,000 we're sleeping in.

 

[NetworkDad]

Too bad on the video card!

I went to officemax early, to snag a scanner for the in-laws ($44.99 + $5.00 item - $10off$50 - $25 MIR = $15), then off to target to get a few things for my kid. Wife wants to go out later and pick up a few things at wally world.

 

[RossMAN]

Susan just called and said she found a good deal on some bedsheets at Meier & Frank.

I wanna be out shopping instead of at work!!!!

 

[NetworkDad]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Susan just called and said she found a good deal on some bedsheets at Meier & Frank.

I wanna be out shopping instead of at work!!!!

Oh, damn, you gotta work ?? How can you work on a day like this, with all the good deals ?

 

[Gaard]

Just Sears for me. Had to get the kid a new snowsuit (50% off) for winter. While standing in line at the checkout, all of the temporary cashiers revolted because they were told they wouldn't get any break until after 11:00am. "Oh hell no!" was what one said as she walked away.

I could've sworn Staples was going to have SmartMedia on sale today but didn't see anything on their site that jumped out at me.

 

[SoylentGreen]

MY BF experience.

I just got out of bed. I didn't spend squat

 

[Imported]

I tried going to Fry's.. gave up after spending 45 minutes looking for a damn parking space.

Went to Best Buy earlier, they had nothing I wanted when I got in.. Got there at around 5:45 too..

 

[MichaelD]

*yawn*

Today is the first Black Friday in years that I haven't rushed out and busted my @ss to save a few dollars. I'll start my shopping next week. Have the presents I have to buy are for my brother, his wife and their two kids....I do the smart thing and send a check inside the Christmas Card; "Dear Brother, take the wife out to dinner and buy the kids some toys, love, Uncle Mike." Works like a charm. Nothing says "I Care" like cash.

 

[Swag1138]

Originally posted by: Kiyup
MY BF experience.

I just got out of bed. I didn't spend squat

 

[Chaotic42]

This is why I don't buy presents. It's just stupid.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: NetworkDad

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Susan just called and said she found a good deal on some bedsheets at Meier & Frank.

I wanna be out shopping instead of at work!!!!

Oh, damn, you gotta work ?? How can you work on a day like this, with all the good deals ?

Yep as long as the federal reserve is open, we're open

 

[Zebo]

I thought you said the same thing lasty year RossMan

Anyway I tried this once, last year, and will never do it again. I hate crowds and to me I'd rather pay mail order discount prices than out up with them. Good for the ferengis that made it though That Ti4200 deal was sweet.

 

[NetworkDad]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: NetworkDad

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Susan just called and said she found a good deal on some bedsheets at Meier & Frank.

I wanna be out shopping instead of at work!!!!

Oh, damn, you gotta work ?? How can you work on a day like this, with all the good deals ?

Yep as long as the federal reserve is open, we're open

Yep, we are open too - but i took the day off anyway. I do love the banking holidays though!

 

[rgwalt]

Well, today I picked up a new sub for my truck and a few CDs at Circuit City. The sub was marked WAY down as it was last year's model and they were clearing them out. Then a buddy of mine and I went to Meijer and he picked up a GBA and Metroid Fusion for $80. Great deal.

I wanted to get a new portable CD player, but Circuit City was sold out. I didn't get there until 8AM. Oh well...

I thought about stopping at best buy, but there was a line going out the door into the parking lot just to get into the store. Crazy.

Ryan

 

[ManSnake]

Went to Officemax at 7:00am not many people were there, about 10, and got a free stick of 128mb ram.
I also got that stupid 16x dvdrom drive.
good thing they are all free after rebate, I just hope the rebates actually come.

 

[spanky]

Originally posted by: rgwalt
Well, today I picked up a new sub for my truck and a few CDs at Circuit City. The sub was marked WAY down as it was last year's model and they were clearing them out. Then a buddy of mine and I went to Meijer and he picked up a GBA and Metroid Fusion for $80. Great deal.

I wanted to get a new portable CD player, but Circuit City was sold out. I didn't get there until 8AM. Oh well...

I thought about stopping at best buy, but there was a line going out the door into the parking lot just to get into the store. Crazy.

