black friday

[sundin4prez]

so i've heard that black friday is the day to go shopping in the u.s because there are deals left right and center, so i am planning to visit the states to start my christmas shopping..... my question is, what stores have the best deals? is it really worth my travelling about 4 hours to get to the states? and are the deals on black friday good as i hear in the media.....thanks

 

[guitlouie]

I don't go anywhere that day.  There are very low prices on a couple of items that lots of people are led to believe they must have.  No bargain in the world though is worth putting up with the insane crowds of people pushing, shoving, and literally fighting over  some garbage they will forget they even own in six months time.  It always seems to turn into a really depressing show of humanitys nasty "gotta have it" side, and I would rather sit at home and enjoy some time with my kids than go fight some soccer mom over the last 200 dollar labtop st Sprawl Mart.

 

[bpmorton777]

Amen!

I work at an electronics retailer....having to get up at 4am the day after a family holiday sucks. I dont work the retail side of it anymore (Im in the repair shop) but I still will be asked to come in and work the retail side, and on top of this will get behind on the repair work we do.

Stay home and relax if you can. buy your xmass gifts online and avoid the hassle.

Brian

 

[SlingBass]

Stay home and relax if you can. buy your xmas gifts online and avoid the hassle. 

That's pretty much my inclination - but hey, everybody should experience it once or twice......knock yourself out  :icon_biggrin:

 

[stratplayer1]

The crowds are insanity, I doubt its worth traveling four hours unless your going to buy everything for Christmas, but all major retail stores have huge sales, wal-mart, best-buy, circuit city, clothing stores, you name it.

 

[-CB-]

This year, folks, expect retailers to offer good discounts on "black friday", but even better discounts later.  Sales predictions are not good, some saying negative growth in sales from 2007, or at best very very modest growth - perhaps less than one percent.  Usually, this means as the holiday (dare I say Christmas?) selling season pushes on, expect discounts to go deeper as retailers try to move inventories and do whatever they can to generate some cash flow.

My guess - look for after January 1, the "New Year's Sales" ought to be a real rodeo.

Things like guitars - where negotiation is in order anyway... I'd go down ready to buy to go deep, hold your ground at 45 percent or more off "list".  They're gonna get hungry sometime, because nobody is buying guitars right now, compared to two years ago (last year was so-so).

FWIW, Center City Music sells Gibson at 45 percent off list all day long, in and out, and happily so.  They're one of the top five Gibson dealers nationwide.

 

[Steiger]

I'm guessing if the kids in Puyallup don't have a school parade for Black Friday, they'll use their energy in the evening with more tricking than treating if they run into the education officials that cancelled the parade.


From the local rag:

School Halloween parties and parades were halted in 2004 in Puyallup, Washington because, education officials said, classroom time is limited and the festivities might offend followers of the pagan Wiccan religion -- witches, in other words.

The ban remains in place, a spokeswoman for the school district said.

I can see the sense in the ban though, I don't want to offend a witch and turn into a toad  :icon_tongue:

 

[bpmorton777]

I hate Washington witches! :toothy12:

Brian

 

[OzziePete]

In Australia, the post Christmas sales are usually the roughest....and where the better bargains can be bought in the major retail stores.

I'd imagine, at the moment, that things would be pretty tough for retailers with all the bad economic news coming out each day. No one will be game to fork out big $$ for larger priced items and those that do venture out with money will be looking for real, heavily discounted prices on items before they buy.

Someone said to me the other day, after yet another day where another country (Iceland, Hungary and Ukraine have all gone this way and others may follow) went to the IMF for bailing out, that it seemed like Capitalism is crashing, rather than just apart of some market. :sad:

 

[bpmorton777]

Greed brings any system down

Brian