Best And Worst Places To Shop Bf (poll)

[elena_398]

walmart and target are pretty stocked and easy to checkout and go

 

Kohls was almost a 2 hour wait to checkout- Best Buy, well I won't go there on BF if I don't have to

[Sunshyne]

Walmart was good here. I went in at 4:15, examined my map and then at 4:30 was by what I wanted most. It was chaotic when they opened the plastic, but I got my stuff, went and got the toys I wanted and checked right out. They had almost every register opened, and I didn't have to wait.

Toys R US was awful! They had all the registers opened, but the line was not moving. After 30 minutes, I just left. I'm sure I'll find what I had on sale again.

[Elphaba]

Best: Staples. Both in-store and online.

 

I only tried one other store today, Circuit City, and that was a HORRIBLE experience, but I guess it's not fair to do a best and worst with only 2 stores.

 

Interestingly, no one has mentioned that CompUSA's flyer advertised Thursday night 9 PM - midnight sales, but Massachusetts doesn't allow most stores to be open on a legal holiday. I believe 2 stores in this part of the state opened, but the rest did not. Haven't heard anyone complaining about going and not getting in yet...

[sethladd]

Best- Staples-Easy to find what you want.

Office Depot- Quick lines and HELPFUL!

Kohls-approx. 50 people in line- 10 min. wait!

WORST- Best Buy-Line wrapped around the store:mad:

Target-TOO MANY PEOPLE!

K-Mart- Same O'le K-Mart- No Big Sales

[Ajshope]

To those that said Best Buy because they were out of stock of some items, do you expect Best Buy to have an unlimited supply of product? Honestly, can you be that ignorant? You weren't one of the people that called or came in the store at 11 am asking for the $379.99 notebook were you? No joke, I took about 5 calls in a row from people asking me about that laptop at 11 am.

 

Also, for those who were upset about Best Buy because the cars got in your way... Best Buy wasn't driving those cars. Get upset at the people, not the store.

[sm1kla]

the Best---JCPenneys & BJs

 

the worst--Best Buy..... never ever going to that place again on BF:gdcensored:

 

 

Agree with you on Best Buy as the worst. Made the mistake several years ago of wasting 2 1/2 hours in the check out line. Will never go back on BF.

 

My vote for 2006 Best experience would be to Bath & Body Works. The line was terribly long, but ORDERLY. Their staff kept the line moving & stopped line jumpers.

[kelash265]

Worst- KMart- They only had 4 registers open out of 20. They didn't have anything they advertised, not that there was much anyway:)

 

Best- Target- They had the best sale IMO, but the lines went on each side of the store with nothing in the middle! Someone should have been directing customers to the registers.

 

Next year, I'm going to try WalMart first- I heard it wasn't too bad!

[shopping mom]

Best Sears, free gift card, courteous employess directing and at registers, items in stock, pricematched, I got 3 kids done in less than an hour of opening. (Plus I got an extra off with DD's discount)

 

Worst. Kohls, get prices but horrible lines

[mom2girls]

Best - Target. Every register open. Plenty of sales help on the floor. I couldn't find the Christmas morning barbie. The girl I asked said she didn't work in that dept but would check with someone who did. Less than 1 minute later she came back with my barbie.

 

Worst - Kohls. The line was not worth the prices. It went all the way to the back of the store. The store was totally trashed too. I just left.

[aeraen]

Target has my vote for this year. Waited about a hour in line... they opened both doors simultaneously (two lines). No coffee or brownies, but the manager did come out and announce where in the store the special deal items were placed (not all were in the department they usually are). We were able to get all three of the items we wanted... and there were even a few of those items left when we checked out (which was also quick and orderly).

 

Kohls was out of what I wanted, but the check-out seemed fast and orderly when I was there as well.

 

Best observation? A Best Buy employee, with two TVs on a hand cart, following a customer across a busy 6 lane street to the Circuit City parking lot to load up his car. I certainly hope he got a good tip!

[jennsahm]

best: walmart...people were all cheerful and I got everything on my list

 

worst: kohl's good deals but not worth stadning in line for 2 hrs for. The line was freakin' insane

[ShopperMom]

Best:

Toys R' Us - It ran like a well-oiled machine this morning. My first stop, huge crowd, long line, but more shortest wait all day, very organized and smooth.

 

Worst:

Target:

Check-out lines were long and very disorganized, took forever and a day to get out of there.

[tawolf73]

Best-Sears-they were giving away cofee and cocoa to everyone in line. Even brought it to you so you didn'tlose your place if you were alone! Very organized and orderly.