Ryan

looking at those long lines in and out of best buy... sure makes me want to play carmageddon

 

[AU Tiger]

I'd rather pay full MSRP before waiting in the lines I saw today. People are crazy.

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: Kiyup
MY BF experience.

I just got out of bed. I didn't spend squat

hey, we had the same experience!


I just woke up also, but my parents went shopping at like 5 am. They bought back a 20-pack Hot Wheels gift set for me (I told them to get it, but I didnt expect them to actually get it).

 

[slag]

i got a dvd-r from omax, dvdrom, 50 pack of cdrs, new digital camera, etc. Spent $470.00 on crap i didnt need, oh well.

 

[Pepsei]

Originally posted by: Kiyup
MY BF experience.

I just got out of bed. I didn't spend squat

gawd what's wrong with me... my mind is dirty this morning....

 

[ir0nw0lf]

I broke my "never get up before 7am" rule and got up at 5:45am. Scraped the ice off my truck (in FL, YUCK!!) and went to Officemax. Saw only a few people there, so went to Best Buy real quick. There were literally hundreds of people in the line(s) by 6:30. I know that the fire marshall/inspector would have keeled over and had a double heart attack at how the front door area was jam packed and blocked by a gazillion customers. Went promptly back to Officemax, I wanted that DVD-R drive so bad I could taste it. Got in the line, ~30 people in front of me. When they opened at 7am, there were that many people behind me. People bum rushed to get in, it was really quite pathetic. I casually zipped over to the DVD-R drive boxes and grabbed the only "box" on the shelf. Not realizing all the pick tickets were on the back of that display box, I went towards the line. I turned around after seeing all the pick tickets on the back and went back to the shelf. Took a pick ticket and put the box back on the shelf, by which time all the pick tickets were gone off the box. I am quite certain I got groped during this process hehe. Got the the checkout line, like #20 in line. Just before I got to the counter, some dingleberry employee starts bringing out "Cendyne" boxes like mad to the other register. He did not put them behind a counter or out of the grubby reaches of the customers (this is important!). Customers slowly start to take the drives out of the boxes. I didn't realize that the DVD-R's were in those boxes until I got the register and flashed my pick ticket to the extremely curvacious lady. I was told they are all gone. WTF!?!?!? Why the hell did even have a pick ticket in the first place if they allowed the damn other people to go and grab the drives right out of the boxes? That's pretty piss poor inventory control as well as customer service! Why does a store like OM even have/use pick tickets if they aren't going to properly use them? The sales manager told me there was absolutely positively nothing he could do about it, no raincheck, no substitution.

I've already got a letter to the local Better Business Bureau drafted up over this. I'm sure you all think I'm bitching over little things, but this is truly not cool. I'm finding it hard to ever consider spending my hard earned $$$ at this store anymore.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: Swag1138

Originally posted by: Kiyup
MY BF experience.

I just got out of bed. I didn't spend squat

Agreed, not worth my trouble. I'd rather work an extra day or two and not have to fight the crowds. Or, at least these hugely insane crowds.

 

[FatAlbo]

I got everything I wanted at Best Buy. Ended up picking up "The Rock" and "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" as well for $10 each.

 

[BMdoobieW]

I've already got a letter to the local Better Business Bureau drafted up over this. I'm sure you all think I'm bitching over little things, but this is truly not cool. I'm finding it hard to ever consider spending my hard earned $$$ at this store anymore.

You are 100% right. OMax should not have put them out on display if they have pick tickets. I got to OMax at 7:30am (after first standing in line at Staples for the SmartMedia) and the ywere all out of the DVD-ROMs and the ValueDisc CDRs. But I did get the free 128MB RAM, the KHypermedia CDRs, the NIC, and the 8-outlet surge. Warning: the rebate for the NIC and other Belkin items is good from 11/24 to 12/28 approx so every week they show the NIC free AR, but you can really only get one. I had already bought a NIC last week at OMax but they didn't have the new rebate books yet so I didn't realize this problem. I will just have to send the rebate for the 1st NIC to my grandparents or something. Stupid OMax.

 

[wyvrn]

Read this thread for my BF experience. It wasn't too hot. I think the "sales" being advertised are blown way out of proportion. Stock on sale items was low, and if you weren't there when the doors opened you didn't get squat in my town :frown: