If people fall into that mob mentality and spend more than they should have for an item, it's their fault. They should do their research before they show up at the store. At least there's shoppers and black friday deal pages (and supposed "leaks") to give us some heads up time to do research, like Giz has so nicely done.
With the economy how it is, consumer spending creeping up so slowly, and GDP growth under where we wanted it to be, nobody should be surprised that retailers are trying to get people to buy things, no matter what.
I hate to say this, but a successful Black Friday with and lots of irresponsible spending is what the economy needs. On the other hand, gadget spending is not as great for us since most of the manufacturers are off-shore.
Nobody who reads Giz shops at brick-and-mortar black friday sales, right? We all know how to get the best deals online without frakking with that mess, right? Right?
Should I feel guilty that I drool over today's newest gadgets and mercilessly shuffle through the hallowed halls of Giz, but have NO intention of fighting the tide of prols on Black Friday?!?
It's days like Black Friday that absolutely suck any pleasure out of shopping for me.
Sean, send me your snail mail address and we will mail you some adult egg nog to put you in the holiday spirit. You deserve it. Such quality work, but I am concerned that you may be visited by three ghosts shortly, and I want to make certain you are drinking from the happy juice of life as we head into the holiday season.
Thanks for the article -- great information, and will keep all of us from saying "bah humbug" as we get trampled at Walmart on Friday.
Ahh "loss leaders". How often do you get suckers into the stores and make them fork over tons of cash while the smart consumers play the waiting game and shop JUST them.
@GitEmSteveDave_ForgotNametag: Fry's Electronics has a policy of never providing ads in their stores in an attempt to keep customers from doing just that.
@infmom: Frys in Tempe, AZ has a bulletin board in the front of the store with all their ads. And the employee carry the weeks at around with them. You must have a sh*tty Frys.
@EBone: Right, but good luck finding any of the advertised kit, and it sure is fun to watch the salespeople run away when they sense you are about to ask them a question (like, where is the advertised... ? ).
@dingus: @EBone: Yes, they have the ads posted behind plexiglass in the front of the store, but you can't just pick up an ad off a rack and carry it around with you. If you want to do that you have to bring in your own copy of the ad.
In the Burbank Fry's the ads are posted in the returns area, so getting at them is not exactly convenient if there's the usual mob of people trying to return stuff.
@jesusio001: I worked at the Burbank Fry's for three years. What the employees carry around is a reduced size photocopy of their department's section of the ad, which you can look at if you ask about it and if your eyesight is up to the challenge (especially that of picking out the Fry's PLU numbers that will tell you which item is actually on sale). Fry's does not have copies of the full ad lying around for customers to pick up.
@whootowl: Fry's homebrew inventory system sucks, so looking stuff up is always way more work than it needs to be. And if the system says the store has five or fewer of the item in stock chances are very good that one is the floor model and the rest are gone.
@infmom: I know, right? I've gone in looking for things that I consider staple components (4.7uF radial caps, .1" pin headers, 1/4W resistors) and have gone bust every time. If I want 10base2 style tees and terminators, which nobody ever does, then I'm in luck.
1) Impressed and thank you for doing all of this monotonous research...
2) The Giz Gift Guide is sponsored by Windows Mobile, the Top Bar is sponsored by HTC, and this article appears to be sponsored by the Pixi... I'm just feeling a little scared and confused... hold me.
@Shamoononon: I shave my legs.: Yiiiikes. Really? My god. should be renamed Celibate Mate. you're gurantee'd to not get any for having your device attached to your head.
@Kaiser-Machead: It's just an Asian person. Didn't you know that Asians are gray? I mean if you're going to discriminate, at least know what color they are.
@Mikestan: It's called photoshop..be around for years.
Oh and yeah you might be able to get a similar price on some tv's at amazon but personally if I was to spend 500$ and up on a tv I wouldn't be buying it online unless there was a substantial difference in price. I would hate having to mail it back if it was broke and have to deal with just a bunch of extra crap to get it back to amazon. If you buy from bestbuy you get to see the tv and can see if it's working before you get it out the door.
@Nick: have you ever asked to do that? I am sure many customers don't think to do that. I used to work at costco and I think I saw a few people do that before.
@Shamoononon: I shave my legs.: It's really just having a little time and an idea. You can make some neat things fairly easily and then build your way up to working with multiple layers. It is honestly fun to tinker around and the more you do the more ideas you get.
11/24/09
With the economy how it is, consumer spending creeping up so slowly, and GDP growth under where we wanted it to be, nobody should be surprised that retailers are trying to get people to buy things, no matter what.
I hate to say this, but a successful Black Friday with and lots of irresponsible spending is what the economy needs. On the other hand, gadget spending is not as great for us since most of the manufacturers are off-shore.
11/24/09
11/24/09
It's days like Black Friday that absolutely suck any pleasure out of shopping for me.
11/24/09
Thanks for the article -- great information, and will keep all of us from saying "bah humbug" as we get trampled at Walmart on Friday.
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#tips
11/24/09
In the Burbank Fry's the ads are posted in the returns area, so getting at them is not exactly convenient if there's the usual mob of people trying to return stuff.
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1) Impressed and thank you for doing all of this monotonous research...
2) The Giz Gift Guide is sponsored by Windows Mobile, the Top Bar is sponsored by HTC, and this article appears to be sponsored by the Pixi... I'm just feeling a little scared and confused... hold me.
11/24/09
I'm sorry, there's not an app for that.
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HA HAHAHHA. I hate to be the second person posting a picture already, but you've got to see the cell-mate image.
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09:38 AM
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I sure hope that is fake because I could have used some of that
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Oh and yeah you might be able to get a similar price on some tv's at amazon but personally if I was to spend 500$ and up on a tv I wouldn't be buying it online unless there was a substantial difference in price. I would hate having to mail it back if it was broke and have to deal with just a bunch of extra crap to get it back to amazon. If you buy from bestbuy you get to see the tv and can see if it's working before you get it out the door.
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02:07 AM
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