len_mullen

It's easy to understand that decision. Most people would probably rather do business with Amazon than Walmart. Absent a discount, why would anyone get in a car and deal with a Walmart when they could click a link at Amazon and have the product delivered to their home? For an impulse buy, most people would probable go to Best Buy or Staples where sales associates and presentation are a notch higher (technically anyway). No knock on Walmart -- I shop there regularly -- but there are things I just don't associate with Walmart. I have four Fires. I bought three at Staples and one at Walmart. The one I bought at Walmart was advertised with a $50 gift card. When I got to the store (the Sunday the sale started), the store did not have a current flyer, there were no Fires on display, and the sales associate did not know if 1) they had fires, and 2) there was a sale. I waited patiently for the associate to work things out, but only because I was going to get a $50 gift card for my troubles.

Lucky you! Target is not so lucky.

If you and one of your co-workers show up at the same customer's door, how does that work out for you? Unless you are somehow differentiating on something other than price, I'm guessing your harder working co-worker gets the sale.

My mattress and foundation arrived yesterday. I am very happy with the quality of each component and the price paid. It ended up being less expensive and nicer than expensive. If things change, I'll post a followup, but so far, so good. I decided to get a second set, but was shocked to see that the prices had increased dramatically... bed: $324 ==> $364 (shipped) foundation: $120 ==> $300 (shipped) mattress: $280 ==> $695 (shipped) total: $624 ==> $1359! Hopefully, the sales are cyclical.

Best Buy is giving $75 trade in for the Fires, so check cowboom.com and ebay for resale. Fire HD has a better screen, better speakers, more memory, a faster cpu, a camera, and a microphone.

2012 is going to be a great year to buy a tablet -- it's ALREADY been a great year. Nexus was a welcome open entry. Now, with Amazon taking on Apple with a bigger 4g tab, Apple allegedly challenging the Fire with a mini, and Microsoft entering the fray with Windows tabs, 2012 promises to be a competitive market place with great products at great prices. Of course there will be 'other' tablets and leftovers, but I think the value will be found in these products. Choosing the right tablet will be difficult, but making a mistake will be nearly impossible. Yea for us! We bought four Fires last year and, after a year, are totally delighted. I have learned a little about tablets and how four people use them, so I thought I'd post some tips... 1) If you are buying a tablet for a student, be sure to check in with your school system to see if they are using or are planning to use tablets or e-texts. Ask about how they are using the tablets and what support there will be for student owned tablets. If your kid is going to be carrying a tablet five days a week and using it for classwork and homework, that's probably the one to use for play as well. If the school is handing out iPads, get your kid a TV. There are some terrific academic apps -- flash cards, graphing calculators, foreign language tutors, and even a metronome. Our whole family uses Cozi to keep track of our schedule. I have my youngest put his homework assignments and projects in the To Do list. 2) If you are thinking of using a tablet for work or school, consider the new Windows 8 tablets. They come with Office and promise better integration with your personal computer. 3) Size DOES matter. My 7" Fire slips into my back pocket. So, if I want to use the bathroom or grab a bite to eat at the airport, I can slide the Fire into my pocket and use both hands. People say that magazines and comics work best on the larger screens. I don't look at magazines and comics much. 4) Apps matter. Just like with a PC, start with a list of things you want to do with the tablet, assemble a list of apps that will perform those tasks, then look for a tablet that will run those apps. Even though popular apps tend to find their way to popular tablets, there are exclusives (mostly to iPad) and some apps require specific hardware (camera, gps). A shopping app that uses a camera may not be very useful, if you do not have 3g or 4g service. If your 'killer app' requires flash, then you are going to want to wait for a Windows tab as neither Apple nor the little green monster will support flash going forward. 5) Ecosystem matters. If you already own iTunes or Amazon content, you do not want to have to buy that content again. If you are already a Prime member, Amazon devices can borrow books from the lending library or watch prime videos for no additional charge. Amazon also offers free books and apps everyday. You're going to be surprised at all the uses you find for your slate. We have Netflix and I enjoy watching a movie when I am working outside or in the basement. I think it would be very cool to plug a Fire HD into a hotel TV to watch Netflix. If you do not want to subscribe to a service, there's a Crackle app which has commercial supported TV and movies. My wife and I each have favorite radio apps. Living in New Hampshire, we have poor radio reception. Internet radio fills that void. I listen to sports and talk radio and she listens to music. My kids listen to Spotify and Pandora. My Fire does not have 3g, but I use Amazon's 'send to kindle' app to store shopping lists and product research. My wife has moved all of her recipes from notecards to a database app. When I travel, I send all my documents to the Fire as well as my itinerary and restaurant information. I put two or three movies on the Fire when I fly. And lots of books. Some I buy, some I download from free sources, and a lot that Amazon offers for free. I probably have a hundred free cookbooks and as many self help and finance books. I used to get stressed when I was stuck somewhere waiting for something. Now, I just read a book. I'm probably not going to buy a tablet this year. I'm hoping Amazon releases a 7" 4g model soon.

