greentiger

My daughter and I were there for WII games (Rio and How to Train Your Dragon were our targets). One pallet of games and four people had blocked the four sides of the pallet with shopping carts. When the tarp came off, one lady grabbed every copy of Rio (there were just 3) and started trying to dump every copy of Epic Mickey into her cart. Someone pulled her buggy aside and she started yelling. There were no copies of Dragon, Toy Story 3, or Michael Jackson Experience. Mainly Epic Mickey, Harry Potter Lego, Batman Lego and a ton of Wii Game Party 2. It was a complete fiasco. We ended up with a copy of Epic Mickey and Cars 2. Then you could not get out of the store. The lines for the electronics were wrapped into the main traffic lanes and you could not get through and people were already crowded around the midnight electronic pallets. Probably the worst Black Friday experience I have ever had. My daughter decided she had seen enough and we were ready to leave. It took 30 minutes to get back to front to the registers, but there were no lines to checkout! No one was leaving and more people just kept coming in.

If you are talking about the ad I saw the TV in, it was the regular Sunday paper ad for Target. It was a "4 Day only" but it was not promoted as any type of pre-Black Friday ad, but it did have some great deals in it.

A couple of years ago, the Target ad for the 4 days before Thanksgiving and BF included a couple of deals on TVs that were as about as good as anything on BF. Sony 32-inch flatscreen TV was a good price and you got a $100 Target gift card. At the price minus $100, it was the same as the price Best Buy had on the TV as a BF doorbuster. Bought mine at Target on Monday with no crowd. I'm hoping to see those types of deals again.

I have this very TV. I bought it last year at Target for around $500. It is a great set and you will have no problems watching regular def programming on it. You may need to adjust a "width" settings on the broadcast from time to time, but there is a button on the remote that switches that setting quickly. Good luck on BF shopping!

Customer interaction? I usually only hear my WM checker talk when they answer their phone and start their conversation.

I don't use a spam folder - my system just flags them. Hmmm.

I have signed up twice to get the emails when the BF ads are posted online and so far I have not received any notifications. Is this a general problem or did I foul something up? Thanks (for this and all the great stuff you do here!).

Flat rate 800 numbers only work within a LATA (local access and transport area), meaning that most calls to an 800 number will generate some type of toll, even if it is only pennies a minute. My last call to WM resulted in a 7 minute hold and me being read a "copyright infringement notice" type document once I mentioned Black Friday. That seems to be the key to their call database now (used by operators to answer questions). She was confused for a time when I mentioned only gottadeal.com. Just some friendly pointers.

One thing about phone calls: everytime you call on a 1-800 number, you are costing Wal-Mart money. That is the only thing they understand.

I just called this number. Customers Relations 1-800-925-6278 The woman I spoke with apologized but she was not familiar with the situation. She placed me on hold and when she came back, she stated they have been receiving a large number of calls, but they don't have an official response.

I bought something from WM online the day before this story broke. The reason I purchased it from WM online was that I saw it listed on gottadeal.com!!! I think I need to call and tell them I plan to return it as soon as it is received and buy it somewhere else. My sister used to work at WM and here is one her favorite WM employee jokes: Q: What's the difference between a Wal-Mart employee and a jobless person. A: The jobless person makes more money and has better insurance!!!

On fairly cold BF morning at a BestBuy, some of the employees came outside and starting passing out coffee to everyone waiting in line about 30 minutes before open. This continued for a while even after the open. So everyone is standing in line waiting and they open the doors - and people jumpd out of 5 or 6 cars and started running for the exit doors that had just opened. An employee blocked the door and stopped them and hot coffee just started flying from people in the line. Most of the jumpers ran off but one guy stood there mouthing off and just kept getting nailed with hot coffee.