Black Friday lines pathetic compared to years past!

[TazErase]

I went to a few more stores since the prior post and same thing there. Hours after the start of the sales I was able to get most doorbusters.

I went to Walmart at 3pm for the doorbusters from the 8am Saturday sale and had no problem getting everything I was looking for. Went to Lowe's and got what I wanted there at 11am when the sale started at 5am... Kmart, Walmart, and other stores all had plenty of doorbusters hours after the sale started. My sister went to another Walmart however and that one was jam packed according to her and she didn't get what she wanted. Had she told me, I could easily have gotten everything at the location I went to so it seems in and around larger cities they were packed, but further from big cities they were empty. She went to a Walmart in Westchester, NY which is about the closest Walmart to NYC. I really hope the retailers change it back to Black Friday or at least Thursday night rather than so early on Thanksgiving, however, if this is going to be the norm, I will have no problems going hours later to score anything I want. In addition to all that, for those gun owners out there, at 4pm Friday, Dick's Sporting Goods still had a large stock of the .22 ammo on sale. I had been looking literally for months for .22 ammo and they had tons even so late in the day on Friday!

[racerfan]

I went early to Walmart because I wanted the Xbox One.  Things were slow until about 3pm then others came to get on line for the Xbox One and the PS4.  Was able to get 2 Ipad minis, 2 of the $98 tvs and 2 Roku boxes.  I don't think Walmart had the results they wanted.  I was originally getting the Vizio 60" at Walmart for $688 but Best Buy beat them around 9am so i ordered from them and it will be delivered next Saturday.

 

One big pain in my Walmart was that where ever we got the wristbands that is where you had to pick up your items.  It was stupid doing it that way.  Had to be on line 5 different times for 5 different items between the 3 of us there.

[Tigger97498]

1whodathere you will be please with the switch the emerson 32 is a awonderful tv!

[Monstermile]

Wal-Mart wasn't bad. In and out in about an hour with everything I was after. Best Buy pretty easy to move around. Rode by Target an hour before opening and the line wrapped completely around the building. Never saw that many people thee before. Was really weird going into Wal-Mart this afternoon and it was like a normal shopping day. Plenty of the doorbusters sitting around. Still was able to grab a few movies I missed last night.

[toolmaan]

Wichita KS Cabela's this morning about 4:45 I would guess 800 people in line. If there were less than 600 I would of gotten in line for the freebies which I heard 90% of the people got a $5 gift card. I went to Menards, got in line at 5:25 probably 100 people ahead of me. At 6 when the door opened I would guess 400 people behind me.

[stevierocks]

i didnt get to go out this year,but others said it was less crowded. however funny thing is a black friday virgin went out and came back reporting to us how busy it was and said it had to be the worst year... we all laughed,an a seasoned black friday shopper,was back in between stores(waiting to go back out at 3 am..) was at the same store and just finished saying how empty  it was. HOWEVER there was a line outside,as the walmart here  was insisting on keeping capacity  down...so when 10 people left,10 could go in.,..ect.

[mgreen]

I am in Banning, CA. I didn't even end up going out of town. My sister and I went to WM first, didn't seem as crowded as usual. Folks started ripping the pallets open at a quarter 'til. The workers just gave up. I even picked up some regular grocery items while I was there, price matched and used coupons. Check out only took about 20-30 minutes. Then headed over to Kohl's, they weren't even open yet. The line to get in went around the building to the back of the building. Didn't want to wait in line. The store clerk said they would let the line in first and when the entire line was in then they would let the rest of us who didn't want to wait in line go in. Somewhere before the line was in, another clerk opened the other set of doors and the crowd that wasn't in line bum rushed the door. Kinda got pushed in at that point. The line to check out, however, was horrendous. They kept apologizing over the loud speaker. Had several $10 coupons and 15% off, so broke up items into three orders. Got Kohl's cash and great discount for all. With price matching at WM, ordering some stuff online and Kohl's we were pretty much done. Went to get a bite to eat at Denny's. Couldn't believe it, they were empty! They are always packed on Black Friday. We were home by 12ish. Came home and went to sleep. Went back out about 11am today. Went to a local big and tall store, then to Target and Best Buy. Still found door buster's at both! I think the early Thursday time may have hurt retailers more than helped. There was nothing to do to fill up the entire time between 1am and 9am, a lot of down time, a lot of time to fall asleep. Some stores were actually closing and then opening back up in the morning. My vote is to go back to early am on Friday!