Worst-Target lines were bad even at 8am! Kohls lines we bad, deals were great! Spent over $400 there!

[khuiet]

I don't have a best because I never made it past circuit city. An employee offered to help me find what I was looking for and I showed him the ad with the picture. He got me two of the items I wanted and I was in line by 5:20. I didn't get out of there until after 8. I finally make it to the register and got rung up, the price didn't match the ad. He gave me the wrong item and of course, they were out of all of them by then. I was so upset, I just went home. The problem I noticed at cc was that almost all items had a rebate and each rebate printed a mail in form after the recpt was printed. The printers were very slow. In addition, the only had 5 registers opened in the entire store. And if you had not bought anything from cc in the past 6 months you were considered a new customer and the computer required them to put in your name, address and phone number, if even you were paying in cash. They didn't have enough people on the floor so customers with questions were asking the cashiers questions which slowed the lines even more. The employees that were on the floor had to keep coming to the registers that were open to check stock, slowing the line even more. I will never go back to cc for anything EVER!

[Cecilliadb]

Best-Mervyns. (while a bit messy, had the best deals, every register going)

 

Dont have a worst, went to Target just didnt find a whole lot of what I wanted on sale. But the store was well run and they were trying to keep up with the messes.

[308swife]

Best: Walmart....they let us in early to wait inside since it was raining, gave us coffee, and cookies. Everything I wanted was there, but I was also #10 in line. Checkout didn't take long. Great this year!!!

 

Worst: I don't have one. All of the 7 stores I visited were great!

[CherylCGoodwin]

Best: Sears in East Memphis, Target (as always)

 

Worst: Walmart. Although I got a few good buys, total chaos. No one knew where anything was. Secret items? Who knows.

[derek12123]

best buy was the best and worst

worst because of the crowd where i live its unbearable i showed up at 9 and there were 100+ people already also around 4 i counted the people ahead of me and it was like 168 how did those 68 people get ahead ( cutters) but the people were so friendly and i did get some stuff and hte line went so quick also the people were so friendly handing out scones and stuff to people in line. very orderly and i managed to get on a local television broadcast.

 

one thing tho every best buy employee seems to smoke

[pcsoon]

Best:

Lowes - No lines at 0700, tons helpful staff, large quantity of sales items.

Walgreens - Short lines, helpful staff, good prices on select toys

Costco - Empty store (shoppers), lots of unadvertised instant rebates through out store.

Kohls - Didn't go until 9pm at night; empty store (shoppers), still had the toys I wanted, tons of clearance items ($1.50 - $3.60), friendly staff;) , gave out kohl's cash.

OM online - picked up everything I wanted on thanksgiving morning, free shipping

Sears online - picked up everything I wanted on BF, free shipping

 

Worst:

Shopko - Limited stock, wanted items gone before 530am, overly crowded, long checkout lines

Target - Lame ad, $4 DVDs only wanted item, sold out, had to argue with manager to get raincheck for them.

[motoXmom]

One store that really ticked me off was Toys R Us. The staff was the most helpful in showing you where things were stacked. But the cashier I got thought it was nice to chit chat with each and every customer. Now normally that's a nice idea, but BF is not the day to go on and on about what your granddaughter likes (color, size, etc...) with each customer. This made checking out take forever. There was an employee that sent each customer to a specific register. Ok fine I thought. But I noticed people that were about 10 or more people behind me in the main line, have now gone through their check out and are leaving the store and I'm still waiting to check out. I was only the 3rd person in this womans line!!! And the two people in front of me didn't even have that much, it's just that she (the cashier) had to comment on each item they were buying. Grrr. When checking out took others a few minutes from being sent to the register it took me over 20.

 

Now Sears had this poor guy that had to be new. lol He helped me get everything I needed including a shopping cart because the items were really heavy. He took me right to a register and rang up what I got and tagged everything as paid in my cart. Then he said "Thank You and I hope you have a Great Holiday" and walked away. I stood there floored. I hadnt' paid for anything yet! I had to walk after him and say "Excuse me but I haven't paid yet!" LOL the look on his face was priceless. He kept saying I can't believe you came after me to do this. I told him well you know Karma.. I would probably get everything home and it would fall apart or something else would happen to me so I wanted to pay. It was well over $200 and he would have a hard time explaining why his drawer was that short! I hope his day got better, you could tell he was pretty flustered with all of the crazy BF people !!!