You may want to keep an eye on Best Buy's deal of the day. I got a 42" rca plasma for $300. It seems to go on sale once a month.

I have never bought a TV on BF. I closely monitor the deals. Generally, the ordeal associated with acquiring a tv of suffcient value is not worth the discount. On that others may disagree, but it's difficult to argue with the proposition that there have been BF type discounts offered from September to December. My favorite being this one which also earned me $100 in Discover Cashback. The set still graces my living room. My tip for you is to start shopping now. Read reviews, look at TVs, and set a budget. Watch and search the deal sites so that you know how inexpensive each of the sets on your wish list has been or can be. As soon as you see a set that meets your quality/size/features/budget criteria, buy it. Then keep watching for opportunities to return/price adjust. When the BF ads come out, compare what you have to what they offer and decide if you want to sit in line for the difference in value. This is dated but still relevant.

Just wanted to close the loop on this. I have read a lot of reviews and recommendations and can honestly assure you they are meaningless. It turns out that for every good review of a mattress or foundation or bed there is a scathing dress down. Even $3,000 mattresses have their detractors. My advice is to get an inexpensive coil mattress and a matching foundation. If the pair fails to satisfy, you can try something else without feeling bad. Here is what I ended up with... http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002L5JEPE/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2T1_ST1_3p_dp_1 http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_08214474000P?lid=IExTrans_ItemNumber_link&rioptype=SC&sid=IEx20120830TransSearsOrderConf&eml= http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_08214489000P?lid=IExTrans_ItemNumber_link&rioptype=SC&sid=IEx20120830TransSearsOrderConf&eml= I'll update this topic once we have slept in the bed for a while.

That's a great question. Market conditions say no, but my eyes tell me something else. Prices for spinning disks peaked after the floods in Malaysia and never really came down. BUT I got a 2t usb 3 seagate disk at staples a couple weeks ago for $63 -- which feels BFish to me. I am seeing solid state disks fall as well. Internal spinning disks are getting no bigger and no cheaper. Last ones I purchased were 2t@$60 ea. I think we are going to see a lot of deals on tablets. Looks like Amazon and Apple are fixing bayonets and Goodle has entered the fray. HP has a new tablet, the new windows tablets are out, and there are a lot of crazy cheap chinese tabs that aren't half bad. Definately TVs. What B&M doesn't already have an 80" Sharp on display? Don't they look good? LOL. I put a 42" 720p plasma in my kid's room for $270 earlier this year. I can see 50" plasmas at $300. Windows 8 is out. I'm hoping for some really good deals on ivy bridge computers running win8. My kid wants a new desktop with a screaming video card. Come on Staples... Can't wait!

I'll be checking out SAMs, BJs, and BigLots tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions.

I worked for a department store that was open all night one Thanksgiving when I was in school. I had dinner with my family then headed to work. The place was dead for most of the night. We just kind of got ready for Friday. The manager sent us across the street for breakfast -- on the store -- in pairs through the night. It was kind of fun. I enjoy holiday shopping from either side of the register.

