Brad

More bad news for TRU: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/retail/2018/02/22/toys-r-us-reportedly-planning-more-store-closings-corporate-layoffs/362255002/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Sam's Club introduced some new changes today: https://corporate.samsclub.com/blog/2018/02/14/creating-the-membership-you-love-most Looks like they got rid of the business membership (boo!) and are really pushing the Plus membership by now including free shipping online on most items with a Plus membership (and reducing the number of items that include free shipping for non-Plus members). Without the business membership, the only way to get the early shopping hours Monday-Saturday is with the $100 Plus membership. Whichever card you have, you can add additional people to your account for $40 each, but those people will be considered non-Plus members.

52 of the 60 remaining members have already posted for February. Good job

OK, I wrote a quick script to see who is still in. Not counting me, we started with 71 members who posted in November: 2bauer4 abentley AuntieJul BFgrl79 bluebear Bopeep bossy1 budgetsRsexy chachn8r chelamarc cherry33778 chester5 Cinnamonhuskies cjdav dantegirl deelite Doresia Gator Pam gatorburg giz HanShotFirst hillbillyswife hockeyfanamo ilikefree jesusluvu jstluvem julz0420 Kanyon71 Kash kellis4321 kimpooh19 laddhorn LainieB len_mullen lis415529 lucyismycat m13april magickallight MariahA mcwalker mgreen msyves nicole20 ogadoga Peppermint Pepper_Mint_Tea qtpie queenkishaa racerfan redeyejay riven3d rlbarajas rockpzazz rocky41102 sas377 shoptillidrop2 Silverstreak24 smurfgirl speeddiva srivassh stacya starbeck96 stationchief stevierocks stina629 sunni0913 tear1469 totallyBF tracy0504 tyreejames wittenlover In December, 5 members dropped out: dropped out: Cinnamonhuskies dropped out: julz0420 dropped out: Pepper_Mint_Tea dropped out: Silverstreak24 dropped out: srivassh In January, 6 more members dropped out: dropped out: 2bauer4 dropped out: chelamarc dropped out: lucyismycat dropped out: nicole20 dropped out: queenkishaa dropped out: tear1469 So we're already down from 71 to 60. If anyone thinks they are showing as dropped out when they shouldn't be, post here and let me know what days your posts were for each month. I'll run the script at the beginning of each month to see who has left us.

There is also a "Mark Community Read" link at the bottom-left of every page. Clicking that will make the whole forum "read".

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/heres-a-map-of-where-bon-ton-is-closing-stores.html

While a lot of stores are staying open, I wouldn't want to be holding on to a high-$ amount of TRU gift cards just in case...

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/24/toys-r-us-to-close-180-stores-across-the-us.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain

Most of the closing stores are now 50% off. Tried to go yesterday to the one here but there was no parking spaces to be found and the line to get in was around the front and side of the building. No thanks.

It was crazy. I assume this is how Black Friday is (since I never get to go out anymore haha). But yeah, pretty much everything was 25% off, including items already on sale in their current flyer. Saw lots of TVs and soundbars in carts, lots of people stocking up on household goods and food. They ran out of carts so people were following everyone to their vehicles to get their carts. I filled up a cart and quickly checked out with self checkout. I then took my precious cart and went back in for a second round but by then the checkout lines were 2/3 of the way to the back of the store so I just left. Wish I needed a TV or something pricey cause I’m sure there were some nice deals, especially on the models already on sale. I basically just got stuff that either was already on sale in the flyer or things that I know never go on sale. Everything else will be on sale again for around the same discount eventually in an upcoming flyer.

Rumor is the closing stores are all 25% off starting today. I’m in the parking lot waiting for mine to open at 10 (no early business/plus hours anymore I guess).

Free 3-month membership extension or request a refund: https://www.samsclub.com/sams/html/best-deals/update.html

The 2nd-closest one to me is also on the list.

When I archived the BF forum from last year I split the countdown thread into 2 parts and kept the pre-BF 2017 posts in another thread in the archived 2017 forum. Unless you are confusing this one for the t-shirt contest thread.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/04/news/companies/sears-kmart-stores-closing/index.html

Of course. The deals have dried up and so my services are no longer needed

I’ll write a script that connects to the forum database and checks the status of everyone in real-time and spits out a page of stats. Give me a few days/weeks/months

Did you actually go through and check everyone? Saves me time haha. Forgot to mention that if I post in here every month, everyone has to buy me a GD shirt, so it kind of evens it out... Happy New Year everyone!

Looks like we could lose several club members if they don't post today. Maybe they plan on doing a double-dip at midnight, so we'll see...

You want to be banned?

Penzey’s is great. Based here and we have a bunch of their stores around the area.

The 2017 BF forums have been archived. As always, we'll keep this main BF forum open all year. I've kept the t-shirt contest thread, the 'countdown' thread and a few of the still-active holiday threads in here. Feel free to post any news you come across about Black Friday 2018 or retail changes in general (store closings / bankruptcies / mergers / acquisitions).

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/12/analyst-amazon-may-shop-for-target.html Analyst thinks Amazon could buy Target in 2018. Would be very interesting if it were to happen...

Merry Christmas to everyone here in the cool kids club (and everyone else who might be reading this too )

Lightning deal: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0721GGGS9/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER