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Remembering Fondly the Secret Sales


jaymacfla

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Do you remember when they started, who started them, and how long they lasted? In some form they survive today as online sales, but not like the ones from the last decade that literally saved the day for one retailer in particular....Best Buy. This is the time of year that I take stock of my current inventory of past Black Friday deals, and try to match them up with the deals that were posted. Some have been relegated to yardsales or garage inventory, yet some are still unbelieveably in service.

 

If you are waxing nostalgic in the archives, you may remember 2006-2010 a bit underwhelming and confusing. If you cannot match your item, perhaps you bought it as one of those fleeting, yet wonderful secret sales. It would be nice to compile all secret items into one convenient location in order to show the members just how good it was.

 

If it weren't for those sales, many laptops and televisions would not have been discounted, and we would have never known just how much competition these big box stores considered each other. Lets discuss.

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That first year Walmart had their Secret Saturday Sales was great! I say that, but I don't even remember what kind of deals they had. LOL.  I remember getting a great deal on a desktop computer. What I remember most is just how "secret" the sales were.  The floor people at my local WM had no idea what I was talking about and had to call management. haha.   I wouldn't have known anything about it, if not for Gottadeal.

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Back in 2006, the internet wasn't as reliable. I remember getting printed copies of the secret items brought to the line, and eventually, the store (Best Buy) passed them out before the ticketed items were brought out. I was trying to remember, but one of the stores was announcing them one at a time during Thanksgiving dinner. I recall about 7 items that saved the sale for Best Buy that year. You can clearly see that it was lackluster without them and I am afraid the importance of them could be lost over time if not archived. It was during this time that Circuit City was on the decline and Walmart became Best Buy's new major competitor.

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I remember one of the first Saturday secret sales at Walmart, roughly about 7 years ago, they were offering a HP laptop for $199. I happen to be a bread distributor and caught wind of this sale the day before, so I had gotten in line with about 5 people ahead of me on that Saturday. There was a guy behind me with such a crappy attitude, all he kept saying is that there better be enough laptops because he had to have one. Well they only had 4, so we were both out of luck, but there happens to be another Walmart a few miles down the road. All of us who were unable to get one raced over to the other store to try to get one there, including the guy with the bad attitude. This guy was some headcase, he raced me down the road, cut me off and ran a red light. I don't know how but I managed to get in line before him and there was a lady behind me in between us. I was the last one to get the laptop and just to stick it to this guy I handed it to the gal behind me that wanted it for her grandchildren. I then looked at him and told him "Happy Holidays". Sorry for the novel, but this is a story I love to share with people.

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Your story reminds me of the competition I used to face at my favorite Best Buy location in Orange Park, Fl. They were tent campers who would devote an extra day in order to try and beat me to the punch. I would win, only because i had some inside information on their intentions. I eventually left them to that location and they have been much happier since. my new location is well lighted and offers 24 hour security.

 

Back in 2004-2007 I would always marvel at the sheer size of the line, which would wrap over three quarters around the building. There would always be some lady who would complain about the line getting longer and that she was counting the line....a phenomenon that persisted back in those days when the back of the line insisted that the front was cheating. The secret sale items only made the threats more tense, yet strangely funny at the same time.

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I always remember in 2006 when we got our plasma tv from Best Buy it was one of the Door Busters. Well I was like 5th in line when we got in. They had 4 in stock and when they announced that they didn't have any more in stock a lot of people got really crappy about it and were flat out rude. So I was still standing there and started to talk to the sales lady who was by me. She told me I can still get one if I want it that as part of their secret sale they had MORE of them the only catch was that you had to wait until Saturday to get it. I was super nice to her and I was like hey I'm all in. She smiled and wrote me up they even kicked in their shipping and setup right to my house. Next evening Best Buy showed up, unboxed and setup our new HD TV. I've found it always pays to be as nice as possible to the people who work there.

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I also remember Walmart's first Secret Saturday sale.  I agree with another poster, that it was so secret that even the employees didn't know about it.  I have to say that those were kind of the good days.  We live in a small town and at that time most didn't follow any kind of black friday website or anything.  If it wouldn't have been for gottadeal, I wouldn't have known about it either.

 

I don't even remember what was on sale or what I bought but I remember it being a lot of fun sitting there with the 5 or 6 people and talking with the employees and trying to help them know what was going on.  :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Here was the list that was added to the 2006 sale but for a few websites would be lost forever:

I remember on of the WM secret sales.  I went in to get Biscuit the dog... on sale for like 89.  Reg. 200.  I was pumped and NOBODY knew anything about the sale...including workers.  They were shocked when the price rang up.  Something else on the list too, but I forget... hadn't planned on getting it, but for the price, thought... why the heck not?

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  • 3 weeks later...
It wasn't exactly "secret," but in 2005 I remember Kmart having Friday, Saturday, and Sunday specials that were good only on those days. I remember it clearly because on Friday the people in front of us on the checkout line abandoned an artificial Martha Stewart Christmas tree because it was a Saturday-only sale (they didn't realize it), and in fact that model tree is the exact one that is still in use in my home for the season. ;) Edited by AuntieJul
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It wasn't exactly "secret," but in 2005 I remember Kmart having Friday, Saturday, and Sunday specials that were good only on those days. I remember it clearly because on Friday the people in front of us on the checkout line abandoned an artificial Martha Stewart Christmas tree because it was a Saturday-only sale (they didn't realize it), and in fact that model tree is the exact one that is still in use in my home for the season. ;)

One of my favorite discounts came from Kmart, and it is also a tree which we have used for many, many years! Sometimes, all it takes is a misprint, or a badly publicised advertisement to give the edge to the consumer. Lately, personal emails with coupons have helped.

Edited by jaymacfla
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Walmart has been the best!  My favorite secret sale was getting skylanders for xbox and some sort of doll that I can't remember for 4.99.  I had 4 of each in my cart and people were looking at me all weird!  An employee asked me if I knew something she didn't and I was like take out your gun and scan it and when she saw the price, was like oh my wow....we were not notified that prices would be changing.  I walked as fast as I could to self check out before they took them away!

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Back in 2005, Walmart printed out a secret sales sheet and had a really cheap laptop.  I went and stood in line early, there was about 10 people ahead of me.  The manager came and told us to move to electronics as the laptops would be given out there.  So we all moved - all of stayed in place, no cutting.  We're standing there for about 2 - 3 more hours when we were told that we were in the wrong line to go back to where we were.  By that time, there was a line a mile long.  People were screaming!  Left without a laptop...another bad Walmart memory. 

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