Black Friday Campers

[red_5ive]

As usual my work let us out at noon on Wednesday for Thanksgiving weekend, so I decided to stop at Best Buy on the way home and pick up Live Free Or Die Hard on Blu. I saw about 6 people on lawn chairs in front of the store. My first impulse of course was that it's the Black Friday crowd, but then I remembered getting an email that some retail chain was having a special after hours sale that night - I couldn't remember if it was Best Buy or not. So when I got to the counter, I asked the clerk if they were having a special sale that night since there were people camping, and she said that no it's the Black Friday crowd! I dunno, I guess these days I shouldn't be surprised. It's just that I can think of better ways to spend my Thanksgiving... least of all camping in line for 40 hours for prices that will probably be no better than what Amazon or Newegg has on a regular basis.

[Galley]

There were people in tents in front of the Best Buy in Fargo, ND on Wednesday evening.

[pedigree]

only in the states

[flyingdutchman]

It literally makes me sick to see all this. I used to love Christmas shopping, but with all this continued push to grab whatever bargain just to get it, makes gifts to people seem so cheap. My shopping used to involve some planning and thinking about what I wanted to get someone. Nowadays you might as well just give the people the money to get it for themselves. I hate Christmas.

[glenn22]

that is absolutely insane. Are people really THAT hard up to get a deal?

[LynxFX]

I feel sorry for the people in my neck of the woods. I believe it got down into the single digits last night and they were camped out well before I even went over to my parents for turkey dinner. (1pm on thur) I ate, stayed warm, watched movies, slept, woke up around 9am, drove to the same store, walked out with a doorbuster HDTV deal. No frostbite either.

[badboi]

Ikea just opened their first store in the next town from where I live, and 3 days before opening they had idiots camped outside so they can be the first 100 to enter the store so they could get a $99 chair for free. The local news showed the chair on tv, and damn, there was no way I'd even take it if it were free. Looked about as inviting and comfortable as a log with splinters. I'm amazed at what people will do for free stuff.

I did a lot of my after and pre Thanksgiving shopping online. There were some great deals this year too. Picked up two Maxtor 500 gig external hard drives for $79 each and a bunch of blu ray movies. I'm set for a week or so.

[Footloose301]

I went this morning with the GF. She wanted to get me the Western Digital 500GB external HD for $99 which is normally $169 and eBay has it for $133"Buy it Now". So it was worth the 2 hour wait. We got there at 5:00am.

On a side note: There was 3 crates of PS3's(40/60/80GB), and 3 crates of XBOX360's(Premium, Elite, Halo3 Edition). I JUST got back from Best Buy and there is MAYBE (guessing 100 per crate) 60 PS3's sold between the 3 crates. EVERY SINGLE Halo 3 Edition Xbox360 was sold out, majority of the Elites, and maybe 3 or 4 of the Premiums. It wasn't looking good for PS3 at Best Buy. Unless of course they sold out and brought out more crates between this morning and tonight. But, when I was there this morning the Halo3 Edition were selling like hot cakes. People grabbing 2 at a time.

And on a better note: My local Wal-Mart FINALLY set up a Blu-ray section on an end cap. We still don't have a standalone Blu-Ray player in the store though. MOST of the Blu movies were sold out and almost every single HD DVD shelf was full as can be.

So I did my part today too and bought a few Blu-rays

[Banjo]

Hmm... a lot of people are still buying defective consoles? Gee whiz. This is what i don't get... why is this even being tolerated?

The fact that every SINGLE Xbox 360 console sold is defective is a hard one to shake off. Yet people are so easy. I wouldn't want to take my chances and buy a console only to go ka-boom within a year.

[Galley]

Originally Posted by flyingdutchman

It literally makes me sick to see all this. I used to love Christmas shopping, but with all this continued push to grab whatever bargain just to get it, makes gifts to people seem so cheap. My shopping used to involve some planning and thinking about what I wanted to get someone. Nowadays you might as well just give the people the money to get it for themselves. I hate Christmas.

Which is why I choose to keep my Festivus pole up year-round. All holidays suck now!

[Footloose301]

Originally Posted by Banjo

Hmm... a lot of people are still buying defective consoles? Gee whiz. This is what i don't get... why is this even being tolerated?

The fact that every SINGLE Xbox 360 console sold is defective is a hard one to shake off. Yet people are so easy. I wouldn't want to take my chances and buy a console only to go ka-boom within a year.

The consumers don't know they're defective. Every person I tell says that they've never heard anything about them being defective. MS is pulling the wool over the consumer's heads.

[Tulsa]

I'm not sure about the pulling the wool part but certainly the average consumer is not educated in this toy. They have name recognition and that's generally going to spur their sales without the benefit of researching the product.

Not scientific in any nature but I was a CC yesterday waiting for them to bring out the subwoofer I purchased and waiting to be picked up on their shelf was 8 PS3's and only 1 xbox. Does this mean PS3's are out-selling xboxs this season 8:1? No, it could easily mean the xbox buyers were faster drivers but it was interesting to see such a disparagy in the numbers.

[Wheelman1970]

Originally Posted by glenn22

that is absolutely insane. Are people really THAT hard up to get a deal?

I guess most people have more time than money. I live in a city where line-ups for everyday essentials are the norm but I will not line-up for hours or days to buy my wants. Time with my family is much more important.