Every year as the temperatures start to dip and a frosty, holiday tang creeps into the air, my loving family gathers around the dinner table to begin our heart-warming, age-old tradition: planning for the after-Thanksgiving sales.
This is not something done lightly. My wife Teresa is an experienced, battle-hardened shopper, veteran of a thousand garage sales, merciless wielder of coupons and walking encyclopedia of comparison prices. No sales escape her eye, no markdowns evade her grasp. And this, this is her finest hour.
Every Thanksgiving, as we sit around the table and groan in a celebratory manner, Teresa and her brother Rodger spread out the ads and begin making their plans.
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Personally, I hate shopping and never venture out the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Except I did one year. My sister was going to be out of town, and she begged and pleaded with me to go out to pick up one certain item on major sale that day. So there I was at 5 AM in a Wal-Mart, along with a jillion other shoppers, holding a cart in front of a huge stack of TVs. Talking with other shoppers. Waiting for the overhead speakers to say "go" to signal that the sale price was now in effect in this 24-hour open store.
I got it and got out -- but that was my extent of experiencing Black Friday, and I will probably never do it again.
Farmgirl
(by the way -- for those who don't know -- it is called 'Black Friday' because it is supposed to put retailers "back in the black" financially)
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posted
With all the complaints I may have about my current job, this time of year reminds me why I'm so glad to be out of retail sales. For 14 years before coming here I never missed working on Black Friday. Shudder.
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posted
I, OTOH, generally enjoy shopping -- EXCEPT the month leading up to Xmas. For that month, I actively avoid stores. (I do lots of online sales-shopping, though. )
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I worked as an overnight cashier at a Super Wal-Mart for about 9 months - including Black Friday. The shoppers put the stuff in their carts (if it was out on the floor) and waited until the 5 a.m. deadline to buy their stuff. We had people waiting from about 2 a.m. with cartloads.
It was better than the previous year, according to another cashier. She had a computer in her cart and someone tried to take her entire cart with her two-week-old son in the cart!
posted
I originally had more stuff about online Friday shopping -- specifically about how the Web sites should make it closer to the live experience, with mp3s of screaming crowds, rapidly dropping inventory counts, and a "Buy Now!" button that darts around the screen, avoiding your mouse click -- but had to trim for length.
For those interested, or for those needing something really good for penance, I just took advantage of my own webmasterness and built myself an index for all of my columns: http://www.news-journalonline.com/column/247, broken up by topic . The first step on my long, long trip towards syndication...
[ November 24, 2004, 05:41 PM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
My first black Friday was two years ago, when my father convinced me to go.
With an infant in a stroller.
And he forgot to take his arthritis medicine.
Needless to say it was really lame.
Now he's telling me he wants to take me shopping the day after Christmas.
"We'll leave the kids with Jes!" he swears.
Should I attempt it? The catch is that my Christmas present will be the clothes I purchase that day. No shopping, no present. Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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