I've never been one to participate in Black Friday but I know there are people on here that do so...

Best Buy

target and walmart will be opening their doors at 10 p.m on thanksgiving night!

This is the worst bullshit ever. First you got up Friday morning and went shopping. Then you had to get up at 8, 7, 6, 5, 4... Now you have to leave Thanksgiving with your family early so you can go open a store and watch others, who should be home with family, murder one another to show the whole world what greedy, cheap, consumerist pigs we all are. It sucks for the employees, it sucks for the shoppers and no one gains a single thing. Just have the same damn deal the next morning FFS! /end rant

Edit: not calling anyone who wants a good deal a pig, but a quick watch of black Friday youtube videos should get my point across. It's really become a shameful display. Especially when one considers the moral lesson Christmas is supposed to convey.

Mass hysteria! I love it

its that 1% messing it up for everyone.
I'll never participate - worked in retail for too long.

Cyber Monday is where its at.

Just watched a compilation of tramplers at black friday on youtube. Unbelievably messed up

i've never done the Black Friday thing cause I hate lines and crowds, but really....how good are the deals?

some of my friends brave it, but it seems more like a game to them than anything else.

Pass...do most of my shopping from local stores and online.

These kind of things aren't really something I have ever understood. First of all, it doesn't seem like these mad shopping trends, or uber-consumerism in general, jives with the notions people generally associate with Thanksgiving. I guess I am just not sure what the motivation is. Generally there is nothing major to buy anyways, but people just spend more money [on things they probably wouldn't need at the best of times] thinking they are getting a deal. Why do you think the stores do these sales; they know what the bottom line is, they are hardly going to be losing money. Black Friday has become just a tool for increased sales, and in the very least, exposure.

And for all this submission to the must-haves and bargain hunting, people lose track of what is really important, and as has been already mentioned, are sometimes willing to sacrifice a piece of their humanity in the process. Having worked in a few retail jobs, including for that most hated of American corporations, I can attest that being on the other side of holiday shopping is brutal. People need to chill out, enjoy their families, and worry less about the almighty dollar and the things it buys for them.

But what do I know, I am just a commie from the north.

Therein lies the problem, there are usually a limited number of the truly exceptional deals. It's those 20-30 TV's at 50% off that cause people to trample each other. So even if you get there well before they open, wait in line and stomp people to get to it, you may still not get the deal you were after. If they only put up sales they could actually sustain to the general public, none of this would happen. The worst part is, the retailers even lose out. Studies show the extended hours don't even increase revenue, they just spread it out over more hours. So since the store has to pay people to be open extra hours they get the same return with more investment. I honestly think that if all retailers could get together and agree, they would stop pushing the envelope and maybe even roll back the hour the sale starts. The problem is though, every year someones opens earlier and everyone else has to follow suit. This is one case where retail giants backed themselves into a corner.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and I think retailers have gone too far encroaching on it.

This.

I like the people who think it's worth it to camp out 2 days ahead on a fucking sidewalk to save $200 on a fucking TV. Let's see $200/48 hrs = $4.17/hr.

most of them leave empty handed. check with your local Best Buy stores, most of them only get a handful of the discounted product, 10-15 units at most.

store i worked at had 3-5 of each item. *

not in MA

I went to Target once for simpsons DVDs that were $5 a season and I didn't wait in line, just went when it opened.
Half of the stock was gone when I got there, and by "there" I mean 15 feet inside the doors.

People go because advertisers tell them they have to go and most people are lemmings and will do what the box tells them to do.

Going for people watching purposes on the other hand, that's something I can get behind.

having worked retail as long as i have black friday sucks ive never really gotten much out of it in all honesty if you are crafty you can find those prices any time of the year.

I work for a newspaper and believe me these lemmings are well in tune with those ads. I get bombarded with people asking where their ads are all year but especially this upcoming week (thank fuck I'm off Thur through Sun). Most don't realize it's zoned by zipcode and who tells us to put them where is purely the advertiser- since they pay for them. Try telling that to a 90 year old woman screaming at you: "Zoned?!! What are you saying zoonnnnneddddddddd..."

I used to love going with family when I was in my teens, but nowadays its not even worth it. I usually only go to get one item anyway, so theres no point for me in going.

Cyber Monday is when I do my shopping. Better deals in my opinion, and I don't have to line up with the insane masses.

Only other time I would consider going to actual stores if its not just a one day thing. I'll go when the crowds die down, and hopefully the stuff I care about thats on sale is still available. Considering going to Gamestop on Sunday for a few sales, but honestly, I don't need anymore games. lol

blasphemy!!

Why not just check out Boxing Day shopping instead. That's where the real bargain are.

I dig Amazon lightning deals

well, Black Friday shopping wasn't as hectic as it had been in the past, causing it to loose much of its charm. fleet farm was pretty crazy though, so that was fun. the only prank i was able to pull off was sporatically dropping lego set boxes on the floor in the middle of the aisles in the toy section, which caused major cart steering obstructions. you get 6 carts packed into an aisle with shit on the floor and its an instant traffic jam.

I went to WAlmart at 7a.m. right after getting out of work and everything seemed to still be there. I got an LG blu ray player for $49 so it was worth it. Only 2 people in line in front of me.

I got a few games at Gamespot and Best buy and then realized that they were available from Origins at half their sale price... Never, ever look at ads for stuff you've bought once you've bought it!

On a different topic, what's with no one carrying Playmobil advent calendars? (or Lego ones except the Star Wars one?)

i scored a lego city advent calendar for my son at my local target for $24. not sure if that was a black friday sale or part of the 4 day sale or whatnot. target seem to have a million point five pieces of paper with sale terminology hanging all over everywhere when something is less than retail...

but i hear you, i had been trying to track one down for awhile, and all the places that had ads for having them were all sold out by the time i made my rounds. except those star wars ones. probably has to do with the fact that the sw ones were like $10 more. not sure why. aside from the santa get-up yoda, nothing in it was beyond spectacular....and i've been really leaning towards the lego city stuff lately anyways.