Worst Black Friday experience at a store?

[jb2013]

I would have to say Office Depot last year was a bad experience for me, i was there to get some of their small deals they had last year and as i was ready to pay i was in line for around, a half an hour not because there was a huge line but the cashier was really slow. To top it all off as i was getting closer to be ringed up their debit/credit machine started malfunctioning and told us they only were gonna accept cash and i all i had was my debit card, so i had go to another line and wait again, which was really tedious and took a long time.

[shemons]

Toys R Us was BY FAR the worst last year. They opened at midnight, and let in way too many people. You could not walk anywhere in the store. Then the lines were around the entire perimeter of the store, so by the time you finally found what you were looking for (which was a chore because the aisles were all full) you had to try to navigate to the entrance of the store and get back in line; the lines of which really never moved. So after an hour of this, I dumped my stuff in an aisle and followed a guy and a cart who said he was getting the h*ll out of there and left. Went home and ordered all their early bird specials online. Much better experience.

[Lusha120]

I agree with the toys r us experiance. it was horrid!! not even the employees knew where the line was..... and we were sent to the "line" only to be told 35 minutes later by another employee that this infact was NOT A LINE. threw everything on the floor and walked out. NEVER AGAIN... and I have small kids.

[Rockfordmom]

They kept calling a manager at TRU on their walkies because they couldn't find where things were and I got fed up so I called the store and asked to talk to a manager and when they asked me why I said - BECAUSE I'VE BEEN STANDING HERE IN YOUR STORE AT THE VIDEO GAME REGISTER WAITING FOR A MANAGER FOR OVER 10 MINUTES WHILE EMPLOYEES KEEP CALLING FOR A MANAGER BUT NO ONE IS ANSWERING OR COMING OVER TO HELP - someone immediately (miraculously!) came over to help.

[len_mullen]

This is easy -- although it happened Thanksgiving morning. Our K-mart was supposed to start BF on turkey day, so I soldiered out with my list and waited in line. When they let us in the store was a disaster. It turned out that they put the specials out Wednesday because we were close to the Massachusetts line and Massachusetts stores were not going to be open Thanksgiving. There were no deals and no rainchecks. Haven't stepped in the store since.

[delphernina]

Kohl's 2008. The shopping was great, but the mob getting into the store was downright dangerous. I was right in the middle of some seriously peeved off people and can honestly say I was scared. It made me understand the Wal-mart trampling. In 2009 I made sure to stay at the back of the line. I love bf deals and the bf excitement, but I never want to be trapped in the middle of a mob like that again.

[PentiumMMX]

My worst was easily BF 2007 at Wal-Mart. The main thing I was after was the Guitar Hero I & II bundle for the PS2 (I had been wanting to get those games for myself), so I saved up my money to go and get it.

 

When I got there, they where easily the most disorganized they had ever been on Black Friday, because none of the employees knew where anything was due to a lack of communication between employees; I asked over around the Electronics department for what I was looking for, and they referred me to Crafts, which referred me to Toys, which referred me to the bakery, so on and so forth until I eventually ended back up in the Electronics department. By this point, I actually saw a manager, who told me they had already sold their last copy of it; which I really didn't believe at first because of all the other employees giving me false information and the run-around. Seeing as that was the hot item that year, I don't see why they didn't get more copies in; they had plenty of the guitar controllers to go around, but not enough copies of the game.

 

However, I feel they've gotten better since then; they've had everything much better organized since then

[Timswife81404]

Last year TRU. It was my first and LAST TRU visit on BF! Like the first poster said the lines were wrapped around the building and they let WAY too many people in. You couldn't move!! I ended up ditching my stuff and leaving, but in order to do that I had to climb over pallets of toys because people wouldn't let you through what they thought was the checkout line!

