Worst Black Friday Ever Coming this Week?

reply to post by Happyfeet

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.

I told my wife she was nuts. I will be staying home with my daughter and enjoy the day.

I've never ventured out on Black Friday...although I did go out the day after Christmas one year and I regretted that one.

Originally posted by David9176
reply to post by Happyfeet

 

I've never ventured out on Black Friday...although I did go out the day after Christmas one year and I regretted that one.

UGH, the after christmas rush is even worse as far as misers and scrooges go. Instead of trying to get crap for other people, it's about getting the best crap for the lowest price for themselves.

Thought I'd add this.

news.yahoo.com...

In fact, fully 93 percent say they'll spend less or about the same as last year, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. Half of all those polled say they're suffering at least some debt-related stress, and 22 percent say they're feeling it greatly or quite a bit. That second figure is up from 17 percent just last spring, despite all the talk about economic recovery. Most people — 80 percent — say they'll use mostly cash to pay for their holiday shopping, and that generally means buying less.

reply to post by David9176


February. Preliminary numbers come in before hand, but the REAL damage starts at the end of January and into February.. Last year before Christmas I said Feb will be the begining of a major decline .. as it happens, that major decline was stopped and reversed by a huge influx of capital via our dimwitted Government. Now we have well capitalized institutions that could possibly have a horrible sales season leading into the ultimate # storm of economic catastrophe.

Retailers CANNOT, and WILL NOT survive multiple "red" years .. They will down size, close stores, cut back on inventory and reduce spending. After last Christmas the first few months of unemployment were astronomical, historic records, 750,000 documented people in one freaking month..

You said it best, the economy could go off the cliff, right now we are precariously balancing on the edge.. If we make it through Christmas and retail survives, then next year won't be so bad. If the retailers fail ....... 2009 will have looked like a picnic in the park. Watch the MSM, from all angles they will scream in your face that everyone's out shopping, everyone's out spending money, they love their families so they buy them crap from walmart, you should be out there to!



I swear, I am NOT a pessimist, I am a Realist. And I realize that when you subtract 3 million jobs from the economy, expire hundreds of thousands of peoples unemployment, not to mention the 100k+ jobs a month of normal growth, add that to the jobs that were lost or, never created .. subtract that hundreds of billions in credit lines, add the substantial increases in cost of living. Add the fear. Add the retirement accounts decimated by the stock collapse of 08, add the disenfranchisement of consumerism... what do you get?

A down right horrible nasty Christmas season. bah humbug.

As an investor, I'm betting this will be a good year- at least for Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and a handful of other retailers. I think people will let loose, forget their media-driven fears and have a great Christmas.
I'm really looking forward to Apple's 'secret' sale...

Black Friday nowadays is a joke anyway...the floundering economy has really cut back the competition, and any real deals. I have seen nothing that appeals to me in the Black Friday ads...all a bunch of cheap, no-name junk that will fall apart. Sure, I can save $50 this week and get a no-name LCD tv, or I can wait until after Christmas and get a name brand for likely around the same price.

reply to post by compwiz32190


Indeed, I went in Jan to Bestbuy and got a 46' hd tv made by Sony and they practically paid me to take it. First knocked a few hundred off, then threw in all kinds of free stuff, including a free hd antena so I don't have to buy cable. It was the only thing we bought last year too, so it worked out great.

Black Friday is nothing more than media hype. The retailiers go along because the media provides millions of dollars in free advertising. Do you really think that somebody "leaked" the contents of those store ads? How did you find out about that HD Flat Screen TV? It didn't cost the retailer one cent for all of that advertising.

Black Friday is a complete sham. Stores post ads for crazy low priced electronics and then sell like 3 of them per store. They should have to post in the ad how many will be at the store. If you can afford a $400 LCD TV then guess what, you ain't poor.

Last Christmas I went all out with gifts for family and then took the whole family on a weeks vacation to the mountains to play in the snow in February.

I will be making delicious cakes, cookies and other goodies to give this year.

I hope they all remember that I told them last Christmas that I wanted them to have one last good Christmas because it was not going to happen again for a while.

For many years I've been upset about the commercialization of Christmas. Hopefully my friends and family will realize the real reason for the season this year.

I will buy only one gift this year and it will be for my sweetheart.

Recent Survey made on black Friday:

Survey: Black Friday shopping to jump 16 percent

Fifty-seven million people said they will definitely head to stores this year, up from 49 million in 2008, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

I say we will see a jump of more than 25%

The Conference Board said this week that American households were expected to spend an average of $390 on Christmas gifts, down from $418 last year. “Job losses and uncertainty about the future are making for a very frugal shopper,” Lynn Franco, the director of the board’s consumer research center, said in a statement.

www.nytimes.com...

And last year was very, very bad.

Though when are they gonna release the final data? Sat. or Monday?

Well here's some news...I brought my neighbor to two stores; Bealls and wally world and they have sold out of items, cause what my neighbor had wanted was gone, I didn't want to get all in their business, so I don't know what items she was looking for, but I can tell you At 9 am the Wal mart, which is even crowded when ITS not black friday, seemed like a ghost town and I even heard the cashiers commenting on the lack of turnout, I had to use the bathroom and my neighbor was still shopping, so I had no choice but to go into the store. However yesterday at the dollar tree the line was long...perhaps the dollar stores are where most people are going to shop this season...at least for items for their own decorating and what not. I was really shocked at Murphy's the wal mart gas station, because normally you can't get a pump for like forty minutes, however I got a pump right away, it was also like a ghost town!!!! That shocked me...looks like people actually stayed in or got out early and tapered off, which I have seen these places packed well past 3 pm in previous years. The mall and Wal mart, of course I didn't see the mall today, but that's probably more dead as the prices are wayyyyy higher there.

[edit on 27-11-2009 by ldyserenity]

[edit on 27-11-2009 by ldyserenity]

Originally posted by rattan1
Recent Survey made on black Friday:

Survey: Black Friday shopping to jump 16 percent

Fifty-seven million people said they will definitely head to stores this year, up from 49 million in 2008, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

I say we will see a jump of more than 25%

What the heck????Are these people crack smokers????
Who would put themself through this...why bend to the retailers' schemes???? If everyone sat home on Black Friday, we could all drive the prices down further, what morons!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by ldyserenity
What the heck????Are these people crack smokers????

Who would put themself through this...why bend to the retailers' schemes???? If everyone sat home on Black Friday, we could all drive the prices down further, what morons!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, yeah. Nothing will drive prices down faster than lack of demand. But the retailers will simply reduce the supply. And they're actually doing that this year:

Retail chains have insisted they will avoid the fire-sale discounts seen in 2008 and have spent the last year scaling back stores and shrinking inventory to protect their profits.

www.reuters.com...

reply to post by eldard


Yeah that's good, because my only demands this christmas are to be free, happy, and not have to worry about Big Brother watching every move I make. Everything else is just cake.

The only holiday shopping I'll be doing is food shopping.

A few years ago I stopped altogether with gifts. It seemed stupid and hardly worth the effort. All my family gets is a really nice special homemade big meal, and maybe some wine, music and definitely laughs and good times.

We don't put up trees, or any decorations. I never bother with Christmas cards either. I refuse to participate in commercial activity. Christmas didn't used to be the way it is today. You can blame that on the Victorians, who started the whole thing with the tree and gifts.

Our electricity bill is high enough so I am certainly not going to give them more money by putting up power-eating decorations.

If you want to give gifts, then you can do that on any day of the year you want. It does not have to be for Christmas. Christmas is for friends, family and sharing happy times. That's it. Can't get any more simple.

I went out shopping tonight after my wife told me the stores were actually not that busy. I stopped at a few and it was surprisingly slow. It looked like any other time I was there. Everyone came out for the early bird deals and that was it.

We'll see.

[edit on 27-11-2009 by David9176]

[edit on 27-11-2009 by David9176]

Originally posted by SLAYER69
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.....

I regret having to inform you, but "a long time ago" there was no such thing as 35 and 40 thousand dollar cars".

Unless we think in different scales of time. Or, you are thinking with the perspective of a future time.

Otherwise, you must still be in your youth.
Unless you were selling high-end cars (corvettes, exotics, etc.).

In my youth most cars were 10 to 25 thousand dollars, from my perspective. But I still don't consider that "a long time ago".

[edit on 27-11-2009 by slimpickens93]

The only thing people have been racing out to be are high priced technology items. I very small segment of overall retail. My wife is a manager at a major retailer and their sales are down 50% for black Friday. They only did half of what they were supposed to do.