Share your worst BF experience & win a BF t-shirt - CONTEST OVER!

[DramaQueenLucy]

OMG....last year was the worst ever! I have actually had second thoughts about going this year because of how bad it was. This was my first and only time going to CompUsa we had been going for the sale at 5 am not the midnight sale it was nuts in that line and freezing cold well freezing for Oklahoma anyways the employees took pity on us and gave us tickets at 2 am then let us go into our cars...but man it was the coldest most miserable BF ever.

[shopping mom]

Most of my BF experiences have been wonderful. We were only disappointed majorly once. We had friends in from Bolivia for Thanksgiving. They had never heard of BF but when they saw the ads and the great deals they wanted to go. They wanted the cheap laptop from Wal-mart. They were in line and he was number 12. The store did not pass out tickets or number until just before the sale started. It was then he became number who knows what. It seems all the people in line were saving spots for friends and family and let them cut into the line. Needless to say they did not get a laptop. They did get some great deals from other stores though. They enjoyed it so much they are thinking about coming to the states again this year for Thanksgiving.

[Yakyma]

Those dang cheap laptops that walmart had a few years back for the first time. An older lady that I worked with really wanted a computer, her first ever. I knew she would never make it through the crowd, and I love the thrill of the hunt and victory. I told her I would try my best to get her one. When the doors opened I ran like my butt was on fire, leaving the rest of my group in the dust, they ony had 20, I was number 19 in line, while waiting to make my purchase la ady and her teenage son make their way into the line talking to someone already in the line, of course they are going to buy one each...OH NO you are not I inform them, he is really smug and they refuse to leave the line. Of course myself and the man behind me are upset that we will not get one. So I find an employee that works that dept. and we tell her what is going on and a manager tells her that when they get to the counter to make the purchase refuse to sell to them. It got ugly...the lady followed me around while I met up with the rest of my group screaming, yelling, and cursing me. All the while I just kept laughing and holding onto the computer for my co-worker.

[PinkPrincess515]

I Think My Worst BF Experience Had To Have Been Last Year At Kohl's. I Had Never Been To Kohl’s On BF But Last Year My Mom Wanted To Go There To Get My Nieces The VSmile Game System That They Had. So We Go In There For One Thing Then Have To Wait In Line 3 Hours To Check Out, And Ended Up Leaving With About 20 Extra Things That We Picked Up Along The Way To The Checkouts. My Mom Still Talks About It, She Just Couldn't Believe That We Had To Wait In Line That Long And All The People That Were In That Store At Once. Thanks To My Aunt, My DH, My Sister And Some Friends We Ended Up Getting Almost Everything We Wanted Last Year. They All Went To The Other Stores While We Waited In Line At Kohl's. I Think We Have All Agreed That We Are Not Going To Kohl's Again This Year.

 

My Story Isn't All That Exciting But I Have Really Enjoyed Reading Everyone Elses. :)

[ogadoga]

The first time I went black friday shopping I decided to go to Stapels. I arrived at 6am and saw a large line that seemed to go on forever. I could not believe it. After waiting in the cold snowy weather for a while, the line started moving. I realized the line was actually for Wal-Mart. It just happened to have wrapped along a building or two. Eventually, here I was the only person left in the parking lot for Staples. I could not believe it. Here I was waiting in the wrong line!

 

Anyway, after another good wait, Staples finally opens its doors. I am wondering around the store, trying to find the items on my list. I had not realized the items were sitting on tables in front of the doors after you walk in! Even with all of the waited time running through the store, somehow I was actually able to still find the items on my list.

[tjredsox4]

My worst BF experiences are any year that I go to the Chicopee Walmart. Everybody lines up but the minute they open the doors and people who were still sitting in their cars run up and some cut in before the cops realize it or somehow get by the cops. Then I can usually not find or get everything I need because they have run out. One of these years I was going to do a layaway and the line was all the way through the store. I also had my 3 month old son with me that year. But if I go to a different store, I don't usually have those problems.

