My Black Friday Experience

[Yeha-Noha]

On Black Friday morning, I got up early and shot over to the nearest Ultimate Electronics store. While waiting in line for it to open, a sales person came out and passed out vouchers for the S350. There were several hundred people lined up. I was in the middle. The vouchers had run out before they got to me. He had vouchers for other electronics. I asked if I could have one for the Panasonic DMP BD 35. The said they don't have vouchers for those. He had mostly ones for 1080p HDTVs going for $500 to $600! I said why the vouchers? He said to prevent a stampede and people getting injured or killed from getting trampled on.

I went in the story anyway to see if any Panny 35s for $230 were left. They had stacks and stacks of Panny 35s! Nobody was buying one. I didn't see any one in that store waiting in the horrendously long line carrying one or walking around with one. Everyone had a S350! As I started pulling one off the stack, this guy comes up to me carrying an S350. He said, would you like to have the S350 instead? He said his wife got there before him and so they already have one. I said thank you, yes I would indeed rather have the S350!

I push the Panny 35 back on the stack grabbed the S350, went over to the checkout line, and 45 minutes later it was mine.

They also had PS3 80 GB players for $399 and they had stacks and stacks of Samsung 1500s going for $177. I only saw a couple of people walking around with the Samsung or waiting in line with one. I didn't see a single person buying the PS3 for $399 because it was a rip off.

Sony made a big killing off the S350 in that Ultimate Electronics store. I can imagine that a similar event occurred across the country in all kinds of stores on that morning. I think the predictions were right. Blu-ray players, especially the S350 were sought after and bought in phenomenally large numbers. Blu-ray is indeed, from what I saw on Black Friday, what people want and seek to buy. Once the price comes down to the magic $200 range, people will buy in a frenzy. In the stores I saw DVD players with up conversion to 1080p going for $25 some even for $15. I didn't see anyone buying DVD. Perhaps it is the beginning of the end for DVD.