Worst Black Friday Ever Coming this Week?

Every year my wife ventures out the day after Thanksgiving...on Black Friday...and every time I hear stories of people stealing things out of other's shopping carts. I've seen video of people being trampled.

I have a feeling it's going to be much worse this year. People are hurting...and those who are still working are trying to save every penny they can. Will people trample over one another...fight each other....just to save a few pennies? There are some unbelievable deals going on...and many of those deals are limited by either time or quantity.

I, for one, will definitely not be venturing out into the madness...my wife will be once again though.

Are you going to go out into the craziness and are you worried of how much of a "scrooge" people will be?

We'll see what happens...what do you think?

I think it will be as bad as in the past.
It's a tradition. Even with the economy people are people. I think many will be surprised to see strong sales. Over the past year and a half Americans have on a whole have been paying down their personal debt. It may be time for some to loosen their purse strings.

I'll do as I've always done.

Avoid China-Mart ooops
I mean
WAL-MART

I could easily see Black Friday being worse this year than it was last year. My dad keeps thinking about going out to buy some electronics, I keep telling him he's asking for a death wish. To me, the prices/sales on some items are amazing, but the thought of the hassle and even the possible chance of death (more than normal) is not worth the risk.

The other day my family bought a Wii gaming system. When we went to go and get an extra controller, the guy helping us told us to make sure and shake all of the boxes of everything we were buying that wasn't locked up. He said that there had been an insane amount of theft lately, way more than normal. The controller was barely $30, so I can't even imagine what could happen to higher priced items in all of the shuffle. Then again, the smaller an item is, the easier it would be for someone to steal. In this case, it wasn't very big, could easily fit into a jacket pocket, and everyone needs more than one controller.

Personally, I avoid going out at all costs - not even to get something to eat at a fast food place. I find it the perfect time to catch up on some reading or some TV shows.

I hope your wife fares well if she ventures out.

reply to post by SLAYER69

Over the past year and a half Americans have on a whole have been paying down their personal debt. It may be time for some to loosen their purse strings.

I don't know if that will happen or not. If people are working off of debt...anything they buy will only increase their debt...especially those on unemployment who don't have much to spend at all anyway. I think sales will be decent...I'm just wondering if people will behave this year. I know it's been a tad crazy in the past..but unemployment wasn't 10.2 percent (really higher, I know) last year.

We'll see!

reply to post by David9176


A long time ago I in my youth when I was first starting out I tried my hand at selling cars and failed horribly for a few weeks. An old timer salesmen gave me a bit of advise. I was broke. He said I was trying to sell them those 35 and 40 thousand dollar cars with my wallet.

Think about it.....

My policy on Christmas has been the same for over a decade. Rejoice in Jesus's birth and being with family and friends.

1 week into the new year I go shopping. If you think deals are to be found before Christmas, you should see the deals two weeks after.

This year you may find a helluva lot of going out of business sales.

Originally posted by endisnighe
If you think deals are to be found before Christmas, you should see the deals two weeks after.

Shhhh!

That's when I go shopping for next years gifts.

Black Friday will be tough, I've also noticed in my area the biggest constraint is time; they've shortened the sale time for several places except Wal-Mart, I've also noticed that one of my local Wal_Mart's inventory is lower than usual as well as less diversive.

So I wonder how much of an affect this may have and if this is happening in other area's as well?

My wife and I will stay at home eating turkey sandwiches and watching the world spin safely from our front porch.

PS. Sorry Slayer, I have to conserve during this time and Wal-Mart has successfully removed any source of competitive competition, or I am forced to drive too far to make any substantial savings. So at this time I have chosen one evil for another.

Originally posted by David9176

Are you going to go out into the craziness and are you worried of how much of a "scrooge" people will be?

We'll see what happens...what do you think?

My personal opinion is that NOTHING is worth that madness. I am very glad that my family is focused on doing "family stuff" at the holidays and not on gifts (except for the kids) so I avoid the shopping craziness of this time of year. Phew.

I'll sit on the sidelines, drink my coffee and maybe do some people-watching, if the weather is nice, but ya won't find me spending money on things I (or anyone else) doesn't need. Good luck to those who venture out, you will need it!
I hope it snows on everybody, that would make it even better.


p.s. as for sales forecast, I don't think it's going to be a stellar year. It may not be as bad as '08, but it will probably still be in the negative.


[edit on 23-11-2009 by LadySkadi]

Well tonight even our local station isn't looking for too much of a promising black friday, they said and I quote"with stingy consumers, it doesn't seem like the sales will be enough" Stingy consumers? How about that 17.5 percent of the US is unemployed, that wouldn't have anything to do with it. Noooooo. I beleive that the sales are going to be anorexic at best! Of course I won;t be there, I am unemployed and I don't see my hubby's boss paying him by then anyway, if he did he'll only give him enough to cover our rent. Basically the guy(mine) is doing contracting work for minimum wage if one was to actually crunch the numbers and this has been a growing trend for these small business owners and even some larger ones...nearly paying nothing because people employed are lucky to have a job. It infuriates me!

[edit on 23-11-2009 by ldyserenity]

Originally posted by David9176
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

Over the past year and a half Americans have on a whole have been paying down their personal debt. It may be time for some to loosen their purse strings.

I don't know if that will happen or not. If people are working off of debt...anything they buy will only increase their debt...especially those on unemployment who don't have much to spend at all anyway. I think sales will be decent...I'm just wondering if people will behave this year. I know it's been a tad crazy in the past..but unemployment wasn't 10.2 percent (really higher, I know) last year.