[BrotherFlounder]

Wow, I've been pretty fortunate on BF so far (*pounds on wood*) but I do have a minor thing from last year. PetSmart was supposed to open at 7am instead of 9am, so my brother and I decided to stop there, run in, get dog food which we needed, and move along to the next stop. Well, we waited half an hour for someone to show up, who told us (in a very rude tone) that the store wouldn't' open until 9am...DESPITE the sign on the door that said 7am. "Oh, that's a mistake!" We were rather angry, to say the least.

[egirl]

I have only been going about 3 years now and nothing major has happened. The lines at Kohl's are awful and then all the people jumping lines but nothing major has happened yet.

[PentiumMMX]

My worst one would have to be my very first Black Friday, back in 2003.

 

I wanted a Gamecube so bad (Somehow, my Mom failed to see that $80 for a then modern system with a free disc containing 4 games was a good deal), but that wasn't why I was there; I went with my Mom and sister to find a Symphonic VHS\DVD player, which was on sale for the same price as the Gamecube bundle. Out old VCR finally died, so we used this to take it's place and to be used as our first DVD player.

 

One of the flaws was how we didn't have a plan outside of getting the DVD player; we haven't agreed on a meet-up point if we get separated, nor did we have any way to communicate with each other (At the time, we only had one cell phone). Thus, I got lost in the crows, carrying a VHS\DVD player when I wish I was carrying a Gamecube bundle.

 

It turned out they had decided that we'd meet up at books...without telling me, so I was hovering around the electronics department, trying to find them. It wasn't really scary to me, but more like a "Where the bloody hell are they?" moment. Also, they already had the VHS\DVD player, so I really had no reason to head over there. We then finished our shopping, bought some donuts, and went home.

 

However, that was only the beginning of our problems. The DVD side worked, but the VHS side was dead on arrival, so we just spent $80 on a half-working unit. We returned just as the sale was winding down the the crowd had completely cleared out to exchange it for another one, and it worked for about a week. So we just returned it and used the money to pay towards a slightly more expensive Emerson VHS\DVD player, which lasted us about 3 years before it died.

 

I learned some things from that Black Friday; Always work out a plan and avoid anything made by Symphonic (Or another no-name company). I still wish I had gotten the Gamecube I wanted, but the experience of seeing what Black Friday was like first-hand made up for that. Since then, I've always went to bed early on Thanksgiving night so I'll wake up in time for the sales.

Edited October 14, 2008 by PentiumMMX

[Kay1996]

Last year was a odd experience for a Black Friday. Our first stop was Menards we were in line and it wasn't all that cold and we were pretty close to the front of the line so I was happy. When the doors opened it really was madness! I have never been run over by a cart until last year! These people were insane some old woman got knocked over while some guy pushed her out of the way so he can get a cart! I was in total shock cause I have never experienced this rudeness ever on Black Friday. Thank goodness that the store manager was there and helped this poor woman up and it seemed to calm down. Hopefully I will never encounter that again!

[ChristmasShopping]

My worse BF was a couple years ago (I think 2 or 3 years ago) and it was at Wal-Mart (surprise -surprise!)

 

I got to the store about 1:30 and found the pallets for the items I wanted. I was there to get the I-dogs (I think they were 10 dollars that year) for my nieces and nephews. I stood in front of the pallet that had them sitting on them (there weren't many- you could tell through the plastic). Soon people began to gather around me and the other pallets. I chatted with a woman who had her 7 year old son with her and I told her I would grab her an I-dog if I could because her son REALLy wanted one but had other pallets to stand by.

