fuzzylogic

That model is the most returned projection screen at my store. At any given time we usually have 2 or 3 in the repair shop and couple more waiting to be sent off.

According to my dept. mgr. where I work, there will be no laptop for black friday. However, there *is* a Compaq for a pre-BF sale that will run around $398.

May or may not be for black friday, but our purchase report lists 32" LCD HDTV's from Samsung and Emerson. The Samsung is probably going to be a normal item, but the Emerson had a price of about $700 or so and is likely to be a special feature of some sort. I'll need to look at the report again for the event code, model, and price.

The layaway is just one of many changes going into effect over the next few months. here's a short list... -increase of amount of raise for 'exceeds expectations' in yearly employee evaluations (from $.55 to $.60 -- still a crappy raise). -wage caps -elimination of merit raises -elimination of assistant manager positions in specialty devisions (tire lube, photo, vision, etc.) and reduction of assistants in grocery area -dress code change to blue polo shirts and beige kahki pants (as seen in the new WalMart/Verizon Wireless commercial) -introduction of a very strict attendance policy The wage cap and merit raise thing is *intended* to encourage people to apply for higher paying job codes and management positions. What's it's really doing is pissing off everyone, because essentially anyone that's been with the company for about 10 years is inelligable to receive a raise on their yearly evaluation. Summary: a way to eliminate all the "overpaid" employees by having them resign due to dissatisfaction with the company. One of the Walton brats visited my store on Saturday to get opinions from employees and have a meeting with all the managers. I sure hope he got the message.

Which Durabrand? IIRC: The 7" and dual screen players are both made by Venturer (which made the 6.2" player for Black Friday), while the 8.5" and 10" players are made by Initial. Initial tends to be a bit better than Venturer.

I am soooo glad I didn't have to go into work until 10 am that morning. I had no problem customers this year, just problems with management and execution. The department manager was out of town the whole week prior to and including BF. There was no one designated as a lead while the dept manager was gone. The dept. fell into disarray -- late price changes, advertised items not displayed prominently or not at all. There were little to no communication between the chain of command the associates in my dept. as to location of big ticket items and where lines were to be formed, and so on. Then there's the problem with too many of some items and not nearly enough of others. I know that wasn't the store's fault... but seriously, wtf are we going to do with 100 leftover tvs? Home Office should have spent more money on the higher demand items that were sure to sell through. In the past, we always got cashiers to handle the register in our dept. so we would be free to help customers and do handle carry outs. We've had flyers maping out exactly where all the BF items are. And we were actually allowed to see the official store copies of the ads well in advance instead of the night before.

We have two Toshiba's at my WM. I'm assuming the HP was exchanged for the $697 Toshiba, and Jason paid the difference. (The other Toshiba model is $997.)

When I left work at 11pm, we had 2 people waiting at a line near our vision center for the laptop. We put out 15 chairs; after those are filled up they'll be turning people away.

WalMart does not honor % off or buy-one-get-one-free deals. However, if the regular price is listed in the ad, some stores may delegate to sell you the two items each at half of the regular price. It's effectively the same thing, except proof of price and how it's rung up.

That's regular price now. Sony is strict about the pricing, so most stores are going to generally be within a dollar of the $149.99 MSRP.

These are basicly the same as the Durabrand 7" models sold at WM (in fact, they're made by Venturer). We don't get many returned at my store, but customers that have actually seen the Polaroid and the Durabrand turned on side-by-side usually go for the Polaroid (Petters) instead. Remember, you can always buy it, try it, and return it within 90 days if you don't like it.

It actually is closer to $650. When they came in last week I scanned the barcode. At $488, the laptops were going to be sold at a 24.5% loss. $378 in some areas makes it closer to 45% markdown, I believe (don't have a calculator handy).

yeah, all the stores around me are getting about 8. my WM got 24 premiums and 22 cores. market/location makes a big difference... we're located near the largest university in the state. And I hear WM and CC got priority deals with Microsoft, but who knows. One of the premiums turned up missing, though. Somebody at my store is gonna get their ass fired for stealing or for understocking if the PI count drops to 0 after we sell the other 23. We're going to either have to look at transaction reports and see what register it gets rung up at (and hope they use their discount card) or go through about 72 hours worth of security tapes to see who's been in and out of the locked storage room.

WM is advertising BF deals on the in-store radio/tv feeds. Stop by the electronics dept. next time you're in and you might catch one. I heard the $378 laptop deal on the radio announcement, and saw the $99 TV/DVD on the TV feed.

The specs on Circuit City's web site are incorrect for the 15" Polaroid (FLM-1511). I saw them at work yesterday. The resolution was listed as 1024x768 on the package, NOT 1280x768 . Here is a link to the spec sheet for this model on Polaroid's web site: http://tinyurl.com/dytwe

Any idea what the native resolution is?

I spotted David a long time ago on a WM ad on another Black Friday web site.

Yes, no rainchecks any time of the year. Now, if you make a really big stink about it, they'll make an exception for you. As far as I concerned, rainchecks are pointless at WalMart. You don't need a ticket to guarantee a price. Our prices don't fluctuate much, and we don't do sales like other stores (percents off, etc.). If something goes on rollback or reduced, that's the price it's going to be until it's either clearanced or marked down again. How many stores would actually offer rainchecks for limited supply/special buys anyway?

There were people at work today passing out flyers to a screening of an anti-WalMart documentary at the local high school. At the bottom of the flyer was a message that read: "Free Admittance for Wal-Mart Employees" They left before we got the luxury of having them arrested for tresspassing and unauthorized soliciting.

We NEVER do rainchecks at my WM. Yes, it is policy to issue them, but we have all sorts of problems between rainchecks and promises to hold items and so on, that we simply refuse any request of this nature.

they should be in most stores by now. However, they are kept locked up in management offices until the public release next week.

The 23" at WalMart is a Symphonic.

I believe you're talking about the 27" from the non-BF ad. It's the $247 Philips that's already available.

$179 at WalMart w/ Forza game. That's the ONLY in-store option available at WM (there is no core system available for the time being).

Shoot, at WM we aren't allowed to accept tips of any nature. Of course, customers have been known to accidently drop a few bucks on the ground for me to find .