Black Friday 2009

I have not seen a thread on this yet which makes me wonder if the economy is worse then I thought it was or if there are no good deals this year. I just started checking out the black Friday websites last night but I haven't decided what I am going to try and get this year. Any other Black Friday shoppers out there?

I've been keeping up with it but haven't seen anything great this year. I've gotten much better deals already at a various one-day sales and specials than any of the leaked BF ads have.

A guy I work with told me that Wal-mart is going to stay open all night and let lines form for the various early bird specials. He said that after the trampling death last year that this is a new policy they are going with to stop people from getting hurt. I don't know if he is correct or not. Anyone heard anything about new Black Friday policies.

That would mean Walmart is going to be open on Thanksgiving? Seems like that's one of the few days they are usually closed (the others being Christmas and Easter).

Don't quote me but from what I read, they are open on Thanksgiving solely to prevent a repeat of last years' incident.

I'm getting almost daily emails from BlackFriday.info as the BF sales are revealed. We didn't go out last year; this year doesn't look good either. I have everything I need / what I want isn't on sale. But I look forward to sifting through all the ads next week to make sure there isn't a killer deal to get.

Maybe target unless i can get the Oz and Wind blu's online instead.

There are no big electronics I need this year but we'll be out there, we plan on going out around 3:30 in the am or so.

Just a FYI - I started the Black Friday 2009 thread for the usual HT-related items in the Bargains/Deals area.

Feel free to mention non-HT deals in this thread, or shopping strategies, or stories from braving the Black Friday crowds in this thread.

i found a best black friday deal wesbsite you can search what you want to buy on it.
blackfriday2009sale.info
i am going to shopping at walmart at 5:00 o'oclock in the morning.

BlackFriday.info, too. I've used it the past couple years.

http://bfads.net/ is a very good one and they usualy get cease and desist orders every year.

Wal-Mart already included their Black Friday ad circular in today's Sunday newspaper edition.

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Good site. Used them in the past but forgot about it. Registered and bookmarked. Look forward to scrutinizing these this Wednesday on my day off :)

So far it looks like the only "good deals" are to be had at Walmart for anything more than a 32" TV.  And thats too bad because there is just no deal that could get me in a walmart for black friday. 

 

Walmart closes @ 6pm on Christmas Eve and is closed the entire Christmas Day. That day and a half are the only days they are closed, and are open on Easter. I work at Walmart and am lucky to be able to work this Black Friday. We've been instructed to call it "The Annual Event" now due to the tragedy last year.

Hours must vary by store/region, as I know my local stores are usually closed those days.

Perhaps they should stop trying to sweep it under the carpet and just call it "Bloody Friday."

 Meh, Its a lean year for 2009. I'm getting somebody a Super Mario bros. Wii, and everybody else who rates high enough to get a gift is getting booze (because at least people will drink the booze before they regift it). Since wii games and booze rarely go on sale I don't expect to do much shopping black friday.

I'm not wasting effort at a store.  I'll do it online and sleep Friday.  I've generally boycotted "black friday", this year more then most.  Though, I always come back Dec. 27 and go straight through the stores for returns.  Sometimes I snatch some sick bargains that way.

I think I'll brave Walmart to score a $78 Magnavox Blu Ray player.  Cheap way to put a toe into the BD waters (that and Netflix) without busting this year's very tight budget. 

Regards,

Joe

Good luck with that.  They'll probably have about 5 of them in the store.

That's why I don't bother with Black Friday sales, there are usually only a handful of the items available for the good sales and you have to kick, hack, and trample your way to the front of the crowd to get them.

I'd rather sleep in and experience all the reports of "unfortunate and unexpected" crowd injuries via the news.

Not necessarily, last year Wal Mart had a similar sale going on and they had about 40-50 of them stacked up in the aisle, the key is to get there way early, position yourself where they are (don't move at all costs) and when they give the go ahead haul ass and grab one lol.

Joe, if you can spare an additional $21 you can get a much better Blu Ray player at Best Buy, the Insignia NS-L4Q120-1GA.  This one has Netflix streaming and is internet ready, unlike the Magnavox.

In my modest three years of BF shopping, I've always gotten what I wanted, though sometimes it was the last available. So while I've never tried to get the $99 60" Plasma :) I've found many other deals worthwhile and available.

My Wal-Mart has 2 or 3 pallets full of the $78 Blu-Ray's - hopefully your's will as well. I personally want to get a PS3, but I'm not sure how many there are.

Forget waiting in line for a crap player. Newegg has the LG now through Sunday on their lack friday sale for $98 ;)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882005047

I went shopping on Black Friday but I did it online...Amazon.com had some pretty good deals on Garmin nuvi GPSs... Although I didn't really get online early, I got a nuvi 285WT for like $130 shipped. 

Jay

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Thanks for the recommendation, Bob.  After considering all my options I actually spent $30 more than that and picked up the wireless version of that player the day before Black Friday.  Go figure.  Unhappily, I'm going to have to take it back to Best Buy tomorrow to exchange it, as the screen goes to snow at odd times (when switching menus or when scanning in forward or reverse - 10 seconds of snow followed by a second or two of image, then snow again.)  A pity because I got the wireless network set up very quickly, registered it on Netflix and watched my first streamed movie before I discovered the disc issue.  (And yes, it does it with every disc, Blu Ray and DVD.)  I didn't actually set it up until Friday, as I was too busy Wednesday night and Thursday, and didn't even have a Blu Ray disc to play in it.  (My first, CSI Season 1 Disc 1, arrived in the mail from Netflix in the mail on Friday.  By that time I had also bought my first two BD films, since I had to go to Best Buy again to return something for my uncle, who is in the hospital at the moment.  I grabbed 2001 and Star Trek: First Contact for $17.01 total.)  

One reason for choosing those titles, besides the fact that I know I'll watch them repeatedly, was the chance to do an a/b comparison with the copies I already own.  I have to admit I was wondering how much of a difference I would really see between the scaler in my TV, the upconversion of my existing Sony DVD player and true hi-def discs on my 56", 720p LCoS RPTV.  

Well, there's no comparison.  Even at a "mere" 720p the difference is amazing.  I've used the sequence from First Contact that runs from the first report of the Borg invasion through the passage through the temporal vortex as one of my standard HT demos since I first owned the film on laserdisc, so I know it very well.  Even without reviewing my standard def DVD I knew I was seeing more detail and cleaner colors.  When I started toggling back and forth between the two I was amazed at how much better the new disc looked.  I'd always thought the two-disc special edition was one of the better-looking upconverted titles in my collection, but it looked dull and faded side-by-side with the Blu Ray.  And 2001 was simply a revelation.  It was like watching it for the first time again. 

I'm glad I made the choice I did, but annoyed that I'm gong to have to exchange this particular player.  (And yes, it did run the firmware update as soon as I connected to the network.  )  Thanks to all who made suggestions. 

Regards,

Joe