General

I'm all for the "Black November" where sales are constantly going all month long. The whole door buster insanity where people sacrifice sleep, quality time with family, and possibly risk injury or worse was getting out of hand. I get that we love to save money and some of us feel like we've unlocked an achievement when we get some crazy deal, but it's just not worth it to save a few bucks.

I feel like all the good sales now are right before Black Friday. I racked up on stuff the last couple of weeks.

Master_Z wrote:

Yeah I've got some good deals already and am looking forward to the small business sales locally starting Saturday.

I think its a good thing that the deals are mostly online now. Who wants to go shopping in person for crap anymore lol

Completely agree. All my buying has been online.

Yeah. I hardly ever go in person. Doesn't seem worth it. To me, the deals out there aren't so amazing that they're worth weaving through crowds of people that are swarming.

If a store said "This Black Friday, in store only: Mario Wonder $5," then I'd be tempted.

Black Friday use to be something that brought families to go out shopping together. It use to be a ritual and routine for family to enjoy each others company but the internet and hardly any physical ads have ruined that. The old days with a newspaper and all it's ads made going out for the hunt kinda fun. Then people kept trying to hoard stuff just to resell on Ebay. For me you got to see the worst in human nature as people would trample people to get a deal on a good TV. I loved when Wal-Mart and other stores would have microwaves and so much more stacked to the ceiling and little room in the aisles but once again the internet has killed that. I really miss going out with my Mom and hitting up about 20 stores or more looking for great deals on Black Friday. It was just annoying yet I would love to do this today with my Mom (RIP) and go out to IHOP afterwards.

I'm sure others notice just shopping in general has changed so much as stores like Walmart have put an end to competition. They have put so many out of business so they no longer match prices and allows them to keep hiking prices. I still prefer shopping in person and loved getting the newspaper to hunt for the deals. I just miss all of the thrill of the hunt that can only be appreciated at garage sales and thrift stores/resale shops now. I really loved looking through all the Black Friday ads (physical) but those days seem to be gone and now its showing. Covid seems to have been the nail in the coffin for Black Friday that changed everything. Well good luck and have a Happy Thanksgiving. Time to go Back to the Future.

Last year, I went out to buy a 'Black Friday' newspaper to get all the paper ads... First off, the newspaper was like $9 which is obscene. Second, there were like 6 paper ads and half of them were for stores either we never shop at or don't have one even remotely close to us.. Third, many of the 'Black Friday' deals were for stuff that we either already had or had no interest in buying in the first place.. Black Friday is now Black November...

Personally once I got older it started to suck sales wise. I had more income and less time to enjoy things. I usually never wait for a item to go on sale now and if I want it I buy it.

I've bought probably a dozen things this year. There aren't home runs anymore, but I got a lot of little things at good prices. Was hoping for a standout gaming PC deal, but that might have to wait another year.

Well all of us who bought the newest Zelda for Switch got screwed over when you see how much that game has been discounted. Especially because I still haven't played mine. $30 really hurts so checking prices can really make you sick. If I didn't constantly worry about things going out of stock with the actual physical games I would have waited on a lot of things. Something we never had to worry about years ago. I really hate the digital age because you just never know anymore.

Originally Black Friday was the day when stores offered "loss leaders" - a limited supply of items they took a loss on just to get you in their store first with the hopes that you would buy many other items as well. e.g. You were already in Wal-mart to buy the ultra cheap TV, and by now all of the loss leaders at Sears and K-mart were likely gone, so you might as well buy the other items on your list to save yourself some time. Most prices on that day, and that day only, were the lowest prices that the store would be offered that holiday season.

After a few years of people complaining that it wasn't fair to offer only 10 of each loss leader per store, making it nearly impossible to get the items in the few hours they were offered, and making you stand over an hour in line to make your purchase, retailers were induced to change their strategy. The price drops weren't as deep, but everyone got the lowest price offered. When internet shopping became available, the whole Sale structure changed and every holiday price offering - regardless of the day or date - became a "Black Friday" sale. Black Friday doesn't even mean that it will be the lowest price they will offer this holiday season.