 

When it came time to open the pallets, you couldn't move .. carts and people were packed in like sardines.. so the Wal-mart employees shoved their way through and started yelling at people.. They cut open the plastic and I grabbed 4 of the I-dogs.. I then heard a lady scream and a boy crying. It was chaos... with no help from the employees. Then I finally made my way out of the pallet h@ll and saw that the woman I had been talking to was to the side and her son was bleeding from the head. No one was helping them so I rushed over to see if I could do anything or get someone for her. I parked my basket right in front of me and grabbed some tissues out of my purse. When I leaned down (still one hand on my cart) to hand the tissues to his mom, a felt someone pull on my cart and I looked up to see two teenage girls grabbing my I-dogs.. they got all of them but one by the time I screamed at them. I grabbed my cart and followed them down the row and they were at the end with whom I was assuming was their moms. I told the women what happened and they said "So sorry - so sad!" and "You snooze you loose!" I couldn't believe that they were acting this way and their girls were just sitting there laughing, saying things that grown adults shouldn't say! So being fustrated, I just turned around and told them to have a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas...

 

When I got back to the lady with the hurt son, employees were helping her. I gave her the last I-dog and wished her a merry christmas and told her what happened. She was shocked but said she thought the I-dog would make her son feel better. She told me that two teenage girls had a cart and pushed it through the crowd when the pallets were open and her sons head got hit when he was leaning down to grab something. I figured it might be the same girls.. but never found out.

 

I ended up leaving the store right after that and going home..I went back out later but it really tarnished the day for me.

 

I didn't get I-dogs for Christmas gifts that year but I got them for less than $5 dollars a piece in January on the Target toy clearance and gave them for birthday gifts instead.

[lot-narth]

This has to be the scariest thing that happened to me - Last year I was nearly trampled to death at The Oaks Mall Blitz. Around 5:55am everyone crowds around the main enterance to the Oaks Mall as they give gift bags with prizes, samples, and coupons (this was after pepboys, jcpennys, and sears). So my BF, mother and uncle were about 7 rows back. (I weighed 98lbs).

 

Once the doors were open everyone was at first proceeding nicely, then at about when the 5th row was going in the entire crowd began to push. My mother and uncle were behind me (and they both are much bigger than me). We get inside the doors, and a girl steps on my ankle while her and the rest of the crowd behind are pushing. I fell flat on the ground, just inside the doors, before the tables. With the rush of the crowd, I would have been trampled but my mom seen what happened. And she stood like arms spread out, looking like Gandalf in the "none shall pass" scene, in front of the doors. It took me a couple of seconds to get up and get out of the way, which was also impossible, I ended up crawling underneath the tables to get out. I came away with only a spained ankle, thanks to mom.

 

Here is footage of The Oaks Mall Blitz @ 6 "Throngs of shoppers descended on The Oaks Mall when it opened just before 6 a.m. Friday for the traditional start of the holiday shopping season." http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1321238391 The reason it cuts away, right after the initiate door opens, is that the rush was so bad the people filming and handing out the bags ran and jumped over the tables.

[kselzer]

Geez, I've never had a BF like some of you have written - never been pushed down, hit, ran over by cars, etc.

 

The worst one I can think of was taking a friend of mine that had never been out on BF before. My cousin and I had a plan of hitting the outlet mall, leave at a certain time (that everyone had agreed on!), and heading to the regular stores BB, Sears, Meijer, etc. Well at the time to leave the outlet mall my friend decided she wanted to do more shopping and that I shouldn't be mad about it because she hadn't gotten to go to the store she wanted to yet. Now mind you neither her nor me had driven, someone else had, and no one else had a problem going to a store they wanted to go to on their own if no one else wanted to go. But she assumed I wanted to go to the store she wanted to and made everyone late. Everyone was waiting around for us and I felt horrible and she was just so oblivious to it all!

 

She will definately not be going with me again! Nor will I go with anyone that has not been before or can't pass a pre-BF quiz, lol! I'm thinking questions like how fast can you run, how early is early for BF, can you venture out on your own, can you collaborate with others, how much can you carry if no cart is available, do you run to breakfast or get the next deal, etc.

