Black Friday Stories - Long Lines, Fights, Fun, etc.

[Charisma]

My first BF, we went to the Galleria in Birmingham, AL. We didn't get there in time for the stores opening, but we got there early enough in the day to have ourselves a good time all day. The most exciting sight I saw was in the food court. So many lines everywhere. There were lines for the restrooms snaking in with the lines for the food vendors. Plus, every table was taken. Every chair was taken. Every wide area that could be used for a table was taken... and that includes the trash cans. I kid you not. This was several years ago and it's one of the most vivid BF memories I'll ever have.

[pigeo000]

I just wanted to Hear everyones Black friday stories. Good and bad, Fights and not fights Just share everything.

I just have one, the Girly wanted to wait in line for the 200 dollar laptop at BB two years ago. I waited for an hour and finally said at around midnight im going home to sleep. So i Slept showed up at about 430 5 and jumped in line with her to get in for the store opening. Unfortunetly she didnt get the 200 dollar laptop but I got a 100 spindle of dvd-rs for 5 bucks. Same year went to COMP USA for the mightnight thanksgiving sale. Just a TON of people smarter to do theirs early.

Lets hear everyone elses

[Josh123]

I think it was two Black Fridays ago I was in Lubbock, TX with my GF and her family and I told her I was going to go to BB to try and get the 32" Westinghouse. I told her I was going to go up there at 10 pm and she ended up talking me into waiting till midnight saying it would be early enough. Well I woke up and nudged her to see if she was still going with me and of course she wanted to sleep instead. So I get there and there is a huge line wrapped around BB so I go and sit by myself with my laptop and watch movies. Needless to say I got lucky and got my tv. It was nice telling her that she was wrong about not many people would be there at midnight.

[slyspy98j]

2005: My husband was deploying to Iraq and I wanted to get a laptop for him to take on his trip. I got there at 4 am (definitely not early enough for the doorbuster laptop). Left Best Buy and went to Office Depot to try for a laptop...and it was the best experience ever! I didnt get it as cheap as I wanted it...but I got to custom build, adding memory and whatnot...needless to say it was a great Christmas for him and the laptop did great in the "sandbox"...

From then on I decided going to the nightmare stores (BB, CC, Walmart, etc) was not worth it and now I only do online BF shopping with the occasional trip to Home Depot!

[kendrab1223]

Last year:

I saw online the night before that Toys R Us had movies for $4,$5, or $10 depending on the original price of the movie. I was already planning on getting my son some Elmo's World movies for Christmas so I thought this was going to be great because they'd be $4 each. WELL, even though it wasn't stated in the ad that it was only certain titles, that's how it was supposed to be. I had 10 DVD's in my cart and wasn't leaving until I got them for $40 (we don't have tax here. yay!). After about 15 min of arguing, I got them for the price I should because I told them I wasn't leaving until then. That was the ONLY reason I went in there and I wasn't leaving empty handed!
I left there. went to walmart and target and was home by 7am (I left out of my house around 4:45 to be to TRU for 5). The walmart and target closest to me were a breeze with no lines or waiting or anything, but the walmart 3 miles away was swamped (it's right next to TRU so I saw the line lol).
I'm hoping to only need to go to walmart this year and be done in record time so we'll see what's being offered!

[nirvanalx]

I had never participated in Black Friday until two Black Fridays ago. I went to Best Buy around 1 am thinking I would be able to get a laptop. Needless to say when I got in line I was behind the store.

This last Black Friday I was a little more prepared and had my younger brother and his friends with me. We had a tent and a propane heater. We played cards and had a DVD player with us which made the time go by so much faster. One of their friends showed up around midnight and had been drinking. About an hour later he threw up in the tent. So we had a pretty entertaining night!

If I go this year it will be more for the entertainment rather than the deals considering how great this site is.

