Diesel0312

just like last year, except instead of being 3rd and 4th, my gf and I were 1st and 2nd this year. It rained and snowed lightly at the first of the night, but quit very soon. As usual it was cold, but that was expected. The good thing was they came out just before they handed out the vouchers and roped off the front of the store to keep those who bumrush from getting in without going through the line. A church group came by and handed out coffee and donuts and chick-fil-a handed out chicken biscuits. So far things were going great, they got even better when they had a guy stationed at the door and only allowed a few people in at a time and kept the total number to a reasonable limit. I was able to walk in, had an employee walk me back to the GPS units, paid for them right there and was done with that purchase within about 3 minutes from walking in the door. Went to help my gf find some movies, found most of what she was looking for, so she went to pay and I got in the computer line. The computer line included all laptops and desktops. Near the end it split into two lines, one accepting only debit and credit cards and the other accepting anything. Getting to this point the line moved rather quickly. Probably made it through half the length of the line in about 10 minutes, so things were looking great, I was going to get basically everything I came for and be out by 5:30. However, once the line split, it basically stopped. There was probably 10 people in each line, with each one oving about the same speed. It was in this section of the line I stood for 3 hours. Let me repeat that, with only 10 people in front of me, it still took me 3 hours to get to the register. If they didn't split the line into 2 registers it would have taken about 6 hours to check out 20 people, totally unbelievable. I thought standing in the TV line for an hour last year was bad, but it was a cakewalk compared to this Bataan Death March. People were getting very upset, one woman was yelling at other customers in the area and at the employees. It was not pleasant. They had the cashier explaining all the options on the purchase and all the other items, which of course took forever. I can't understand why they didn't have a couple of employees go through all that with people before they got to the register, so that they could get the line moving, but they didn't. To top things off, one of the employees started telling a manager about a woman complaining about the effeciency of the operation, while she was still standing right there. They seemed to thing waiting in a short line for 3 hours was reasonable. The whole thing went so great up until this point, it basically ruined the whole experience. I was thrilled with how everything else was handled and I'm happy with my purchases, but this basically trumps all that. They just dropped the ball big time on it. I never did see my gf again, until I got to the car. I thought she must have been stuck in line somewhere, but she said she was back in the car at 5:15, but couldn't get back in, since she had to get back in the line outside and it was at a crawl since they couldn't get people out. Oh well, I think I'm done with CC on BF now. They didn't improve how they handled voucher purchases since last year, in fact they got worse. They weren't even close to getting everyone with a voucher out by 8am, which is when the voucher is supposed to become void, despite opening at 5am. Just very poor management.

I got there last year around 10pm the night before. We were 3rd and 4th in line, the guy who was first got there just a few minutes before we did. Of course with that spot we had a selection of anything we wanted. If you're open to several different TV's, midnight should be fine. It always seems like most people are there for the computers, so TV vouchers don't run out as fast.

Reading all the post BF threads on here and it seems a lot aren't very happy with the way it went this year. Most seem to be upset because more people got in line early before them and they couldn't get what they wanted. Was there as many people complaining about this last year or is it on a larger scale this year? Last year was my first BF. I went to walmart about 3 hours before opening and stood in line for the laptop. I was one of the last people to get one, even though there should have been about 8 behind me who got one, people up front had brought friends and family in at the last minute. This year I went to CC around 7:30, was 3rd in line, and camped out til 5am. I had a much better time this year.

I think a lot of it has to do with those in the front of the line know they are going to get what they want. I was third in line and could get any of the vouchers for a doorbuster that I wanted, so I had no problem holding the line while the people in front of me went to the bathroom, took a walk to warm-up, etc. Those farther back were on the bubble and were much less friendly with others around them. Also, being that each of the first 10 had chairs set up in a nice line and we had already talked to each other quite a bit when we first got there, any of us letting others in line would be easily spotted. Farther back in the line, people were standing butts to nuts and a few people wide, it was much easier to slip people in unnoticed. I was there for the TV and even though I could have shown up a few hours later and still got it, I'm glad I went early. The people at the front of the line around me were calm and nice and there was no worry about whether or not I would get what I came for.

In a way those who get there first are paying more for the items than those who get there later. Unless your time is worthless, time spent sitting in front of a store is worth something. Let's say someone sits in front of a store for 10 hours to buy an item and resell on ebay. They only make $50 profit on the sale of the item, so they really were only making $5 an hour. Though sitting in front of a store is easy work, that's still a low wage. I had the opportunity to get vouchers for each of the 3 big ticket items, but only took one for the TV since that is what I wanted. Most people aren't there to make money off their purchases, they're there to get something at a discounted price. In the end, if you want to be sure you will get a voucher for an item, get there earlier. If you're not willing to do that and beat out others, you didn't want to the product enough in the first place.

It depends on the TV really. I haven't done enough research to give you a good answer, but here is a link to another forum with a good description of what they do and whether they will improve picture performance (2nd post): http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/283440 BTW, I just tried out another movie, Batman (from 89) and it looked great as well, so I'm very happy with the performance of the player and TV.

They had 3 registers marked for the TV, laptop, and desktop, but they were ringing up other customers in line there as well, so they were backed up. I camped out for 10 hours and was in the store for about 2.5

DaVinci Code and Simpsons season 8 DVD's from Target. I had been camping at CC all night and was too tired to fight a crowd after getting out of there.

CC was pretty cool today, the reps were very friendly and helpful when passing out the vouchers and when the store opened. They also provided us with coffee, donuts, little debbie cakes, and chick-fil-a chicken biscuits just before opening. Only complaint was the lines when checking out, too many reps standing around after the initial rush of questions and not enough registers open.

I'm using it right now with the RCA upconversion player watching Cars and it looks great. I still need to adjust things like brightness, contrast, etc., but still looks good out the box.

Going to CC here at around 9-10pm, which is probably a bit early for the area. However, I just want to be one of the very first, if not first, in line. Also, I'm taking a friend, so I think it will be a neat little thing to do.

I got off work at 10am this morning, so I took that time to make a list of all the necessities for overnight camping in front of a store. All that is left to finish on the list is a printout of my shopping list (I already have a list made out on here) and a copy of the sales ads from the store. I'm ready to go.

My projection is a CRT and not a LCD, so this might not apply, but at extreme angles it gets dark. I think this was more of a problem on the older projections, but the new ones still have it a bit.

Good deal. That had me a bit concerned as I wanted a couple different items. BTW, aletellier and Mara, I'll be just up the road from you all a little way, in Johnson City, TN. :)