Black Friday
 

Saw TV coverage of Black Friday sales last night. OMG. As the news anchor said "Makes our Boxing day sales look tame. We think they are bad enough.
Personally I don't go to sales like that or openings of new stores. Saw one first hand when I was sixteen and vowed then that I'd never get caught up in that madness. I'm now 65 years old and have always stuck to my decision.
We saw one person being Tasered by police in the store. Unbelievable!!!

Trust me! I know better than to go into the madhouse of Black Friday. I don't need anything badly enough to venture into the madness just to save a few dollars. I will just spend more dollars in a saner atmosphere. I imagine people elsewhere in the world who see the madness wonder about the sanity of Americans!

I had no intentions of venturing out yesterday ...but then realized that after counting how many days I have left before I ship gifts cross county and considering that I work 50- 60 hours a week, I sadly realized that I needed to go to two stores. I was pleasantly surprised ...traffic not heavy, parking spaces available, and I was in and out in no time. Whew....I remember once having to do all my christmas shopping on Christmas Eve as that was the last day of a final in college. A woman literally took a sweater from my hands.

I know a lot of stores had their sales on Thursday this year, and may have caused less crowds on Friday.

I do everything to stay home on Black Friday. We use the day to put up our Christmas tree. My husband used to get up at 4:30 and go - but no one wants those things now, so no reason to go. I went to Joann's a few years ago because they were having the flannel for a $1.00 a yard. There were a lot of vendors there and they were so aggressive and buying the whole bolts. It was weird how pushy they were. I wanted to find out who they were so I would never give them a dime of business and let my friends know not to give them their business either. I innocently thought it was going to be a bunch of people that enjoy sewing and happy to be getting such a great deal - but it was not nice at all. I felt so sorry for the employees. Not sure what gets into people like that, and I am not going back to find out.

We had problems over here in some places, absolute madness - hope the people involved see the images of themselves and are ashamed, they were even pushing children over - disgraceful behaviour

Things can get crazy in the stores. I have literally seen people trampled. I do all my shopping on the internet. No long lines at JAF for me anymore. At least they had free shipping on Thanksgiving but have NOT received any confirmation on my order!!

I agree with quiltingcandy a perfect day to stay home relax no cooking , enjoying left overs and shopping on line none of that madness for me

For 10 yrs, I loved black Friday, because I was a cashier, and tried my best to keep each person happy and out as fast as I could. I never shopped on that day. The key to being fast is to know all the right prices, that meant coming in a few minutes early and read the add, and also keep one near me. Years later a friend wanted to take me for this big day and I went!!! It was still dark when we left & icy roads, so we didn`t think there would be too many shoppers, wrong!!! I didn`t buy much and was never so glad to see home again.

Black Friday has turned into an excuse for rude people to completely let go and be totally obnoxious. The deals are not that great and I am so than,ful that there is nothing I need badly enough to make me venture out into the cockeyed world of Black Friday. Thank you, Jesus!

In the USA we had a woman was shot to death at Nordstrom's, a large upscale department store in Chicago this year. Absurd and horrifying.

I get as much of my shopping done before Thanksgiving as I can. One thing I find irritating is the stores won't have an item on the shelf but they tell me it is in the back waiting for Black Friday. I resume my shopping this week!

I hate shopping on normal days. I feel so sorry for the people that have to work in the stores on BF. I think they should be armed with super sized squirt guns and rolls of duct tape. And they should tell people to leave their children at home.My brother dragged me to WM last year and there was at least 50 kids-under the age of 7- at the service desk screaming and crying for their mothers. I hadn't been BF shopping in the previous 30+yrs and I won't ever do it again.

That was an employee shot by her ex who then killed himself.
Not really black Friday related.

The only shopping I did on Black Friday was my LQS/machine dealer to catch some of the deals they had going on: 30% off sewing machines (Phaff, Brother, Singer, Janone), machine embroidery designs, sewing & quilting notions, rulers, books, patterns, batting and $4.95 a yard for fabric. All fabrics are all name brand, 100% cotton, but instead of carrying the entire they will only have 2-3 fabrics from each designer/line. Regular price for fabric is $6.95. It's a great place to get things but the building is packed to the gills and you have to search everything out!

***
*** I hate shopping and never attend any type of retail gimmicks,
*** and that is what they are.
*** Greed on the part of the stores.
***

I would gladly pay more just to avoid crowds. I stayed home and rested from all the cooking I had to do the day before. On Thanksgiving night my DD went on line and did all her shopping and saved so much money she said it was more than she would have saved if she had gone out to shop.

There was a lot more to this story than a Black Friday issue. The woman was shot by her former boyfriend who had issues about being possessive.

Allegedly, it was a domestic dispute - she was working at Nordstrom and boyfriend came in , shot her then turned gun on himself.

I have never done BLACK FRIDAY......But I am only 75. Today I saw something I wanted for a long time advertised In the Sunday Flyer for Macy's. Never shopped there before either. But they had a Cusinart for their cyber Monday for$100 off And free shipping. I ordered it. No rude people, no gas, no parking problem........no stress!!!!

I agree 100%

After at least 15 years of not shopping on Black Friday, I got up at 1:30 and left the house at 2:00 AM with my daughter. We went to a air base about an hour away, stood in line for an hour before the store opened at 4:00. About 30 minutes before the doors opened, an employee came down the line asking what we were looking for - he gave out tickets for the big special items that they had limited numbers of so there was no competition (pushing, shoving or fights) for those things. Luckily my daughter got what she was looking for at a huge discount (she paid less than 1/3 the regular price)...the guy who got in line about 10 minutes behind us and wanted the same item wasn't so lucky. Everyone was very civilized and polite...made for a lovely day with my daughter and we were home (ready for a nap) by noon. We even went to Wal-Mart and it wasn't crazy there either!

We do more shopping on the Internet than in stores. Many of the big deals were on the Internet and with free shipping at some, we found everything we needed. I shop for Christmas all year long. The mob scene just doesn't do it for me. Not a big fan of anything that requires standing in a line, being jostled, etc. What's the fun in that?

I used to go out on Black Friday with my sister and we had a lot of fun. Too old to put myself through that anymore but DH went out this year. He got everything he was looking for and said people in general seemed more polite this year. I did my shopping online.

I went to Black Friday one time, that was enough. Now I wait until gray Sunday (just before cyber Monday) and shop in the evening when all the kiddies are at home headed for bed, and all the teens are out creating mayhem, nice and quiet.

I am so sick of hearing about Black Friday and Cyber Monday that I could throw up. We stopped exchanging gifts in my family years ago and I finally have convinced my friends that we don't need to exchange gifts. We will go to a movie and have dinner out somewhere nice. I can't think of anything I'd want badly enough to stand in line half the night for a "door buster". In other words ... Bah! Humbug!! :D :D Also, sales go on all the time. The retailers break their necks trying to figure out a way to put things on sale so, with few exceptions, you aren't going to save all that much money from one sale or one store to the next.

I refuse to go out in that...I did it once and never again...LOL..