[ES1]

Best - WMart - but we went around 7:30 AM and there were only few customers in the store. They still had lots of stuff available and most of the checkouts were open

 

Worst is a tie - Staples because there were only 3 checkouts open and tons of staff standing around. The wait was horrendous. And Kohl's because the line wound entirely around the perimeter of the store. They had most checkouts open, so I can't fault them for the time we waited in line.

[bargaingal2]

Best Target and Kohls(got those online before I left at 4:30), OfficeMax(got my stuff on Thursday online)

 

Worst WALMART~!

[nebraskaparkfan]

Best:

 

Wal mart - lots of open checkout; cashiers know what they're doing esp with price match

JCpenneys - very organized, had employee give candy to people in line and admitted it was to keep people content

Bomgaars - go in early to get 20% coupon and can go back any time before closing for sale

Joanns and Michaels - love those 20 and 25 % off total purchase coupons

 

Worst:

 

Target - don't think they expected the crowds; still require the cashiers to ask if we wanted a target charge card

BEst Buy - our state didn't get the same ad as everyone else - stupid idea - and too many people

Menards - 1+hour to check out and not enough carts

Kohls - tons of sale but almost 2 hours to check out

[Lorisha]

Best-- Walmart by Far. Ours is open 24hrs so we went inside at 3am (all for Idogs..lol). There was maybe 5 other customers in the store. So we walked around found a group of associates standing in the toy section. Chatted with them laughed and carried on for a good 30 minutes. Asked where the Idogs were they pointed us to the electronics and photo center. Weren't there btw then we overheard the manage telling an associate they were behind the counter in electronics. So went over there and were 1st in line. Other people started showing up and I thought things were going to get hectic but it didn't. Everyone was so nice to each other. No fighting over things..heck one girl even gave up her Idog to a man who needed 2. Guess the Holiday spirit is different in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I even gave up a dvd player and pajama sets to people who needed them more then I did. I got everything I wanted and more, checked out by 5:15 and was at K-mart by 5:32.. :)

 

2nd best-- Kmart--Absolutely horrible experience for other people in the store but the line was a good time. There was actually a line outside for this place. I busted up laughing when we pulled up and seen the line. The manager came out and made an announcement of no pushing blah blah blah. Then he opened the door and we started filing in. Then line jumpers started jumping out of there cars and all of us inline said no cutting and this young girl (who was trying to cut) goes oh no gonna get my butt kicked by some old ladies. The manager overheard her and sent her back to her car and refused her entrance. I thought it was funny as heck!! The manager was counting heads and only allowed 48 people at a time to enter. I thought that was cool since I was one of the first 48 I imagine #49 and above were pretty angry though. I went straight to the electronics to get an MP3 player. Got there asked where it was it was behind the counter and you had to ask the cashier for it. Mind you there were about 20 people there asking for some sort of MP3 player so it was hectic and they made you pay there for your item and then go to customer service to have it deactivated. This made alot of people even more angry!! I got what I went there for but sis was still shopping. She wanted the cabbage patch with the free dog they had in the ad. They had maybe 10 cabbage patches but only 1 dog. I knew where the dog was 2 aisles over so I ran over there snatched it up for her and we went to check out. The cashiers had to give out rain checks to everyone that wanted the free dog because my sister got the only one...more angry people! In and out of there within 30 minutes. Which shocked the crap out of me because on a normal day it takes 30 minutes just to check out because their cashiers are soooo slow.

 

I didn't really have a worse experience everywhere we went we had a blast and got what we wanted. Lots of smiling & friendly people.

 

All in all I had a GREAT BF experience for my 2nd time around. Can't wait to do it again next year!

[klaible]

Best for us was Meijer's but we were there at 8 am and still had everything we wanted, there was no wait had every register open.

 

Walmart was fast and easy as well.

 

TRU was horrible but it wasn't their fault just a small store with not many register.

[MusicMama]

Best - Target. I'd gladly pay again to have a Starbucks delivered to me in line. Lots of registers open, tickets handed out for popular items.

 

Worst - Walmart. Chaos. Said it elsewhere.

Worst - Tanger outlets and Rockvale Square outlets for midnight. How could you NOT expect crowds with all the advertising you did? No help parking, idiocy in the giveaway line (a hidden 2nd line perhaps?)

[juskait]

I found Wal mart to be the best and Toy stores to be some of the worse.

[berry1014]

Circuit City was the worst - only had 5 registers and about 75 + people in each line.

 

Walmart was the best - was able to get in - get what I needed and get out without any problems or wait.