Black Friday Part V: My Personal 2005 Experience



With all of my tips, rants, and raves of black friday spaning a multitide of articles (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and this one), I thought that I should write about my black Friday experience this 2005 Thanksgiving holiday.
Paper Ads
You could say that it started Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, when I started to seriously pour though the ads (the leaked advertisements on Black Friday 2005 mind you). Man! It was a struggle to get though them! Let me tell you, it is much easier to get through the Thanksgiving ads on paper then on the computer. Buy a newspaper everyday on Thanksgiving week to make sure you get every advertisement. Trust me, it will be worth it.
Make Time
The next day, Thanksgiving, I was too preoccupied with cooking our vegetarian thanksgiving meal to give the advertisements quality time. Finally, when I did find time to give the ads a look, I was overwhelmed. I wished that I looked at these earlier…. like a couple of days earlier. What I learned? Make time.
Nothing
To my dismay, there seemed to be nothing that I wanted to buy on Black Friday. Sure, I wanted a laptop but could I pay for it? There was nothing for me to be that was rational, affordable, and needed. It was sad, really. I love waiting outside of the stores at 3am. This time, there was nothing to wait for.
My dad, on the other hand, was looking for a laptop. From this article, I explained our situation about the notebook computers in Wal-Mart. So, my dad decided to forgo the Wal-Mart deal and tried to get the laptop from Best Buy. He begged me to help him. He wanted me to wait in Wal-Mart while he waited in Best Buy. If one couldn’t get the laptop, then the other would secure it at the other store. I told my dad that though I liked waiting outside stores for a really great deal, I didn’t want to go since there was no incentive for me. There was nothing that I would get out of that wait. I know it sounds selfish but waiting in line needs to have some “light at the end of the tunnel.”
My dad’s experience was really sad. He went to Best Buy at 1am to find himself as the 80th customer in line. The store opened at 5am and there were already 80 customers at 1am! He waited for a couple of hours until they started to pass out the vouchers for popular deals. Some stores use these pieces of paper to guarantee that you will be about to buy the particular item and to discourage anarchy (like the disorder in Wal-Mart). This Best Buy only had 20 laptops in stock, so they could not give him a voucher. So, he had to go home.
My sister looked though the black Friday ads and wanted to go to Radio Shack for their $10 Bluetooth Cell Phone Headset. So, she woke me up at 6am for the black Friday sales. I said, “Where are we going?” I, personally, had nowhere to go for my gain. I could have either slept some more or tagged along. I chose the latter. As I write this, I’m thinking how glad I am that I went.
Radio Shack opened at 6am and we got there at 6:30am. Unfortunately, my sister’s headset was already sold out! So, we left. She asked me if I had anywhere that I wanted to go. Then, I remember the Old Navy advertisement. I was looking for some Performance Fleece and nice shirts. They were all on sale for $10. I remembered that Old Navy opened on Black Friday at 7am. So, we were still early. But when we got there, I was surprised to see a huge line in front. Was the deal that popular?
Something
Finally, they opened up Old Navy. Everyone rushed in like cattle. Some people cut in line. That really annoyed me. As soon as we stepped inside, employees gave us breakfast bars, candy canes, and a raffle lottery-type scratch-and-win slip. Both my sister and me got a $10 off $50 prize. It was not that exciting. We spent about one hour trying on clothes for me. It takes me a long time to decide to buy something. In the end, I got three articles of clothing and I saved about $30. Finally, when I made my decision, I got in line. This is where I learned another valuable lesson. Evaluate each line. We waited for 2 hours! I later found out that I was in the slow line! Apparently, the second line was not well seen. What’s more, my line had 2 cashiers. The other line had 5! It was ridiculous!
Closing Remarks
When we finally checked out, we decided to go home. We were already tired. I’m a little disappointed with this Black Friday. I had no really really awesome deal to wait at 3am line for 2 hours. I usually get something-electronic Black Friday. This time, I did not. But I’m glad that I was able to add some clothes to my winter wardrobe!
update
Even though I didn’t get anything electronic, there’s still Cyber Monday!
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Posted on Monday, November 28th, 2005
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