How Well Did You Fare on "Black Friday"?

Quixote asks: "''Black Friday' is about over now. Though I wasn't among the faithful who queued up to get into the stores, I could see massive traffic jams in the local Best Buy, Target, etc. on my drive in to work. But it looks like the online offerings of some of the retailers are also pretty much slashdotted (I'm downloading a 500KB rebate form from CompUSA rebate center at the blazing speed of 800bytes/sec as I submit this story). So, how many of you avoided the long checkout lines and used the 'net instead? What are your experiences? What 'killer' deals did you get online, that you wouldn't have gotten in the store? And what are your thoughts on this whole phenomenon: why shouldn't the stores just get rid of this 'lets open the store at an unearthly hour' practice, and just move all of the 'Black Friday' sales online?"

I was wondering...

[MacAndrew]

...why the heck they do this, too. Crowds make me itch. But a lot of people *love* it -- I read about people who dropped $1000 or more on Christmas gifts, and I sure many spent more than they intended because they were spend-saving or "spaving" -- and there's probably a race to the bottom among retailers to out-do each other and pack the people in.

I think the kind of shopper who gets an adrenaline rush from this kind of shopping -- and if they do, fine, so long as they don't blow apart their credit rating -- likes to touch the merchandise, and likes the shopping experience. It's entertaining. Hey, I still go to bookstores even though I can get most things cheaper at home. There's the power to browse, and the opportunity to impulse buy; the sharpest discount and greatest convenience aren't the whole thing.

Now, the whole holiday going down the materialism tube, that's a whole 'nuther debate. :)

Busy, busy

[NBrooke271]

I don't know about you guys, but I was at work all day. We made more money at the box office at my science center last Friday than we did all of Feburary. Everyone turned out for a day of family fun and learning after their shopping adventures.

Re:I was wondering...

[handsomepete]

"I read about people who dropped $1000 or more on Christmas gifts"

I had to return something that I purchased a few days earlier on Friday, and I was stuck behind a couple who were purchasing decent matching PCs with 17" flat panel monitors and a laptop. Oh yeah, and a VCR (which oddly seemed the man's primary concern). The total that I saw was somewhere in the area of $6,000.

I'm not sure how I felt after seeing that as I returned some washer hoses to get my 30 bucks back, but I'm sure it wasn't good...

The most interesting thing I saw out of the whole day was a pair of police officers putting big bright orange warnings on cars telling the owners that they were likely candidates to be broken in to. I asked one officer about it and he said, "If we see anything in plain site - electronics, purses, movies or CDs - we put this note on the car to alert them to the fact they could be a target for a car break-in." When I pointed out to him that putting big bright orange notes on windshields might make the cars slightly bigger targets, he scratched his head and just stood there, silent.

The Psychology of Crowding

[Ieshan]

One of the reasons, as proven in social psychology research: crowding acts as an arousing agent. Crowding has been shown to heighten a situational reaction, i.e., if you're going to the store to go buy things, you're more likely to do so if everyone around you is bustling about doing the same thing.

Not only that, but the crowds in the stores make customers fall for their gimmicks (buy one, get one free; buy one, get a free silver platter). They also subject the customer to huge amounts of other kinds of marketing.

Crowds HELP stores, not hurt customers.

shopping online

[zarqman]

"why shouldn't the stores just get rid of this 'lets open the store at an unearthly hour' practice, and just move all of the 'Black Friday' sales online?"

yes, let's move everything online. never mind the fact that on that one friday morning my net connection is actually fast (or something approaching fast anyway) because everyone is at the mall.

in all honesty, i suspect most people take one of two positions on the event: 1) they enjoy going out with the masses. 2) they enjoy making fun of everyone who goes out. i suspect most of the /. crowd falls in the latter.

Re:I was wondering...

[TeeWee]

When I pointed out to him that putting big bright orange notes on windshields might make the cars slightly bigger targets, he scratched his head and just stood there, silent.

Actually, police officers do the same things sometimes where I live. Only, they're a bit smarter about it and leave notes on all cars. Good cars get a note saying "Nothing in sight" and targets get a note saying "Next time, you may just want to cover up that cellphone of yours!"

Re:racist!

[Anonymous Coward]

I know the parent is a troll, but it's a common misconception that the 'Black' in 'Black Friday' is intended to imply something bad and foreboding. In fact, the 'Black' in 'Black Friday' refers to the day that most retailers go "in the black" - in other words, that's the day the company starts making money.