Only once did I ever get up Friday morning to get to a store before it opened. My brother wanted to get one of the limited number of loss leader hard drives at Best Buy. To avoid the crush at the door that year, Best Buy went down the line of people and gave them vouchers for the loss leader items. We weren't early enough, but someone who was looked at my brother and gave him the one they had claimed.

I still remember in like 1998 COMP USA had some great deals during in early summer on some computers. I went at 8 p.m. and was already like 15 people deep and they gave out numbers for each of like 15 items. We all started polling one another about who wanted what and the line started to thin because most of us all wanted the same stuff. Resellers were making it bad back then. I had waited about 2 hours and said the HELL with it because I probably wasn't going to get the computer I went for. I went out to eat later that night and came back around midnight and saw several hundred now waiting only to be disappointed. BLACK FRIDAY was different because people didn't care and it was usually pretty cold in November in Illinois so the rude people and butt-holes were in abundance. Those people had long lists and would trample you. When I saw them roll past some 75 year old women and toss them aside and trampled them. I enjoyed the whole BLACK FRIDAY sales but with resellers and people so stressed out and opening at 3 a.m. all the rules changed.

Going to Walmart was great to get a GameCube with the free Zelda game for $50 in about 2003/04 but when they had about 500 systems it really made me wonder about how people and the world had changed. I still prefer the actual sales in person but you had to be prepared for the worst people you would encounter. These people were playing for keeps and if you dropped a penny about 100 people jump on you for it.

I worked at target back in the early 00's so I got to "enjoy" black Friday from the other perspective.

In those days Target was closed on Thanksgiving, so Wednesday night is a late night as all the signage and Black Friday sale items need to be brought out and set up in addition to the standard cleanup and zoning (bringing items forward on the shelves and making sure they are in the right spots with the right price tags). Get home around 3 or 4 AM Thanksgiving morning.

Try to enjoy Thanksgiving, but in the back of your mind you know what's coming the next day. Some family members make Black Friday plans, but you won't be joining them because no one is off on Black Friday. If you call out sick you'd better have a doctor's note.

Get to the store at 5 AM, an hour before it opens (which is already earlier than the usual opening time) and the line is who knows how many people deep. Store manager gathers everyone and gives the pep talk which feels like the "Some of you may not survive" scenes from a war movie.

Walk the floor 15 minutes before opening to make sure I know where all the hot items are, then the two minute warning comes over the PA. I return to my department and get ready.

At 6, a hushed silence falls over the store for a long moment. Then the rumbling begins as hundreds of people begin running to grab the one most important deal they waited for. The volume increases as those who grabbed carts join in, andd you can begin to hear a mix of chatter, laughter, and shouting. Then you see the flood of people and step into an aisle with nothing particularly important on sale. Despite that, a batty old lady pushes her cart past you as she snaps "Get out of my way!"

Any cart left unattended for more than 10 seconds is emptied by another customer and taken, whatever was in it just left on a nearby shelf or the floor.

People just grab things out of other people's carts when they aren't looking and put them in their own. At this point there is no laughter left in the store. There is a little bit of chatter but mostly shouting.

Security has to escort a couple people out of the store after a fistfight broke out over one of these cart swiping moments.

This is the Christmas spirit. HO HO HO.

Starting at 5am my shift ended at 2pm so I have plenty of time to do some shopping of my own. But I am broken and exhausted and of the opinion that no deal is worth what I just went through. So I decide I won't be a part of putting anyone else through it. We bury our dead behind the stockroom and I go home a humbler man.

ManiacMadman wrote:
Was 500 consoles alot or too few?

Depends on your perspective of 500 systems. No one was rushing for those but having seen people get trampled you are just left wondering why. I remember the 80's and going with my Mom for a couple years looking for a Cabbage Patch doll for my teenage sister who wanted one. I remember the hordes of people that were trampling and fighting for these things but didn't learn until later that people were reselling them in the newspaper back then. I saw the picture in the paper from a store I was at back then and as a little kid I was amazed. I'm surprised (or they maybe didn't report) that I and a few other kids were never abducted during this mayhem. There were a lot of shady people so I guess the pedophiles just wanted the dolls more. I was a pretty smart kid and knew better but if people saw this now and leaving kids unattended the police would probably be called. I do remember the weirdos going around trying to pick up kids with the promise of candy or a puppy and also remember the cops coming around asking us about it. As a kid back then we were pretty much left to fend for ourselves so seeing the way people act now has never surprised me at all. Just makes me wonder about what happened to our world as the people who acted like this are self proclaimed God loving people and church goers. Black Friday is when God stays home and sleeps in it seems maybe a little too much turkey and football.