 

Last year Wal-Mart was also a really bad experience! When we arrived at 3:30am there was a lady checking out with one of the BF TVs, and people were walking around with their carts overflowing with doorbuster items! Of course since everyone else was snatching things up I wasn't going to sit back and let everything get gone, so I loaded up too. We were at the checkout well before 5am. The cashier told us she couldn't check us out until 5, so we said fine and waited. Then about 1 min before 5 a CSM came and told all the cashiers to start. Well apparently this cashier was ticked off at the world that morning because she just stood there. I said, "She said you could start." Then she YELLED at me, "MY clock doesn't say 5am yet, and that's not my boss!!! I'm not starting until MY BOSS says so!" I took a deep breath and told her that there was no need for her to yell at me, and she just rolled her eyes. I've NEVER in my life had an employee anywhere yell at me like this!! When I got home I sent Wal-Mart a letter about her and later got a call that she was being disciplined for her actions. To this day when I go in that Wal-Mart and see that girl I get evil looks and eye rolls.

[Buckeye Shopper]

Old Navy, great deals but just a disaster.

[momof3luvs1]

I have actually been pretty lucky on bf. This might be because I go to the outlets for midnight madness then hit up kmart, toysrus, then the mall.So I dont hit any huge stores at opening! My dh hits up Target ( I dont like to do that store on bf TOO many people) and we both refuse to do Walmart. The kmart by me is always super organized and the line to get in is never that long at opening and by the time I get to toys r us it is about 10am n the store has slowed down ALOT..But I would have to say the worst part for me is more of the traffic on the way to a store..every year for midnight madness we need to leave by 930pm just to make sure we are there at midnight...traffic is CRAZY going into the outlets!! lines backed up for hours on the expressway!!

[Jen8112]

My worst was probably 2008 when I stood outside of Walmart for 8 hours with a drunk guy just to almost get trampled on the way in because I was near the front.

 

My last 2 years I've been going to TRU were great! 2008 I went after Walmart so I wasn't there till at least 6, opened at 5am that year. Had to maneuver around a million people in there but got what I wanted and got to the end of the line which wove in and out of isles all the way to the back. I know doesn't sound good yet, anyway, they line moved very fast and I only spent about 30-45 minutes in there total. Last year was awesome! I was around the first 12 in line. At midnight they opened the doors and let in like the first 25 people. I got all my stuff and checked out within 15 minutes! When I left I had to cut through the line that was still wrapped around the building with my car.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Jen8112

[zim05]

At Walmart a couple of years ago (maybe 5yrs or so) the CareBears came back as a hot item and we wanted to pick up two of them for our younger siblings.

They were located in a big square metal box in one of the wide isles that separate the clothing section from the grocery area and the box was taped off until 5am.

Once they took the tape off and people were allow to grab and there was literally a stampede of people rushing to grab the bears and my sister was over there to try to our two.

She came away without a scratch (with two bears) but she said people were pushed down by the crowd and some of the CareBears were ripped apart by the seams by people fighting for them. We found out later when we went over to Target to wait for them to open that a person broke their arm and another one their wrist in "The Great CareBear Stampede" <--which is what we now call it by.

[AndreaInNC]

Target a few years ago when they decided not to PM on Black Friday only. Would have been nice if they would have let people know that - but they didn't. I had all my ads lined up and when the manager said no PMing - I just left all my stuff on the belt and walked out - headed over to TRU and got everything there.

[rianistar]

Best Buy a few years ago. I waited in line starting at 5:00pm Thanksgiving day, and I was about 50th in line. I wanted a laptop. I knew that there weren't 50, but I had hoped that not everyone wanted the same thing. After waiting 12 hours, they passed out tickets. The people in front of me took a ticket for every item offered whether they wanted it or not, then sold the tickets. I was so disillusioned I left with nothing and almost gave up on BF. Luckily, I realized that I just needed to give up on BB and have been happily shopping at other stores ever since :)

[speeddiva]

For me it was Menards when they 1st opened here. They let everyone in at once then had no carts for merchandise, none of the staff knew where anything was and the checkout lines were so unorganized it took 4 hours to checkout. Never again!

