Black Friday Shopping
Nov. 27th, 2009 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerI 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.)
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.)