We'll see!

It's going to be a bad year this year. I think people are going to rush out as usual trying to find sales even better than what has been reported. But this time the tricks that stores do in order to get you to buy something if your deal is sold out won't work. If they don't find it I think they won't buy any replacement item unless it's something that they either want or is cheap enough for said person to think about price. Also this Friday there will be alot of crime happening as people who want items but don't have the money will snatch and grab for items that are on the shelf or even on someones person. Holidays are the roughest for unemployed people who have family and loved ones who are expecting gifts or items. It's easy to push a family member to steal in order for their family unit to have a semblence of a happy christmas/holiday.

Mark my words, the market has been doing good because of govt. help. What they know is that once the data from the holidays start to hit and shows how much the public didn't spend, it will force many stores into bankruptcy (which have commercial paper/loans with banks). So what will happen we will see the market start to tank back down in the 7,000 range and then it will go back up again (maybe).

Not only am I not shopping on Friday, I'm not shopping at all this year. Stingy? You bet. If that's what you call someone who's broke. And as to Wal-Mart? If I had a few extra dollars to spend, they still wouldn't get a penny of my money. They and a few other key American companies are a huge contributing factor as to why we're in the mess we're in. I'm glad I got over my need for "stuff" a long time ago. Seems more and more people are joining this club every year. It sucks.

[edit on 23-11-2009 by ~Lucidity]

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
Not only am I not shopping on Friday, I'm not shopping at all this year. Stingy? You bet. If that's what you call someone whose broke. And as to Wal-Mart? If I had a few extra dollars to spend, they still wouldn't get a penny of my money. They and a few other key American companies are a huge contributing factor as to why we're in the mess we're in. I'm glad I got over my need for "stuff" a long time ago. Seems more and more people are joining this club every year. It sucks.

I'm doing the same thing. These people aren't getting a dime of my money. Every one will be out spending money that they don't have, on credit of course, then they'll turn around and say see the economy is recovering. When in truth those people will be struggling to pay off this black friday's purchases for years to come.

Originally posted by Pappa_Bear
PS. Sorry Slayer, I have to conserve during this time and Wal-Mart has successfully removed any source of competitive competition, or I am forced to drive too far to make any substantial savings. So at this time I have chosen one evil for another.

A couple of interesting tidbits.

Wal-Mart is the largest seller of Shoes [Made in China] and McDonald's distributes the most Toys.

Happy Meals.

reply to post by David9176


I know a couple people going out just to go out and not buying anything .. so who knows. I personally won't .. I avoid malls as it is, let alone crazy suburbians all out at one time looking for the cheapest plastic trick to appease their children.

And I am sitting on the fence as to whether or not the Christmas season as a whole will utterly fail. My Economic intuition tells me there's simply no possible way to see sales growth if the monetary base of the consumer has been reduced as much as it has.

Yet my faith in Humanity has never been lower, and I can see people using their last savings, going into debt, spending their last unemployment check to buy useless crap so they can cling dearly to this vision of what life was and always should be.

I can say for certain, the consumerism of the Christmas season won't be enough to give the Retailers that much needed security blanket of profits.. black Friday should by all accounts be as busy as always. The problem for retailers isn't getting them in the door Friday, it's getting them to buy on any other day .. this was the problem last year, massive rush then it died off quick and we saw the worst Christmas sales season on record.

By the way, has anyone noticed the return of LAYAWAY???? .. I haven't seen that since I was a wee little kid .. I know K Mart is doing it, even some Jewelry store adverts in the mail were advertising their layaway, and some local stores as well. I find it humorous.

Target is suppose to have' 32 inch Westinghouse LCD tv's for $249 on black Friday. That is a good deal but I still will not venture into that madness.

I believe that this black Friday will be one of the craziest. People will go out there and buy buy buy buy and buy till they drop.

I will probably be bashed for the above comment but wait till you see the record figures coming out, you will be shocked, stunned and staggered.

I will be doing all my shopping at yard sales hahaha luckily for us it's season is all year here in FL. No snow means many more yard sales... You owouldn't believe the deals you can find stereo systems, gaming systems, ipods, craigslist is great too.... wonderful ideas for penny pinchers.

reply to post by Rockpuck

By the way, has anyone noticed the return of LAYAWAY???? .. I haven't seen that since I was a wee little kid ..

My wife is actually doing it this year. We are only buying for our daughter this year. Last year we didn't by anything except for our nieces and nephews.

And I don't know what is going to happen. I think sales will be decent on Black Friday...although there will be reports of people fighting over toys and other junk. I think afterwards is what is going to hurt. Stores are going to have to cut back prices even more than last year...and even that won't be enough. People simply don't have the cash. Black Friday should last till Christmas..but it won't.

I've been thinking...if the economy does go off a cliff...it would be after Christmas when final sales come in. Inventories will be higher than expected...orders will be smaller....more will be layed off...yet our debt is till there...the dollar is weakening...etc. I hope that it gets better but you can't ignore the 400 pound gorilla in the room....the debt.

IF we simply didn't have this gigantic debt it would be easier to recover. We could go on insane spending sprees and still pay it back. Unfortunately, we were broke before this even started and it is now impossible to pay this off.

reply to post by David9176


I think people who take part in black Friday are idiots, I will be enjoying the weekend with my family. I tried the black Friday thing once, I would up almost getting trampled to death myself when I got knocked down by some idiot who tried to push me out of the way.