[amberjobryant]

Last year we started out with sears because they where the store opening the first with stuff we wanted, so we waited in line, in the cold and where pretty close to the front........well the doors open and we get in only to find that they had been selling thier "doorbuster" items at the sale price the whole week and where out of almost everything needless to say we had to make a mad dash around to get the things we needed from other stores at a similar price, luckliy we got what we needed, but I will never wait in line to get into sears again.

[poofu02]

I've got a bad one! It happened last year! We live in a small town in North Dakota, so every year we have to drive 90 miles to do our BF shopping. We left bright and early in the morning. We took 2 cars this year, my husband drove my car and I borrowed my mom's car. We were on our way back home after a fun day of shopping and the roads were icy, I was behind my husband, and out of nowhere about 5 dogs come running across the highway! My husband hits the breaks, hits a patch of ice, and hits one of the dogs and kills it instantly. I watched as my husband got in an accident and killed a dog! (I love my hubby and I'm a huge dog lover!) He was thankfully okay. The dog died and my car was pretty damaged in the front. I can't remember how much it cost to fix it, but I think it was close to $2000.

 

What a day to remember!

[Postal Phil]

Last year at compusa I was assured they would have at least 12 laptops but when they opened they only had 3 and all corporate did was talk a good game they already knew that they were going out of business

[BFAddict716]

My worst Black Friday experience was not that bad but it was definitely memorable. A couple of years ago I wanted a tv from K-mart so I got up before the crack of dawn and was outside of K-mart about 45 min before it opened for my first real Black Friday experience. There was not a huge amount of people there and they were in a big clump not a line so I found myself a spot towards the far right as close as I could get. When the time came the manager came to open the doors (alone:eek:) and began with the one on the right. This meant climbing up on a chair and pushing the door open while pushing some button or something. Well the door went cock-eyed and jammed. Before I knew it the herd of people began jumping over this jammed door and running in while the manager held on for dear life. I climbed right over the door too and grabbed a cart since this tv was huge and took off. A very rude guy cut me off and pushed me out of the way to grab a tv and run…well he took two steps and dropped the huge thing on the ground. I slide mine in my cart and walked right trying not to laugh even though I did kinda feel bad for him! Anyway I got my tv and, after a 15 min. task of shoving it into a car it should have never fit into while people honestly watched and giggled, have been addicted to Black Friday since.

[johjstc]

My experience wasn't as bad as some of these

 

I took my mother for the first time to Walmart and I believe it eas the year of the furbies and the line was way out the parking lot out to the road, it was on the news and everything. Anyways, We got there about 3 and were about maybe 50th in line. It was freezing and about a 2 1/2 hour wait. Well a minute before the doors were to open a croud of people mysteriously appeared and charged the doors. Needless to say, the first person in line was now probably the 100th in line

[ttpkeel]

I went to Target for my third stop last year on Black Friday being Pep Boys and Kohl's opened first. The parking lot was pitch dark and there were people everywhere it was lucky you didn't hit someone in the parking lot when you were looking for a parking place. They had security out front but there were lines in every direction. My husband had dropped me off to find a parking spot and when the doors opened and it was like a mob scene people were pushing and shoving and cursing. I had been their previous years and it was nothing like that and they had no security. I feared for my safety so I decided to let them have what was in the store and the worst part was trying to find my husband in the pitch black parking lot plus my car was black as well.

 

[Brad]

The winners for this contest were Mugglemom and PentiumMMX. Congrats :)

 

Look for the next contest soon

[noehlp]

Congratulations Mugglemom & PentiumMMX! Wear those shirts proudly! You deserve them!

[austin944]

congrats! It seems mostly everyone has a "wrost" story to tell!!! XD

[Kandy]

congrats to the winners

[oldandintheway]

Congrats Mugglemom and PentiumMMX!

[3 boys]

Congrats guys...

[teebee]

congrats

[his_lil_gemini]

WTG!

[diane175]

Congrats winners!!!

[elena_398]

Congrats

[DramaQueenLucy]

Congrats