I've found lately most deals are still available late morning, so I avoid the initial surge and just go later in the day if I can't get it online.

I have good memories of black friday, a friends mom would camp out and buy crappy laptops every year and take me and some of our friends with them, we would stay up all night skateboarding and getting into shenanigans in the mall parking lot. Don't think I've ever bought anything though it doesn't seem like the deals were ever very good just lots of people were not internet savvy back then.

But related have you guys seen good deals on an Xbox and a tv?

lightslime wrote:
Seems like $450+Diablo 4+$75 Gift Card is the best series X offer at Target. Unsure what TV you want.

I have a NIB Series S for sale for $205 shipped if your interested.

Honestly, I hated black friday somewhat growing up. The prices weren't to great and when I was young I didn't really save that much money for it. The sales across the year were superior many of the times. Waiting in line in the cold was a terrible experience and I found buying things when you want them to be better. I rather spend a day with friends and family after thanksgiving then shopping. I believe the key driver to the death of black friday is the rise of online shopping. Decreased number of people coming in for doorbusters and the marketing hype is enough to keep it alive.

Good to see the trolls never stop even here. Black Friday in the 80's and 90's was more about the stores getting the hot toys and video games that day. Stores use to have sales but they didn't open until 8 or 9 a.m. and the best deals for great savings were on clothes. The games and toys were just all in stock that day as they got them on the Wednesday before. This was your best opportunity to get the hottest stuff (Heman, Transformers, GI Joe, and etc) as well as them releasing new video games that day. If you didn't go out that day you or your kids probably wouldn't get what they wanted for Christmas. Moms, Grandmas, and others all spending the day searching and hoping for even more deliveries. Internet changed it and the resellers ruined it. Lists were !this mandatory and you were exhausted went home and ate left over turkey.The next big day was the day after Christmas for returns and hoping to get the one or two gifts you didn't get. Lines and lines for returns out the door at Toys R Us. I'd love to go back to pre-internet days and actually enjoy shopping and looking at the real physical items not some lame websites description.

Just had a great memory pop into my head about my Mom. As she was looking for the Cabbage Patch Kid doll my Mom gave it to my neighbor instead of my sister. My Mom knew that my neighbors little girl needed and wanted that toy even more than my sister but my Mom hit the pavement again and thankfully found another for my sister. That love will never be found on the internet because you knew you went to great lengths to make your kid happy. Hours and hours to make sure someone other than you had a great Christmas. Love you Mom (RIP) she really was the best.

ManiacMadman wrote:

That love is all over the internet. It's always awesome to see complete strangers send to someone's GoFundMe page after an accident or tragedy.

Sure maybe it's not exactly the same as spending hours of your free time searching, but sending money means you spent hours of your working time and all you have to show for it is that feeling of having helped.

The joy of actually going out to personally shop for a gift was very rewarding. Its a feeling that is very similar when you search garage sales treasure hunting. You find a game for a a dollar that is worth a couple hundred dollars that had been wanting for a long time but couldn't afford for that for one game. And your first thought wasn't about what it was worth but just how incredible your luck was. Then you realize you just spent two dollars on Lotto tickets and your luck was stone cold. Black Friday could feel like that in the past physically shopping.

Nothing can give that joy and that was what my Mom and others gave themselves for Christmas every year. You cannot find that on the internet. Once again I wish it was because that would mean everyone on this site now could probably afford their most wanted physical items. The digital world will never give you that and nothing can replace it. For those who never got to experience all the grief and then the love joy will have missed a lot. Disappointments happens but seeing the joy your give gave someone else is priceless.

ManiacMadman wrote:

My Mom was also in that era for my sister. But she was VERY big on being considerate to others and expected others to do the same. She saw one on a shelf and was stunned and hesitated for a second. A quicker woman stepped in front of her (my Mom wasn't even able to reach out and grab the doll) and took it for herself.