[jaymacfla]

Wal Mart was crazy, but we went to Best Buy around 8:15 and they still had a ton of stuff left and way less people than in the past.

We found this to be true. people voted with their absence until the dinner was over. We saw a lot of people show up at the last minute. The later sales drew in crowds and gave them an opportunity to buy the Samsung's and Insignias. My manager reported all of the good ones gone by the last sale. Normally, they would have been gone by the time that the main event was over. I am of the opinion that they will roll back the hours next year to 12 AM.

[sparky605]

I was hoping that the early openings would not work out for retailers. I wish they would just go back to opening at 4 or 5am on FRIDAY.

I didn't go out Thurs. but Fri. morning at 5am there was NOBODY shopping. My son works at 5Below and went in for opening at 5am and was sent home because nobody was shopping.

But I just read an article that said sales this weekend are expected to be/on track to be 2% higher than BF weekend last year so I guess they will keep doing it this way

Edited November 30, 2013 by sparky605

[Leetah]

Went out to Walmart for the 32' TV at 6PM. There was a long line for the TV, but it moved fast. I think the video game line was long and slow, but everything else I wanted we were able to just walk right up to and grab. Menard's in the morning wasn't bad either and Costco was easier shopping than on any non-black Friday day.

[mabennett]

i went to walmart at 8 on friday morning for the iphones. there was about 75 people in line. line DID NOT MOVE the entire hour. the manager came out and said "computers are working slow because of the cold"! WHATEV! then at 9 he came out again and said they were out of phones. GRRR. went to ATT and they had NO deals going and people were flocking there like mad! left and went to BestBuy. they had about 20 people inline. I remembered they had a mobile store right outside their regular store so we went there, no wait, and in and out in 20 min!

[amez74]

We skipped going out Thursday night and waited until Fri. morning. We got to JCP around 4:15 it  was completely dead. We easily got what we needed. Went to Target-same thing, found what we needed and checked out without waiting.  We then went to Meijer and it was a little more crowded, but easily managable. We each only had like 2-3 items and went to self checkout. We (along with everyone checking out) had to wait until the sale started at 6am to check out, but we were first in line at the self-checkout--only stood there about ten minutes.  We got to Menards about 15 minutes after they opened. They were super busy and there were no carts.  However again we got everything we wanted-the associates were GREAT about knowing where all the products were located.  We checked out in the garden section-a bit of a line, but not to bad.  After we unloaded we went back through the store to see if there was anything else we needed/wanted since our arms were free-still no carts. MY SIL found a couple of items and we spent a much longer time in line checking out. We ate at a local diner and had some coffee to warm up. My SIL decided she wanted a random sweater from Kohls even though we had already done all of our Kohls' shopping online. I figured since it was 9:30am that the lines wouldn't be too bad, but they were terrible inside. lol we decided her random sweater could wait. Went to Sam's club and picked up a few things, and again they weren't busy at all.

 

This is the first time ever we didn't go to Walmart.

[TazErase]

Went by Best Buy Friday night and they still had many of the items they had on sale for Black Friday that never sold. There must have been at least 40 TVs still on the crates they bring out with their BF deals as well as many other items from their BF ad.

[swash_01]

I guess folks stayed in to enjoy their Thanksgiving and figured that they would not be able to get their items on Friday.  I know that's what I thought.  I shopped online only and waiting for sales online Wednesday night was kind of a pain since I was cooking at the same time.  

[jamieva]

I think people voted with their feet.  They were not going to sacrifice family time to get to the store at 8 pm.  We will see if the stores take notice for next year

[momlori]

I shopped mostly on line and went to BBW because they will stack coupons on BF and then Target.  Not too busy in BBW but Target was busy like always