Black Friday  

Posted by Roland in

Warning: The name of my blog is Roland's Ramblings. So there.

Being the stupid person that I am, I woke up at 6:30am (mostly due to attic noises) and went early bird shopping today, on Black Friday. In case you didn't know, my understanding is that it's called that because that's when retailers finally see some profits, thereby going from the red (ink) to the black (ink). Kinda dumb if you ask me. I'm not sure how 1 month of holiday shopping can make up for 11 months of losses. Of course, I could never figure out how a store could sell something for a buck, unless they sold a LOT of them. Figure the mark up is 100% so profit is 50 cents. Then the company's rent is tens of thousands of dollars, payroll is hundreds of thousands of dollars, utility bills, insurance, advertising and marketing.. I just can't see how anyone stays in business. Does the dollar store really sell millions of units a month? I don't get it. I'm not sure I wanna get it. My mom always wanted me to take a few business and finance classes. Bleh I say. But I digress...

I went to Best Buy. I noticed 2 things. A line just to get into the store, and lots of lots of litter. Why can't people just carry the donut bag and coffee container they've already been carrying since 4am when their crazy asses got in line and put them in the trash cans? Litter was all over the parking lot (since the line extended well beyond the sidewalk and arond the building's corner). People are lazy, careless, and fairly self-absorbed. They don't care that the 18 year old kid has to come out 3 hours later with a snow shovel to scrape up the car-tire-ran-over litter. Perhaps Best Buy, knowing litter happens because, well, I assume they had this kinda thing happen last year, should put out several extra trash receptacles. Of course this would not eliminate the litter entirely, some people aren't just lazy, they're evil... but I'm pretty sure the trash in the parking lot would be greatly reduced.

Anyway, I eventually made it inside. I figured things would get beter once I got inside since they were obviously limiting the number of people inside due to some fire code or something. Errrrrr. Wrong Answer. Standing room only. God forbid if you had a cart. No aisle was safe, no corner unoccupied. Lines formed per department, not just at the front registers. Wanna LOOK at a camera?
BestBuy: "Wait in line."
Me: "But I'm not buying, I just wanna look."
Bestbuy: "Wait in line."

So I have to wait in a REALLY LONG line to just LOOK at stuff? Ouch. The Television department had 2 aisles of people waiting. Camera's had about 40' worth. Car accessories had 3 aisles full. Computers had 5 ailses worth of lines, though since I didn't get into the store until about 730am only 2 or so of those 5 ailses were full. Naturally, any good deals they may have had were gone. I didn't really wanna wait 2 hours in line to buy a bargain $2.99 dvd, so I left the store empty handed.

I walked across the parking lot to Compusa. No waiting. Not even a lot of people. Mysterious. Best Buy probably has better advertising. I dunno. I didn't see anything at CompUSA stand out either so I once again, left empty handed.

Driving wasn't SOOO bad, but keep in mind that I'm in New Hampshire, and I'm not at a big mall. It's a 6 lane road with fairly distributed shopping on both sides. Anyway I drove down a few blocks and happened to drive into a Staples lot. About 10 people per register but the store itself wasn't as full as I expected. Most of the bargain tables were picked clean though. I found one though that still had a few things in stock. Picked up a Maxtor 200GB hard drive for 20 bucks (after 50 instant savings and 50 easy rebate) and a 13 dollar (after 17.00 instant rebate and 6.00 easy rebate) 1GB Memory stick Pro Duo which came with a free Duo Adapter sleve. The Pro Duo fits in my PSP, and then I can put the memory stick into the adaptor sleve and put it in my digital camera. Cool Beans (I've been wanting one of these). The purchase line took FOREVER though. At least 15 or 20 minutes.

I also noticed a lot of people on their cell phones coordinating with their family or friends who were also shopping, either in the same store, comparing prices somewhere else, or were apparently online and giving advice on how good that bargain product really is.

Feeling a little sick in my stomach from getting up early and dealing with Best Buy, I went home content in the knowledge that my effort wasn't wasted. I was happy with what I got and my checks won't bounce. Now that's financing 101.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 at Friday, November 24, 2006 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

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