Soon To Be Classics

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Black Friday

My work gave us Friday off and after going through the ads on Thursday night, I decided to give "Black Friday" a go. Black Friday is, of course, the busiest shopping day of the year. Oh so the retailers want you to believe so you will come out and spend money on things you don't really need.

However, there were several things I was planning on buying prior to this day and every single one appeared in an ad for one store or another. They were:

A recumbant exercise bike
The second and third Harry Potter films on DVD
A wireless controller (or two) for my Xbox after my wired versions were trashed by the kids

So seeing these, I set out about 6:30am.

My first stop was a pretty scary looking sporting goods store. There was hardly anyone inside so I roamed around looking for the $170 bike from the ad. I found a floor model that was $139 and finally a boxed version of the one I wanted. A manager walked over and I asked him what the difference was. (Note: The picture on the boxed version was cleary different than the display model but he insisted that they were the same.) He then said, "well, of course I'll give you the boxed version for $139." Being an honest guy, I pointed out the difference in the picture and the floor model but he insisted, and proceeded to walk me to the register. Someone wanted to make a sale, I guess. So, I got a $249 recumbant bike for $139. We're off to a good start.

I get to Best Buy at Southcenter at about 7:30am. I find a parking space quick and get into the queue to get inside. After chatting with the folks in line about what a "loss leader" is, I get in and head straight to the video games. To my surprise, the $25 wireless controllers that were $9.99 were sitting in a neat pile. I pick up two and 2 hours later (it was a LONG line) and I'm out the door.

My last stop was Fred Meyer, kind of like a Super Wal-Mart only with a little more class. (IE: Parents not beating their children openly.) They had the Harry Potter films (and the LOTR trilogy) on sales for $5 each. There's NO WAY they still have these as it's almost 10am. Again, to my surprise, they are plentiful. I snatch them up and I'm out the door.

All in all, I'm mighty proud of my luck. Now, I wasn't going for the $100 computers or the $300 laptops (which one store was literally hurling the laptops out into the crowd!) so I stacked the deck in my favor.

Hope you all faired as well!

1 Comments:

  • Seasons of 24 for $20. Julie thinks they should have been for $24 just on principal but I was fine with $20. My first Black Friday shopping after seven of them working, I liked shopping better.

    By Blogger TMac, at 4:42 PM  

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