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My Black Friday 2008 Debrief
Black Friday: the one day of the year when I wake up earlier than my wife.
In an earlier post, I mentioned the three things I had on my list for BF . To summarize, I bought a vacuum on Monday. I went online Thanksgiving evening and came across the Circuit City Thanksgiving Day sale. There I found the camera I wanted for $10 more than the best BF deal I saw…..so I bought it (and I got a rebate for a free printer as well). So my list was pared down a bit for the actual BF. The only item left on the list was a laptop and I saw a good price on one at Office Depot.
Early Morning
I woke up to my wife nudging me (lovingly) telling me "that’s your alarm." "What are you talking about?" I thought, "it’s always your alarm first." Anyway, I got up, got dressed, and headed downstairs and out towards the mall. It was a few minutes before six when I passed Wal-Mart and I had an urge to drive over to the front of the store to check out the parking lot but I ignored the urge and continued on my way. As I drove up to Office Depot and saw a line of about 100 or so people waiting outside the door, I decided that I wasn’t really in the mood for standing in line…so I continued to Best Buy where I figured I could kill a few minutes and then head back.
I drove around for a few minutes before finally finding a parking spot and heading in. I was surprised that the lines to pay weren’t a lot longer. I looked around for 20 minutes or so (didn’t find any laptops at the sale price) and then headed out to go back to Office Depot. By now there were a number of parking spots available in the Best Buy parking lot.
At Office Depot, there were no more tickets for the laptop I wanted and I couldn’t find a display model of the LCD monitor I was interested in (and that is something I need to look at to make sure the image quality is good before buying). I did find one ticket left for a laptop that was not one of the BF sales but was still a good price. So I headed up to the register, making some impulse buys (sucker!) along the way (two kids’ DVDs at buy-one-get-one-free and some shredder lubricant).
Waiting in line
One interesting thing happened while I was waiting. There was a man a few spots in front of me with a loaded cart. It looked like he had 3 printers and some other smaller items as well. When he got the total price at the checkout (> $2000) he seemed surprised by the amount. I overheard the clerk mention "three laptops" besides what I could see in his cart. Well, he decided to just leave it all there and not purchase anything. It was interesting that he hadn’t realized how much all of his purchases would cost. On the other hand, I thought it quite prudent that he stopped himself right then and there and didn’t follow-through with the purchase. He was paying by check (what else am I supposed to do but people watch while standing in the long lines!) – I wonder if he would have gone ahead with the purchase if he had used a credit card instead?
Alas, I didn’t end up with a laptop as they only had one in the stock – the display model. I didn’t think my dad would want a display model so I just paid for my impulse buys (sucker! yes, yes, you said that already) and left.
It was daylight when I left out of the store
I then headed to Circuit City where it was still very crowded…but BF is always crazy at Circuit City. It is virtually impossible to buy anything there on BF and, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever made a purchase at Circuit City on BF. Then I went to Staples and it was not crowded at all. Next I went to check out Office Max (only Office Max now appears to be an American Family Fitness location) and then on to Harbor Freight.
After a small purchase at Harbor Freight, I headed over to ACE. I found some good sales there so I picked up an extension cord, a yard stake outlet, and one of those Black & Decker Workmate benches (I’ve had my eye on one of those for a while as a "nice-to-have" but finally saw it at a great price – $10 after rebate). I had to kill a few minutes before Costco opened, so I stopped to pick up a few needed items and breakfast at Ukrop’s.
Standing in line
When I got to Costco, they hadn’t opened yet so I stood in line (I was now actually in the mood to stand in line and see what that was all about). So, I got in line and everyone seemed in a very congenial mood – laughing and talking. I just ate my Iced Persian from Ukrop’s. It took no more than five minutes to get inside when the line started moving. As we moved through the line, we went in front of the store exit and I was amazed to see multiple people already checking out!
Anyway, I didn’t really want to buy anything at Costco…I guess I was just there for the experience. I had the optical guy fix my glasses that broke that morning. Then I looked around to get the feel for the crowd and to see if there were any good laptop deals and browse a bit. Then I got some milk, nacho chips, batteries, checked out and headed home.
Final Result
The original items on my list:
1. Vacuum – bought it on Tuesday and saved $100
2. Digital Camera – bought it online from Circuit City on their Thanksgiving Day sale and saved $40 and got a free $100 photo printer.
3. Laptop – Did not get one (yet)
Impulse Buys
I didn’t spend a lot of money this BF. I bought some tools, some Christmas decoration stuff, and two DVDs for my kids. In fact, I spent the most money in Costco and all of that was groceries!
Observations
There were very different approaches among the various stores stores this year. JCPenney’s, Sears, and Kohl’s sent out these huge ads in the newspaper (JCPenney’s even said that this year their BF sales would be "the most compelling Black Friday prices ever offered in the Company’s history"). In contrast, Harbor Freight and ACE didn’t even send an ad in the paper we received (ok, I picked up my in-law’s newspaper Thursday evening since they were out of town). Last year, Harbor Freight had some tables set up outside their store with their big deals but when I pulled up this year I had to drive up close to the store to see if they were even open.
The stores did not seem as crowded as years past
It did not seem to me that the stores were crazy crowded this year. I overheard a salesperson in Best Buy telling a customer it was lighter than they expected. When I left there less than 1.5 hours after it opened, the parking lot was already starting to thin out a little. Everything had died down at Office Depot by the time I left there. Circuit City was still packed but I really think that was a product of how hard it is to buy something and get out of there. Best Buy does a fairly good job of getting people out the door in a relatively organized fashion but it is ridiculous at Circuit City (it was obviously not designed for huge crowds).
From what I read, it was reported that BF did start off strong but retailers are still concerned whether the shopping will continue through Cyber Monday and the rest of the Christmas shopping season. So, stay tuned for more good sales (I’m still looking for a laptop!)
Ukrop’s does not fool around when it comes to icing
The Iced Persian looked pretty yummy – I thought it was a cinnamon roll with a little icing on it. Instead, it was a diabetes-inducing cinnamon roll seemingly covered in sugar, then glazed, then covered with a thick layer of icing with more icing added on top for good measure! I did eat the whole thing though.
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Black Friday is my favorite day because it is the day for shopping. This is the only one day when I wake up early like you lol…:) But it is worth waking up early…Last year I got my digital camera for a very good deal.