In my Mom's eyes especially in the early 80s, it was no different than if that woman suckerpunched her and then stuck a gun in her mouth while taking the doll. She described it like she had been tortured. :D :D

I remember listening to parents back then talking about buying a Cabbage Patch Doll for like $300 or more for a $20 doll from the newspaper. Making money is nice but that was ridiculous. Anyone who watched one of the Christmas episodes of This Office saw the joy Dwight took in punishing parents by buying the hottest toy of the season. Sadly back in the days of yore (LOL) stores didn't stop their own employees from buying out whole shipments of certain toys. The worst that happened to them was they had to return them or pay a few bucks interest at Christmas if they chose a toy that didn't sell. When I was buying Christmas gifts I would always ask my family what they really wanted and I tried my best to achieve that goal. We all know the joy you can give someone for the holidays once again priceless. I missed out on so much back then and I was looking for mostly toys and video games. It was a treasure hunt and now I hit garage sales, resale stores, thrift stores and pawn shops hoping for some of that magic. If you come up empty you at least know you tried. Most of the stuff I look for now is just something to put into my little collection. Almost always buy physical but I have found some DVDs that still had the digital so I've used a couple myself but given away some for free too.

ManiacMadman wrote:
I think there are definitely people out there, even strangers, who will go out of their way for others. I know someone who seriously went all out for a secret santa who he didn't know at all. For a stranger on the internet. He bought for him all sorts of things, and not cheap either. Complete stranger. He just wanted to make him happy during the holidays.

And there are people here who will go out of their way for other members of the site.

The love isn't dead.

Yes, I'm not denying that there are those out there who will be stingy and grab everything off the shelf at the store, but not everyone is like that.

I'm of the opinion that "the perfect gift" is something that you can't be told because the receiver doesn't even know about it (or potentially even consider it as an option if they do know) but you know them so well you just know they will love it.

And then when they open it, they find joy in the fact that the gift exists, and that it is now theirs to treasure.

I remember reading a story (maybe even here) about someone who played Mortal Kombat with their brother all the time as a kid, and for some reason years later when they were both successful adults he got it into his head to give his brother an Arcade MK machine for Christmas. Brother never asked for it, probably never even considered it. It involved a lot of plotting and planning but he pulled it off and it was one of those magical moments.

And then the giver got a wallet as his present which was a hilarious ending that made the story all the more memorable.

What's the difference between a series S and X?

KCPenguins wrote:
X has a disc drive and better storage and specs. Series S is weaker so less frames worse resolution but works with all the games X does.

ued222 wrote:


S and X are current gen, or is one like a gen 1.5?

KCPenguins wrote:

Both are current gen. S runs at 1440p, X at 4K. Just depends on your budget and if you need a physical disc drive, really.

I remember working a couple of Black Fridays at my local Toys'R'Us.

I am glad I don't do retail work anymore.

I have nothing but hatred for Black Friday shopping as a kid and teen. My dad thought it was great bonding time for him and me just because we were together but miserable. He’d drag me out of my nice warm bed on Friday morning at like 4:00AM, force feed me a pop tart, be pissed at me for having an attitude for being woke up on my day off of school, then we’d drive all the way to Charlotte, NC’s Concord Mills mall to stand in line in the cold for 45 minutes to an hour to go to Bass Pro Shops to get jeans and whatever other crap he wanted to fight the other red necks for. My job was to “guard the cart and don’t let anyone make you move from this spot” which for a quiet introverted 12-15 year old was asking a whole hell of a lot. Of course someone who spy me out of the corner of their eye and see I had stuff in my cart they wanted or yell at me that they needed by so I’d move out of the way and my dad would lose his crap on me for moving. Once he finally had his fill of shopping it wouldn’t be over, we’d have to stand in the check out line for 45 minutes.

On the drive home I’d try to sleep but be interrupted by my dad trying to strike up a conversation about the great deals we got and how we should do it again next year.

Thank Christ that Amazon and Walmart have basically killed Black Friday as we know it.

This is year's different for sure. I don't remember it last year or the year before but I noticed "Black Friday Sales" have started at least a week before.

