Black Friday stories

Found this on some random news site I've never heard of:

A shooting took place at a Toys R Us store in Palm Desert, California as the store was packed with shoppers taking advantage of Black Friday deals.

The toy store was quickly blocked off and shoppers flooded out of the Toys R Us as gunfire rang out. Police swarmed the parking lot and a helicopter circled the retail store. Reports of at least two injures have been made.

Police are said to have a juvenile in custody for the shooting but it is not known if that juvenile acted alone

 

Having been out on Black Friday in the past, it's does have a mob feel to it. People are fucking insane. Guns at Toys R Us, people stampeding and taking the term "door buster" literally, traffic jams, fistfights over spots in line...this shit needs to stop.

Why can't people realize that the vast majority of these deals are available online?

 

I went out Black Friday shopping (left home at 4:15 a.m.) with my younger sister and brother, more for the fun and experience than the deals.

We didn't hit any of the high-volume areas until things had settled down a little bit (J.C. Penny at 4:30 a.m., Sears at 5 a.m., Macy's at 7 a.m., Target at 9 a.m.) and never went near the really nuts Best Buy, WalMart or Toys 'R Us. The only place that really felt overcrowded was the Bass Pro Shop we got to around 10:30 a.m. Target had a lot of people but wasn't claustrophobic at all.

It wasn't for the deals, though we got a few and don't have to bother with shipping worries with the fragile stuff. It was more for the once-a-year stupid enjoyment factor. I've got about 65 percent of my Christmas shopping done and picked up a new fake tree for more than half off. That's about all I wanted.

Some people are really insane about it. But it's an enjoyable experience if you treat it as something that's supposed to be fun and out of the ordinary and don't fixate on the $320 plasma television.

 

And available before today. Meijer started the sales two days ago and there were less people there, then there were today. Or at least that was the case on my way to work today.

 

I drove by Best Buy, Target, Circuit City and Wal-Mart near my apartment last night about 1 a.m. after I got off work.

There were about 100-150 people in line outside Best Buy (it was raining pretty good at this point, too).

The line at Target: zero.

The line at Circuit City: zero.

There was one lady in line for Black Friday stuff at Wal-Mart when I got there. When I left, there were about 5-8 people.

Had I had money and the ads were worth a crap, I would have stayed at Circuit City or Target.

 

This is the reason I don't bash most Black Friday shoppers (of which I am not one and never have done it).

As long as folks make it an adventure that is fun, a time to spend with family or friends, and an opportunity to possibly grab some good deals, I don't see much harm in it.

Sad thing is Smash Williams, I don't believe most folks broach the day quite like you do.

 

Went to Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us.

Maybe it's just what my wife and I had planned to buy, but I wasn't blown away by prices for most stuff.

We did buy a dual-screen portable DVD players for the kiddos for $88 (down from $149), Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii for $49.99 (down from $99.99) and a few other things.

Toys R Us was fucking insane. No great prices and a minimum of an hour wait to pay.

At Target, the store opened at 6 a.m. and the line was long. We waited to go in after the line, and some people tried to join in the line. One lady made it to the line before a cop grabbed her arm, literally pulled her out by her arm and said in a loud voice, "End of the line. All of you! End of the line!"

 

Because some of the best ones aren't?
Because they don't want to pay the outrageous shipping costs?
Because they don't want to use their credit cards online?

There are plenty of reasons.

 

Skipped all the door-buster specials and went to the two stores I needed to get stuff at after 1 p.m. Was in and out of each store in under 10 minutes.

Best way to end the door-buster madness -- put all the best deals as "online only" specials with free delivery or in-store pick-up later in the day. Make the in-store doorbusters less attractive, that way you don't get stampedes

 

I went to Best Buy a little earlier because they had Ipod's on sale and got one of the last ones they had. I mistakenly grabbed the pink one and an Asian lady had a look of distress on her face. She told me that she wanted to buy Ipods for her son and daughter. Since there were only two left, I gave her mine and told her to have a nice day. I went to another store and they had a ton of them so all it cost me to make someone happy was the little bit of gas it took to get to the other store.

 

The Enquirer / Michael E. Keating

Ocho Cinco makes his way through the Best Buy store in Florence, Ky. He said was in the store to buy coach Marvin Lewis a gift. Seen with a Rock Band kit, portable stereo and a Cuisinart four-slice toaster, Ocho Cinco said, "I've been trying to call coach, but he doesn't answer." It was 5:25 a.m.