[EMColeman1]

Circuit City 4 years ago.... All the computers at check-out crashed for over an hour. I was second in line, got everything I wanted, then waited and waited.

[BruceLee]

Ive seen many bad BF here but not for things I wanted. But last year Target was horrible. Like others said it was wrapped all the way around the parking lot(not a line but line that was like 5 or 6 people wide) and it was just long. It was so many people it wrapped around the parking lot, down the road we have in town. There was no parking place near the line/store I had to park far away and walked and waited in line. Then the people that was running it let way to many people in. There was no space to walk. I didn't get a cart and I wanted big items, but I got some stuff and stood in line for over an hour. And the lines themself were wrapped in each isle you couldn't find it and nobody knew.. Just pointed in a direction. Eventually got out of there and went back later on that day.

[magickallight]

Many, Many moons ago... when Cabbage Patch Kids were SO popular I was almost beaten to death tying to grab 2 for my then young girls... it was terrible! (Think is was an Ace Hardware - but it has been 20+ years and hard to remember.) Indecently, I DID not get them - but my THEN MIL scored where she lived and was the HIT of Christmas!

[morganw621]

Home Depot! I know, it sounds silly. One year they has some powertool my husband wanted. We figured it was not a big BF draw for crowds, so we got there around 4:30 for 5 a.m (had already done Toys R Us). We were 6th in line, no biggie. Then they shut off the lights in the parking lot! Pitch black. It's set back from the main road and all by itself. 5 comes, 5:30, 6. People were pulling in and leaving thier headlights on to see. Finally at 6:45 they opened the doors (the lights never came back on, probably on a timer that was wrong). Stuff was piled all over the front part of the store from the ad, no rhyme or reason to the order. None of the employees knew where anything was. Then this other guy goes to take a shopvac down from and the whole pile falls. Not one employee came over to check on the guy or clean up the mess. We had to climb over the shop vac pile to get out. Never again!

[2000SE]

Home depot as well…. The year they had the gorilla ladder’s on sale (I think 2007) I got hit on my check and ear as someone was trying to squeeze through a tight aisle and didn’t see me I guess. The worse part (other than the pain) was SHE didn’t even say sorry ,she just turned as I held the side of my face and kept on running toward the register. HD has the worst layout of any store IMO. I’m glad that was my last stop because after that all I wanted to do was go home.

[nicole20]

Mine would have to be at walmart last year. Our Walmart stays open 24 hours so you can get there whenever you want and get in line for whatever item you are there to get. Well i wanted to get my DS a portable DVD player they had on sale last year. I asked an employee where the line for this would be and she took me to where our old layaway dept. was. I was sitting there reading a book and a manger came by and asked what i was waiting for and i told her. She then told me that i was in the wrong spot for this item and escorted me over to the crafts section and told me to start the line there. by this time more and more people were waiting in line with me. Well 5am rolls around and they start bringing out the items for people to start tearing into, but no DVD players ever came. We see people rushing ot the old layaway section where i originally was and coming out with the Dvd players we had waited all night for! We all ran over there and cut in the front of the line and they thankfully gave us our Dvd players too.

[Kme1958]

My worst experience has to be the Disney store last year. It is in the mall and they made you wait outside until midnight. Swarms of people at all the different doors but they only opened one set of doors...lucky for us it was our door. People pushed and pushed and ran to the store. We walked and still were pretty close to the front. Well some girls decided they were going to jerks and start fighting. They were throwing punches, the girl about ripped off the other girl's shirt (not a pretty sight I should add) and because of their stupidity the store refused to open until the security and police could diffuse the situation. So we waited an additional 45 minutes because they were acting like idiots.

