Topic: Black Friday

[xraffle]

Is anyone here going to wake up early on Black Friday to shop? Best Buy opens at 5am. Tickets will be handed out as early as 3am and will be given out to people on a first-come first-serve basis. Personally, I think these Black Friday sales are stupid and it's just a way to get people to go crazy shopping. Never in my life have I shopped on Black Friday. I have better things to do than to lose my sanity by shopping in crowded stores. Is anyone here planning to wake up as early as 3am?

[Dunrobin]

Is anyone here going to wake up early on Black Friday to shop?

Hell no!  (I'm looking forward to not having to get up before the crack of dawn for four days in a row.)  

I've always tended to avoid the stores on "Black Friday" weekend over the years, but this year I'm doing almost all of the Christmas shopping online.  In fact, I have a couple of things to order online this weekend for my niece and nephew and then I'm done!  (I'm normally out buying gifts during the last week or so before Christmas - a natural-born procrastinator.)

I'm not sure what has gotten into me this year.  I've even put up a Christmas tree in my living room already, and I haven't bothered to decorate my place in more than a decade.  My co-worker keeps asking who I am and what did I do with the "real" me.  I'm afraid to look in the root cellar for fear that I might find a large empty pod.  

[xraffle]

Hell no!  (I'm looking forward to not having to get up before the crack of dawn for four days in a row.)  

I agree. Like what my dad always says: Yes you'll save money when shopping that day, but you'll save a lot more by staying in bed and not buying anything.

[shemps#1]

Fuck "black friday" and the assholes who shop on black friday:

Sought: Wal-Mart shoppers who trampled NY worker

By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer Colleen Long, Associated Press Writer – Sat Nov 29, 11:48 am ET
Wal-Mart Worker Trampled To Death Play Video CBS 2 New York  – Wal-Mart Worker Trampled To Death

NEW YORK – Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down.

Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday's video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman.

Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries. The store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the employee, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.

"This crowd was out of control," Fleming said. He described the scene as "utter chaos," and said the store didn't have enough security.

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store.

Damour, 34, of Queens, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. It said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.

"Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred," senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted."

A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.

Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day when stores broke into profitability for the full year.

Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.

___

AP retail writers Anne D'Innocenzio and Mae Anderson contributed to this report.

I hope the $9 DVD's were worth it.

[xraffle]

My friend actually woke up at 3am on Black Friday. He does it every year. This year, he wanted to get an Xbox 360. I haven't seen him since Thanksgiving Day, so I still haven't found out if he got it and what kind of deal he got. But he has insomnia, so I don't think waking up at 3am was a problem for him. With me, I always need my 8 hour beauty sleep.

[Dunrobin]

With me, I always need my 8 hour beauty sleep.

Maybe you should try 10.  

[Lefty]

My wife woke up at 0500 hours (give or take 5 or 7 minutes, I was too sleepy to figure it out) to go to a place whose initials are O.D. because she wanted to buy a certain H.P. (Handicap Placard?) computer.  While she waited in line with several other oily boids, employees of the place gave out tickets for whatever.  There were 7 computers allegedly available, she saw 2 of them leaving with customers (hopefully paid for), and when she got to the area where the computers had been on Wednesday, she was told they were at the other end of the store behind the copiers and what-nots.  Naturally, there were none.  She left the building, walked over to the McDonald's in the plaza, got breakfast, and came home.

A few hours later, she went online and found a BETTER computer by H.P. for sale, which should arrive early this week.  So much for O.D.'s tactics.  And she promised she would never go anywhere on Black Friday early again.  Besides -- to me, Black Friday is a day to stay home from work to make it a 4-day weekend, watch the Flyers on TV at 1:00, have our Thanksgiving pizza (day 3 of 4, like the Bundy clan), and bowl in the evening as usual.

[xraffle]

A few hours later, she went online and found a BETTER computer by H.P. for sale, which should arrive early this week.  So much for O.D.'s tactics.  And she promised she would never go anywhere on Black Friday early again.  Besides -- to me, Black Friday is a day to stay home from work to make it a 4-day weekend, watch the Flyers on TV at 1:00, have our Thanksgiving pizza (day 3 of 4, like the Bundy clan), and bowl in the evening as usual.

I agree. You can find just as good of a deal (if not, better) online. Instead of wasting time shopping with the crowd so early in the morning, just shop online. Amazon and Best Buy had some great deals on their site.

[Giff me dat fill-em!]

The ONLY time I EVER shopped on the so-called "Black Friday" was in 1995 ... went to CompUSA (remember them?) to buy an HP Pavilion computer - AND ALSO get a FREE 13" TV!! (now that I think of it ... I got sucked in!).

It was a worthless task that I was lured into compliant capitalistic buy-me advertising. Although, I still have the TV that I watch in my kitchen. (The computer long-since bit the dust).

[falsealarms]

I'd rather do my Black Friday shopping online than deal with massive amounts of people in a store.

Everyone geared up for Cyber Monday? 

[Sten]

Would it be too much to ask for stores to install automatic doors that they can unlock and open by using controls from a distance? Then no one would be risking their lives letting customers in.

I swear, even if I was in the area and foolish enough to get out and shop there on that day, hearing of the death would make me just want to go home. Screw the good deals. I hope the customers that got irate were only  irate at the inconsiderate ones who trampled the guy.

[locoboymakesgood]

The Black Friday sales this year were a complete joke. You can find better deals throughout the year if you know where to look.

I was in Phoenix this past weekend on a mini getaway of sorts and could not believe the people out at 3 or 4am when I was just getting in to town. It was insane.

[shemps#1]

Would it be too much to ask for stores to install automatic doors that they can unlock and open by using controls from a distance? Then no one would be risking their lives letting customers in.

I swear, even if I was in the area and foolish enough to get out and shop there on that day, hearing of the death would make me just want to go home. Screw the good deals. I hope the customers that got irate were only  irate at the inconsiderate ones who trampled the guy.

From what I understand they were pissed off that the store was closing because of death when they were waiting outside like a bunch of fucktards.

Being trampled to death is not a good way to go at all. Each and every customer that stepped on him should be killed themselves.