Are you daring? A little crazy? Willing to take your life into your own hands?

Then run out on Friday and get your self a deal.

http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/index.php

Some of those deals seem pretty good, but I'm not one to do those door buster sales. I'll still be deep in turkey coma at 5am on Friday morning.

Black Friday?
Nuts! I'm not going anywhere.
Why not Green Friday?

I'll be checking our Office Depot later. Hopefully, they're not cleaned out of the things I need.

Okay, so I did venture out to Best Buy at 5:45am last Friday to get my son the Nintendo DS. I have never done this before and it was quite interesting just to people watch. BTW...I got him his gift!

Do you all know the origin of Black Friday? It was referred to as that because it is the day when sales put most retailers in the black (from the red).

Black Friday used to be the biggest shopping day of the year, but no more. The biggest shopping day of the year is whatever the last Saturday before Christmas is. People are natural born procrastinators, (except for Bonnie, of course)and they wait until the last minute to do things, holiday shopping is no exception.

I'm interested in what deals folks got this past 'Black Friday'!

At Target, I found a 9" portable dvd player on sale for $89, A digital camera fo $79 and an mp3 player w/SD slot for $64. At Best Buy I found a 1gb usb drive for $12.99, a 1gb SD card for $12.99 & a 4gb usb drive (clearance item) for $50! At Walmart, another 1gb SD card for $13.99 (bought 3 of them).

I went out, but not for the purpose of shopping deals. I had to return to Menards for 2 pieces of tongue and groove spruce flooring to complete a set of "treasure chests" I'm making for my grandsons. Took 2 minutes to get my lumber then 35 minutes in line to pay for it :rolleyes:

Actually I haven't done any shopping yet.

have to say the only thing we bought on Black Friday was a choose-and-cut Christmas tree. And of course the food and gas to do the 200 mile round trip to the NC mountains
We paid 55 bucks for an almost 10 foot frasier fir tree, I saw one that was 8 feet at Lowes for 120 bucks. The difference just about pays for the trip.

I think this year, except for possibly one present, we'll be shopping online.
My work load is low, my wife's bonus money is lower than last year, and we're paying for college, so...this thing called cash "flow" is becoming a "trickle"...it'll be a MUCH less expensive stack of gifts this year.
That new black Lexus with the red bow in the commercial can wait until next year.

But, that's better in my mind; it's not about the gifts anyway.

If I find any major deals, I'll let you know.

The only major deal I saw, and almost bought my son, was a 20" color tv with DVD at Walmart for $89. Then I thought better of it. He needs to come out of his room once in a while!!

Mary...thank you for the "Non-procrastinators" Award. So, how many of you are done shopping, partially done, or taking Mary's advice for that last Saturday before Christmas?

See, since I celebrate Chanukah, I have a shorter shopping period this year (Dec. 15th). So, Mary...16 more shopping days!

Me either. And I may not. Gift cards all around! To be honest, I've been pretty much burned out over Christmas these last couple of years. Too many years spent in retail during the holiday season. At my store (which I'm about to leave for good on 12/2) we're been in Christmas since Columbus Day!

Does it count as a Black Friday experience if you go late in the afternoon, when there are no lines?
Of course, Office Depot was sold out of the digital camera memory cards I wanted, but I did get a new hard drive and a Tracfone.
I don't talk nearly enough to justify a monthly bill, so it works better for me to go with a no-contract, pre-pay plan.

Me too. I don't use mine a lot either. I have a pay-as-you-go. I don't want another bill, and I don't want to get locked into a contract for 2 years. I guess that's why I never joined one of those overpriced health clubs either. No desire to get locked into a contract.

But, I digress.

Exactly.

For the first time EVER, I'm finished! I'm one of those procrastinators that shops Christmas Eve! Not this year!

I am done Christmas shopping. I did go out on Black Friday just for the heck of it. I had purchased a Sony micro system from Circuit City on Thanksgiving, and went to pick it up Friday. It was nuts in there and took me about thirty minutes to get it. I also went to Best Buy where I found every CD I was looking for (for presents) and a few I wasn't looking for but bought anyway. Then I walked right up to a cashier with no waiting! Now I can just relax and enjoy the season. Peace.

I would say it counts. It was like 1:30 in the afternoon when I went out and the store opened at like 5 or 6AM (I think). Every checkout lane was open with lines probing deep into the store. Trust me, I would not have gone had my project not been at an absolute stand-still. I felt like a real odd-ball standing in line to purchase "building supplies" :rolleyes:

I'm lookin' forward to the day after Christmas. everything's marked down 'cause they gotta get it outta the store!

People are lined up outside our store on 12/26 to get the discounted merch. Holiday stuff is generally marked down 50%. But it's only the holiday merch. Sometimes, people think that extends to the regular merch, but no, it doesn't. I'm very fortunate enough to have never worked the day after Christmas, because by then, I'm home for the holidays.

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You're kidding! 8 foot trees at Lowes here are 49.99. I bought a beautiful 6 ft Fraser Fir at Home Depot for 29.99.

Everyone I know has pulled back on shopping and is pretty much only doing it for kids and either making things or doing nonmaterial "time and talent" gifts (like an evening of babysitting, a day of errand running, sewing window treatments for someone etc). Of course shopping is being replaced by eating and drinking so the month has become an ongoing sugar buzz.

If sales at JoAnn indicated a trend everyone in the country would be getting about 5 of those fleece blankets that you make by putting two pieces of fleece together, cutting a fringe, and tying it together. There are a lot of half finished quilts and lopsided scarves made from really cool yarn too.

Wish that had happened to me Mark!

Sounds like DW did okay, but did anybody actually get the deal they sought that made it worth being a part of the madness?