I never knew about Black Friday sales until I worked at Walmart in my early-mid 20's. I think it had to do with growing up we didn't have much money and definitely not much money for Black Friday sales unless my parents or other family members did anything that I'm not aware of.

I didn't really see nor still see anything worth getting at the prices advertised as I don't think they're much of a deal.

Black Friday wasn’t a thing growing up for me, thankfully. My family didn’t have a whole hell of a lot growing up, with my mom being a single mother and all. I seem to think my aunt did some Black Friday stuff, but I don’t really remember.

As I got older, I don’t want to go to the stores most of the year and there’s no way I’m going when everyone else is going to be there. No deal is worth that crap. I’ll pay more to not deal with it.

nonamesleft wrote:

I know he would never ever say anything about this but John saved my little girl's Christmas many years back.

She wanted a certain doll called a La-La-Loopsey (I think that is how it was spelled). They are these plastic dolls with button eyes. My daughter really wanted one with a certain type of hair and I couldn't find it anywhere. I posted my plea and John found one in his area, shipped it to me and wouldn't take more than cost for it.

I never forget favors like that and I still hope to return the favor to him someday.

That's pretty cool.

So we rolled into Walmart around 9. Parking lot looked like a normal Sat morning. Everything I recalled from the ad was still there in abundance. We grabbed the few items we were there for, picked up the "early access" stuff we ordered for in store pick-up, walked up to an empty check our and left. Only complaint was they didn't have the prices of games and some other items marked. It was less of a headache than your average Saturday morning tbh with no wait at check-out.

The regional "farm supply" store on the other hand, turned around and walked out after seeing the check-out line. Flashbacks to 2010 BF lines in the metro.

I went to Walmart this morning and everyone was very polite and very very CALM!!! I was in there on Tuesday and that was not the case at all. I was shocked they didn't have any deals at all in store on any DVDs so it was pretty worthless being there. I've never seen a Walmart like this before. I guess either people are changing or they know Santa is watching so they're on their best behavior.

Did anyone else find it weird that many stores didn't even have a traditional ad for Black Friday? I felt like that was a big reason why people didn't go out. I used to look forward to the Walmart ad, and this year's was just weird -- it was more like a "deals all month" type of ad with few to no doorbusters for Black Friday. There just wasn't anything to get me out of bed and shopping at 5AM like there used to be.

Also, I don't know if the TikTok videos are real, but people were sliding out the price tags on the items and it showed the everyday price the same as the Black Friday price. That's really the nail in the coffin.

Master_Z wrote:
Been like that several years in a row. Check price trackers websites for more information. It has always been marketing hype.

The past two years now I've made a pilgrimage to head out to the Castleton shopping centers to check the traffic (on foot). Best Buy had a mild uptick this year versus last but the mall is still pretty much just half full by 8-9am, mostly workers and rideshares waiting for fares. The streets are actually super dead compared to a normal Friday, it's eerie. It's nature healing honestly, the old ways were not good, but yeah the prices are basically "You've Seen This Sale Four Times Already This Year", stuff that used to be marked down to $15-20 are now firmly at $30. About the only real deals to be had are like, 4K televisions if you haven't upgraded by 2023, in 2019 I paid $530 for a television that's essentially now on sale for around ...$250 max. There's close calls at $150 for similar stuff. So now the big get is OLED. Give it another five years and it'll probably be standard.

But yeah, even five years ago Black Friday was bangin' on 82nd/86th, end to end. Now, almost nobody.

Master_Z wrote:

Amazon and online places are guilty of that too.

A couple weeks before black Friday they have the price at, say $250, then jack it up to $350 so they can put an amazing deal of $100 off for black Friday and hope no one notices.

There are plenty of apps and sites that track prices so you can confirm if a deal is really a deal or if it's ✌ deal ✌.

Best thing to do is have the things you want on a list and when they reach a price you like, you buy it. Works all year round too, not just black Friday

Walmart does that all the time, saying they are rolling back prices only to find it's the normal price. I've even seen it on clearance stickers. "Was 4.97, Now 4.97"

Added nsfw tags for language. I still use the swear filter ya know

benstylus wrote:

Oops, sorry. Slipped my mind.