Black Friday Shopping

[naomikritzer]

I love shopping on Black Friday. Not, mind you, because I am one of the crazy people who gets up in the middle of the night and stands in line waiting to stampede into their local Wal-Mart for $1000 big-screen TVs. You see, at most stores, the early bird specials run until 11 a.m. or even noon, and in addition to the big impressive doorbuster specials, there are loads of smaller bargains that are the sort of thing I am actually interested in buying for my kids (or Ed, but it was all kid purchases this year) (unless you count the telephone, which was a "oh good grief, does it just figure that our phone would randomly quit working at 4 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving?" purchase)

The thing that most people don't realize is that (at least near me), by 10 a.m., the crowds have evaporated, but the stores are still staffed like they're bracing themselves for the zombie apocalypse. I walked into Radio Shack (seeking buy-one-get-one Hexbugs, a pair of photo keychains, and a cheap digital camera, all kid gifts) and was met at the door by two bored employees eager to help me locate whatever I wanted. I had everything I needed and was out the door in less than five minutes. Target took a bit longer, but that was because I succumbed to the temptation to browse. (Although all I bought in the end was a phone and a three-pack of toaster-oven-sized cake pans; Molly has been asking for an Easy Bake Oven, and I suggested we get some small pans and try the toaster oven as a substitute. I'm OK with letting her turn the toaster oven on as long as she lets me know she's doing it. The only big question is how warm an Easy Bake gets inside and thus what temperature to set the toaster oven at. You would think this information would be available on the Internet but googling for "substitute toaster oven Easy Bake" gets me nothing useful. She doesn't need overpriced Easy Bake mixes because I actually put together a cute little Easy Bake cookbook based on recipes I found online for one of Molly's friends as a birthday present, and I could just print off a copy for Molly.)

Anyway, the thing that is remarkable about afternoon and late morning Black Friday shopping is how incredibly low-stress it is. The stores are empty, everything but the "minimum five per store!" items are in stock, and there are no lines for anything. It's great.

Incidentally, I asked the cashier at Target and even at opening, she said there wasn't much of a crowd. It may just be that the people in my neighborhood are disproportionately not the Black Friday shopping type ... or it may be a sign that we are in for a a Bleak Retail Season (tm). If I owned Target stock, this would make me nervous. (Which reminds me, I should post soon about Molly's experimentation with day trading.)

Comments

[carbonel]

My annual Black Friday shopping consists of a trip to the Lands' End Inlet store in Morton Grove, IL, near my parents' place. Usually I'll get a pair of jeans and chinos for under $10 each, but this year they didn't have any in my size that fit. I did get a nice pair of black wool slacks for $10 or so, plus a cashmere turtleneck and four other turtlenecks. Total bill was just over $100.

I used to go to Michaels (next door to Lands' End), but that doesn't pay since I stopped doing cross-stitch.

[naomikritzer]

I looooooooooooove Land's End outlet shopping. There's an inlet that's very convenient to me and I try to focus on the Back Rack when I go there and ignore all the tempting just-arrived children's clothing. There's also an actual Not-Quite-Perfect-Store up at the HarMar mall; the last time I went, I found this rack full of $5 umbrellas. They'd bought them as samples and decided not to sell them. They were not the greatest umbrellas ever but they were by far the best umbrellas I'd ever spotted for $5 a pop and we lose umbrellas so frequently it does not make sense to buy the really nice ones.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

that minimum five per store business is mighty lame

[naomikritzer]

I really appreciate that particular notation in ads because that way I know not to bother.

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

Did your target not have the 32" LCD HDTV for $246? Dan and I got in line at our Target this morning at 3:45 to try to get the TV (a group present with my sisters for our mom). Even though it was raining, the line was wrapped around the building and they had the cops there to prevent any of the stuff that gets people hurt or killed. Unfortunately we just missed the TV. But then we went to Best Buy and they still had a ton of a better brand of 32" LCD HDTV for $299, so we got that instead and still felt like we got a pretty good deal.

[naomikritzer]

I'm sure they had it. It's possible my Target doesn't attract the same sort of Black Friday shoppers just because it's kind of isolated -- there's a Radio Shack in the same strip, but the other stuff in the area is mostly of the grocery store / dollar store / Sally's Beauty Supply variety rather than the Black Friday Deals Here! variety. People in search of efficiency (you know, the Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. all close to each other) have to head for the burbs (or at least St. Paul, which has the Midway shopping area, which is an incongruously suburban strip plunked right in the middle of a very urban neighborhood).

[dot_fennel]

Your comment led to me getting one of the aforementioned $299 TVs, so thanks! I had been dreading the TV-replacement process, but apparently technology has advanced to the point where a TV that's almost too big to watch now costs less than any other piece of electronics I've bought in years.

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

Glad I was able to help! It's nice that you can just buy this stuff now without financing or months of saving being necessary.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I've gotten up early on Black Friday and saved lots of dollars the last few years. Not 5:00 a.m., mind, (or this year, 4:00 a.m., which is even more ridiculous) but pretty early. But this year, we went out a little later and of course, we didn't spend nearly as much as previous years.

We went to five or so stores, and it was all quite reasonable, quite quick in-and-out--except at Kohl's. I've usually had great luck at Kohl's on Black Friday, but they didn't have nearly enough staffing so their line was WAY too long even 10:00 a.m. It's not worth waiting in line for almost an hour just get a salad spinner, so we walked out without buying anything at all. We stopped for coffee at the nearby Caribou and the woman behind the counter said that one of their customers told her she'd waited in line to pay at Kohl's from 4:45 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. But, as I said, that was the only store we tried this year with a line like that.

[naomikritzer]

Life is too short to stand in line for an hour to get a salad spinner. I think that would be true even if the salad spinner were free.