KhakiBoy

A guy in one of the lines I was in had a good idea. Requiring multiple tickets to get an item. So like at 2:00 they come out and hand out ticket 1 for the item. 20 minutes later or so they come through and hand out ticket 2. They do this several times, at random time intervals. If you're in the car getting warm while someone holds your spot, then you miss getting the ticket. Then when it comes time to buy the item you have to have all the tickets in order to get it. If you missed one, you're SOL.

All the shopping I did today was for myself Shopping for gifts can wait! LoL I already opened everything and plan to start using it. Especially since almost everything I got has rebates, so want to make sure they work before I go cutting off the UPCs.

I spent $800, which is what I budgeted, since I got everything on my list. I'll get over half of that back in rebates. Not too bad. Didn't quite realize how much all this stuff was going to be (either before or after rebates). But were great deals and I'm very happy.

I want to say thanks to those standing in line around me. I was shopping by myself but the people around me were friendly and easy to talk to. Helped pass the time. And a big thank you to the guy at CompUSA who was holding an 80 GB external hard drive and then left it.

The secret is you can send away for game pieces. You just need to send a SASE. So $.74 for stamps plus the cost of envelopes. You'll get at least $1 and 1 in 3 chance of getting a $3 BBB. Think I might be doing that next year.

My comment is going to be more off the mark. Mmmmm, Rams Horn! I love their Fish & Chips! Haven't found any restaurant that could come close to theirs.

I disagree. Walmart can and should do more to control how customers act. Use chairs like some stores did. Have areas roped off. What they should really do is refuse the sale to anyone not acting in an orderly fashion. If they see people pushing and shoving and cutting in line, take the product off of them. Maybe if Walmart gets slapped with enough lawsuits they'll learn a little lesson in crowd control.

The second slot is under the keyboard. All is good. Just takes a bit more effort to get to it.

My BF shopping experience was pretty good. I might buy more online, I'm just too impatient to wait for it. And I would have dressed warmer. It was 11 degrees with wind chill making it 4 below. I had a hoodie on with a medium-weight jacket on over that. Should have worn my heavy winter coat instead. And brought a scarf. I ended up pulling the hood of my hoodie as tight as it would go and hiding my face inside it. I looked like Kenny from South Park! LoL But hey, it worked. I'd breathe in through my nose and out my mouth which would warm my chest.

My vote went to CompUSA! Although I walked out with every item except one (which I ordered online when I got home), it was a madhouse! Took me over an hour to check out. One thing I did was made sure I verified the SKU on the product with what was in the ad. Like the other post, alot of people were grabbing stuff thinking it was on sale but wasn't.

That sucks dude! Mostly b/c of the idiots at CC. That's why I stand behind my BB. May have to get there earlier but they do things right! A guy in front of my was 16 and he was there to get a tv. His Dad gave him his credit card to use. I told him there's a 99% chance that they won't let him use the card, since it's not his name on it. The kid started freakin, trying to think of what he could do. But it was actually his Dad's debit card, so the kid went to an ATM and just took out cash. I actually ran into him and his friend at the door on my way out and they were waiting for them to bring his TV up. He thanked me again for letting him know about the credit card thing.

My Best Buy had plenty of the Ipod Nano tickets too. Couldn't give them away. I was tempted to get a ticket just so I could feel more justified getting there so early.

What a break! Congrats!!

Black Friday Aholics/Anonymous

I think next year I'll be doing most if not all of my BF shopping online. Unless they happen to have something I really really want and don't want to wait for. This year I had to actually go out and shop since it's my first BF in 7 years I was working retail. Had to experience it from the other side. I must admit I like the customer side alot more ;-)

I'm awake, back from my shopping at Best Buy. I hit CompUSA when they opened. So I'm done. Going to bed in a bit.

Man that would suck! That's why to some degree I don't think people should be able to hold places in line. At least if you were further back it wouldn't be so bad. But to be 1 away!

Man BFJedi, that sucks! It's stupid that they couldn't let you checkout everything at once. Hope you didn't put the computer in the back of a pickup truck. If so, I'm surprised it was still there when you got back with your second purchase! LoL

Awesome! Sounds like the PSA program was the way to go (if your store has it)! I had worked at the BB I was shopping at for 5 years, left last September. When the one manager came buy handing out tickets he saw me in line and just shook his head. I asked him if he'd be my PSA and he got quite a kick out of it.

Congrats!! That's one of the things I wanted, and the only one I didn't get. The one manager looked it up in the system while I was at the counter and said they only had 6 to begin with. But I did order it online when I got home!

Just got back from Best Buy and picked up: *ATI Radeon X700 Pro video card *Netgear 108G Wireless Router and Desktop Card *Dynex 800va UPS *World of Warcraft *Nero 7 Ultra Edition Add that to what I already got at CompUSA and Kmart and I'm done for BF!!! Well, I might buy a portable DVD player, but that will be online.

When I was in line at Best Buy, the lady in front of me was walking back to the line from her car (her sister was holding her spot in line) at the same time they started handing out tickets. She got a ticket for one of the $149 desktops. As she started walking back to her spot in line people around there pointed it out and the manager made her give the ticket back. WTG BB for not letting people skip in line!

That sucks! I think there should be a law forcing stores to hand out tickets for the major doorbusters. It definitely makes things more orderly. That's what I like about my Best Buy. It's always well organized and very orderly.

My shopping experience with Best Buy was MUCH better than that of CompUSA! Only bad thing about my BB trip was I had to get there earlier which meant more time out in the cold. After my Comp shopping trip, I went through the BB parking lot and saw there weren't too many people in line yet, not even across the entire front of the store. So I came home to drop off my stuff and recoup. I also went online and ordered an item from Comp that was sold out in-store. I got back to BB at 3:30, grabbing the last parking spot in the lot, leaving me 1.5 hours to stand out in the 12 degree weather. They did had out tickets for the big items, and on the back of the ticket packet was a store map with the section highlighted where that item is located. I wasn't going for any of the ticketed items though. Tickets for the cheap desktop and laptop were gone by the time they got to us (I'd say there were about 100 people in line ahead of me). Once several people got their tickets they left, so the line moved up some. I started about half-way across the parking lot and by 4:30 I had moved up to the end of the store front, on the sidewalk. I went in and grabbed the ATI Radeon X700 Pro video card first. Then grabbed the Netgear Wireless router and desktop card. Swung over to software to pick up World of Warcraft. The one item I couldn't find was the Dynex 800va UPS. They weren't in the UPS aisle. Asked one SA but he just pointed me to that same aisle. Asked another guy at the end of that aisle and he pointed me to where the pallet was. Grabbed that and on my way to the checkout I grabbed Nero 7 Ultra Edition. The line for the checkout was much better and more organized than at Comp. By the time I got in line it was half-way back across the front lanes. So 1 1/2 loops. Not bad at all. It moved fast too, much faster than Comp. In no time at all I was at the checkout! I did hold the line up a bit as that register didn't have a key to remove the security lock on my video card. I was in and out in 30 minutes! Much better than the 1:45 minutes it took me at Comp.

I got everything I wanted in-store (160 GB SATA HDD, 80 GB external HDD, 350va UPS) except for the Logitech Bluetooth Headset. Took a while, but my online order finally went through.