[honey_bee_1979]

Last year TRU & Walmart by far the worst I have ever seen!!! TRU you had to walk through every isle. You couldn't just go and get what you wanted. Then at the end of the maze was the electronics, it was all blocked off and they were letting 1 person, yes I said 1!!! in the electronics section to choose or browse whatever they wanted to do. Then 1 long line to the checkout. Forget it I got out of there. I shopped elsewhere. Then Walmart, I got items, firstly they hid all there big ticket items like the tvs were all in the frozen section (we have a double decker walmart) no one knew so overone was crammed into the little electronics area, then when it was all straightened out there was people running and nothing left! Then the lines were so long and slow, I stood in line for 2 hours!!! We are talking over 40 registers!!! 20 downstairs and 20 upstairs. Terrible!!!

[Tarmax4]

I hated the new WM strategy. It was SO unfair. I got there (Secaucus, NJ) to camp out at 10pm. They allowed you inside the store but they had all the merchandise covered in black bags so you didn’t know "what was what". They only uncovered/reveled what was underneath at the designated sale time (12am & 5am). The store was SO CROWDED with people sitting & walking around it was a complete hazard. So, I got there at 10pm & a person who JUST WALKED IN at 5am got the door buster I was camping out for because the store was too crowded for me to WALK OVER to grab it. If I knew it was in the next aisle under the black bags I would've been over there. It was CHAOS in there!!! This "black bag" strategy created more of anxious atmosphere which almost created a riot. YES, I said THE WORD……RIOT!!! One woman grab some door busters from under the "black bags" without anyone looking and basically sat with them until 5am; That was when she can legally purchase them at the register. Another customer saw her and started arguing with her. What Tha?? If anyone from Walmart Corporate is reading this I SUGGEST a ticket system for ALL ELECTRONICS and DO NOT let people camp out inside the store ALL night. Pass out tickets outside and let people inside the store 1 hour before they can actually purchase it. Letting people camp out INSIDE is too chaotic!! I saw people stealing stuff left & right despite undercover cops in there.

[Tarmax4]

They kept calling a manager at TRU on their walkies because they couldn't find where things were and I got fed up so I called the store and asked to talk to a manager and when they asked me why I said - BECAUSE I'VE BEEN STANDING HERE IN YOUR STORE AT THE VIDEO GAME REGISTER WAITING FOR A MANAGER FOR OVER 10 MINUTES WHILE EMPLOYEES KEEP CALLING FOR A MANAGER BUT NO ONE IS ANSWERING OR COMING OVER TO HELP - someone immediately (miraculously!) came over to help.

LOVE WHAT YOUR DID!!!! I would've done the same thing!!!

[Tarmax4]

Target a few years ago when they decided not to PM on Black Friday only. Would have been nice if they would have let people know that - but they didn't. I had all my ads lined up and when the manager said no PMing - I just left all my stuff on the belt and walked out - headed over to TRU and got everything there.

I'm sorry-What's "PM"

[KBsDarling]

pm = price match

[arci122]

kmart thanksgiving......never have all the stuff out and marked correctly not many other choices to go to that day.

[kselzer]

Target last year. I didn't need any doorbuster type items so I didn't camp out or anything. I was there to buy a Target exclusive toy that my niece wanted. I looked all over and finally asked an associate. THEY NEVER GOT THEM IN!!! No apologies, no rainchecks, no idea when they might show up, total waste of time. I also looked for another non-doorbuster item and they were gone as they only had 6.

 

I went to WM and got tons of stuff with no problem, they had so much inventory it was great! Some small stuff I didn't expect to still be available was and I bought way too much!

[amez74]

Last year was probably the worst lines that I've dealt with. The Target my sil and I went to had a very small parking lot and it took forever to find a spot (it wasn't our first or even second stop) then the lines wrapped around the store. When we got to Menards the lines were terrible too-a manager told us they weren't as bad in the garden section so we headed out there and waited a huge line in the cold We just couldn't bring ourselves to switch lines again. After we checked out of Menards we decided to walk around and get a few other things (figured the lines would be better) They weren't store employees were walking around consolidating lines and then people would get made saying that you were line jumping. We would explain no the manager told us to merge into this line-they thought everyone in our merged line should go to the end. Just a little chaotic.