Any Black Friday stories?

[louv68]

Did anyone here go shopping on Black Friday and get what you went for? I stood in line outside Circuit City for over 3.5 hrs and walked away empty handed. Not even a flash drive in sight. As soon as the store opened, people from all over the parking lot bolted for the door. I was caught in the middle of the mob and was slowly pushed and shoved thru the door. I've shopped the day after Thanksgiving for years now and now I'm cured. No more for me, thanks.

[lumis]

About 12 years ago or so I went to Wal-Mart for day after thanksgiving special. They had 19 inch televisions for $99. Back then $99 for a 19 inch color television was a spectacular deal. So my family and I waited outside Wal-Mart for about 30 minutes prior to opening, as soon as the doors came open my father and I rushed towards the electronics department while my mother and sisters went to the kitchenwares department (they had microwaves and other small appliances on special).

Upon arriving to the electronics department my father took one television, I claimed two. While in the process of loading the televisions in to a cart some guy tried saying I could only get one television, to which I told him "I'll get as many as I want". He then proceeded to try and grab the television I had yet to load in to the cart to which I responded with a firm shove that planted him firmly on his keister. While standing above him I told him that if he would like to continue causing me problems that we could easily step outside and settle them quickly. He backed off, we got our 3 cheap televisions and the rest is a happy Black Friday (or "day after thanksgiving special" as we called it) memory.

[Dv8ted2]

I have a horror story from Wal-Mart a couple of years ago. It was so crowded that the store employees were standing on pallets so they would not get run over. The line for the Razor scooter wrapped around the store and I heard the person over the PA system tell people that the police were about to be called. Within five more minutes, the person said there were no more scooters. The line was still wrapped around the store, and I told my wife, let's get out of there before it got ugly.

After that, I decided to never do the black Friday thing again.

[ZAPPER]

I worked all night one Thanksgiving inside of a mall doing odds and ends to finish up a store for the big event. So after being up for well over 24 hours it was time to go home. The parking lot and the travel lanes were so full and disorderly that I couldn't get into the left hand turn lane to get out of the place. I got forced to go straight across the intersection into the only possible worse parking lot, a Toys R Us! It was insane! It was a couple of hours to go maybe a mile from my original parking spot to the interstate highway. Drivers were actually letting their passengers out to walk from the main road to the mall. The mall had barricaded off an entrance from the main road and I watched a guy get out of his car and take the barricade down and drive in that entrance. This only made the traffic worse. Grid lock is to me an organized traffic jamb that will open up as soon as there is room for an outflow. This was chaos lock! People in the far left lane turning right into and across multiple lanes and all sorts of stupid stuff.

I will quit my job before I ever end up working anywhere near a mall on Black Friday again!

[yoda313]

I got my Nintendo WII on black friday

I scoped out my nearest EB GAMES and got there at midnight. The store opened at 7am. SO I waited in my car until 5am when the next person in line showed up. So I only had to be outside for 2 hours.

I got in and out in four minutes once they opened. I love my WII Definetly worth it. And I love the fact I have a GAMECUBE now too The backwards compatibliity is great. I've already bought a few used GC games and plan on more

[zzyzzx]

As soon as the store opened, people from all over the parking lot bolted for the door. I was caught in the middle of the mob and was slowly pushed and shoved thru the door.

Was it like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEPdRPxR_i0

[JimmyJoeBob]

No Black Friday for me. I did find a good buy at Circuit City on Black Friday. A 52" Sony 3LCD HDTV for US $999.00, free shipping, setup. I put it in the cart and purchased it. The next day(Saturday) I had buyers remorse and canceled the order. After thinking about this all day about how this was a good deal I tried to redo the purchase but the price was $1615.00 after Black Friday.....I am still looking for ways to jump off a bridge!!

[ZAPPER]

Psssst, everybody keep the sharp objects away from JimmyJoe

[stiltman]

1st time in 4 years I decided to say screw it and say home.
I did everything online that I really needed.

Bought the 2 1/2 year old an electric golf cart and clubs for $120 marked down from $300

[ViRaL1]

Got to Staples at around 5 here. I was first in line but a few people showed up right after me. By the time they opened at 6 there was a line about 200+ deep. From what I could tell the line stayed pretty orderly and polite. It's a small town so the cops here really don't have anything pressing that would keep them from showing up if things got out of hand. Picked up a $399.99 laptop and some other goodies. I spent just under $1,000 altogether and got pretty much all I wanted. One smart thing they did was passing out vouchers at about 5:30 for all the small quantity items to make sure there was no reason for pushing and shoving once the doors opened. The real convenience was the fact that once I had my voucher for the laptop, I could come back anytime before 10:00 a.m. and pick it up, so I didn't really have to fight the crowd. I came back at around 9, shopped for the other things I wanted and I only had to wait behind 1 person.

Looking at the YouTube video up there makes you wonder why they didn't have more precautions in place to begin with.

[lumis]

Viral1,

If the stores were orderly about it they would lose business. Imagine if they handed out vouchers, the hundreds of people who didn't get vouchers would have no reason to stick around, hence not shop..

The manufacturers love this kind of crazyness, the stores love it, the media loves it, hell we even love it..

[ZAPPER]

lumis, I believe that you have a point there!