I'm good at shopping for TVs and computers. I can manage the purchase of a new car. I have NO IDEA how to shop for furniture. We are in the process of replacing the flooring in our bedrooms and the connecting hallway. My kids are now teens and I'm thinking it's time to refresh the bedroom furniture. I am looking for links to deal sites, discount sites, and best practices for purchasing bedroom furniture. I am looking at least for three queen size beds and mattresses. I'm OK with sets that include dressers. I am looking for reasonable quality -- something between sauder and heirloom. We are in southern New Hampshire, so please limit regional merchants to the north shore of Boston. I am also interested in recommendations for mattresses and the adjustable beds. I know I'm grasping at straws in posting this. Thanks, in advance, for your contributions to this discussion.

No, not the door busters. Maybe these go on sale going forward, but there were a lot of unsold TVs. Also, Staples STILL had door busters this morning -- still at the BF prices.

The article is more about projections and expectations than register receipts and may be self-promotion. My experience is that a lot of merchandise went unsold. No doubt online sales were up, but B&M sales are still so much more important that these stats do not make or break a BF. Also, there is the matter of returns. If the unsold stock blows out, I may return some of my purchases. Were I a betting man, I would say that increased hours translated to increased traffic but that purchases were of less expensive items. Time will tell...

My oldest and I went shopping after supper. Seeing so many 'door busters' languishing on various web sites, I wondered how B&M sales went. We were in Salem, New Hampshire. First stop was Sears and there were a LOT of TVs on the floor. The sales associate told me sales were 50% of expectations. Next stop was Best Buy. They had a lot more TVs in the aisles than Sears. The store was very busy, so I didn't talk to anyone, but there were hundreds of sets of all sizes piled up throughout the store. Last stop was the Super Walmart (we needed milk and eggs for the morning). I have never seen so many TVs in my life. When you walked through the door, there were 19 and 22 inch sets -- maybe three pallets. After that were at least forty 55 inch sets. When I turned into produce, there were twenty more. And smaller sets too. Mostly Vizio, but Sanyos too. And we never left the grocery area. I asked our cashier if anyone had showed up for BF. She said yes, but that TVs are arriving at the store faster than they can sell them. When I picked up my Fires at Staples, I inquired about their BF preview and the associate told me that no one showed up. Tomorrow, I'll be in Plaistow and will visit Home Depot, Kohls, Staples (I need one more Fire), and Walmart. If this is representative, we can expect some amazing discounts as stores try to lure us to buy their excesses. Did anyone else voyage out tonight? Were shelves picked clean?

Pledge? LOL. Who leaves a bargain site...ever? Not me. Now, send me a shirt.

I grabbed the $200 xbox bundle from newegg. Seems like a good deal and what household doesn't have a PS3, WII, and XBox? LOL.

I grabbed a couple of the $240 37" Dynex TVs at Best Buy this yesterday. Pleasant surprise. After rewards, these cost ~$213.

definately the transformer. i love the keyboard dock and suspect this thing will run win8 eventually.

I think the streak is fine. Having had a Fire since launch, I have come to like the Amazon ecosystem. We are still in a Prime trial and have been downloading a game or app each day. I don't think I'd want a bigger tablet -- the Fire slips in my back pants pocket and I like that a lot. If you are just playing games and think the size is a bonus, then the Streak might be better for you. Get both and return one.

The T-301 is a less expensive, dated android tab lacking the amazon ecosystem. Get the fire for another $50.

Good supplemental read here... http://www.pcworld.com/article/241010/the_best_video_games_and_consoles_for_families.html

It's a combination of things. 1) You have to show up much earlier to get a door buster. 2) You will find nearly as good deals, in most cases, before, during, and after BF.

I know. I said it was a tough assignment ;-) The information is good. I just think the decision is complex. Maybe add the cost of the BD player and Live at the top of the bars and draw a line across the platforms. When I talk to people about game consoles, it's rare that a console specific franchise is the determinent. Usually it's price. WII wins. Then you talk about sd vs hd and netflix and Live and BD and people move towards the more expensive consoles. I think the best value on the market this BF is the Walmart $200 PS3 bundle. Start at ShopDiscover to get $20 in cashback and you have a $180 BD player that does Netflix and plays games. That price includes two great games and a controller. Add $80 for a move bundle that includes two games and you're still WII competitive.