[pigeo000]

thats pretty funny about your friend

[smart84]

Quote from nirvanalx : I had never participated in Black Friday until two Black Fridays ago. I went to Best Buy around 1 am thinking I would be able to get a laptop. Needless to say when I got in line I was behind the store. This last Black Friday I was a little more prepared and had my younger brother and his friends with me. We had a tent and a propane heater. We played cards and had a DVD player with us which made the time go by so much faster. One of their friends showed up around midnight and had been drinking. About an hour later he threw up in the tent. So we had a pretty entertaining night! If I go this year it will be more for the entertainment rather than the deals considering how great this site is.

wowww that sounds like u had one of your memorable BF night

[zhelder]

Two stories. Last year, I tried to get the Navigon 2100 at Staples. They also had a TomTom on sale for $129. I tried to go to a store that I thought would be out of the way, and it was still very crowded. The red shirts come out and say, "The navigation systems are to your right." So we go in, and everyone mobs the nav systems and the other bargains. Everything's a mess and not in order. I'm screaming, "Do you have the 2100?" and they're not answering me. I'm about to leave in a rage, when a guy next to me says, "Here, you need this?" and he hands me a 2100. I thank him and run for my life.

And a near Black Friday story: A couple of weeks before BF, Value City usually has a "private" 20% off almost everything sale that every person on the planet seems to find out about. Now the crowds at most Value City stores roll pretty hard. I shopped there because I got great deals. (I once got a great suit there for $30.) But it was often a harrowing experience, especially during these 20% sales.

About 10 years ago, I went to one of these sales, and waited on one of the 50 person lines. A few customers ahead of me, a woman was arguing with the cashier about the price of the item. When the cashier wasn't able to change the price and had to call for help (which didn't come, of course) the customer reached over and smacked the cashier in the face! So then it was real pandemonium. The cops were called, and it was wild.

Also I remember going to Sears when PS2 was released back in late Nov. 2000 and there was a near riot in the store because Sears had apparently advertised that they had the system and they didn't. (There were massive PS2 shortages everywhere for several months.)

BF, for me, though, is pretty much over. The deals have gotten lousier, and the crowds have gotten much larger and more aggressive over the past few years. You have a shot at getting something at a less popular store (Radio Shack was pretty quiet last year and had some decent deals) but if you want to get something at Best Buy or Circuit City, you better camp out for the night. (5 years ago, an hour was enough to get almost anything you wanted. Those days are over.) It's not worth the hassle for me anymore.

[h1qual1ty]

I saw something happen like 6 years ago on Black Friday at Circuit CIty. I was pretty high up in line, like number 30 or something. The doors finally open and this guy runs in and trips over a box and gets stampeeded over as everyone runs to get the doorbusters. I saw the guy trip and then get trampled all over including some people who tripped over him and poured hot coffee all over him (they were giving out free coffee and donuts). I never found out if the guy was alright because I was so angry I missed the hard drive deal they had that year.

[nirvanalx]

Quote from smart84 : wowww that sounds like u had one of your memorable BF night

It was interesting. I don't think we will invite him back this year!

[electrophonic]

one time on friday i left

[RalphMalph]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.


Wait, I think that may be a story off the hit movie Jaws and in fact not a Black Friday story that personaly happened to me.

Can't be sure, so i'll leave it.

[RalphMalph]

Quote from slyspy98j : 2005: My husband was deploying to Iraq and I wanted to get a laptop for him to take on his trip. I got there at 4 am (definitely not early enough for the doorbuster laptop). Left Best Buy and went to Office Depot to try for a laptop...and it was the best experience ever! I didnt get it as cheap as I wanted it...but I got to custom build, adding memory and whatnot...needless to say it was a great Christmas for him and the laptop did great in the "sandbox"... From then on I decided going to the nightmare stores (BB, CC, Walmart, etc) was not worth it and now I only do online BF shopping with the occasional trip to Home Depot!

Most interesting story I have ever read.

Mehhh, I went to get a cheap XXXX. They didn't have it, but I ended up getting another one, blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh