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A 26-hour wait for AirPods and Playstations
By adamg on Fri, 11/29/2019 - 12:37am
The guy in the tent and the guy behind him said they'd arrived at the Dedham Best Buy at 10 p.m. on Wednesday to pick up some stuff for their families, in particular, AirPods and Playstations. At 11:45 p.m. on Thursday, the line, such as it was, didn't even reach to the end of the front of the store, unlike in years past, when it would stretch along the side of the building and curl around the back.
There were more people at the Walpole Walmart, where the first guy in line said he got there around 5 p.m. today in a quest for DVDs, followed by a couple of guys who got there at 6 p.m. hoping to snag some cheap TVs. But, still, there were far fewer people than in previous years - the parking lot was not even half full as midnight approached.
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Comments
The guy waiting for DVDs...
Ok really it’s almost 2020
Ownership of content is
Ownership of content is better than renting.
In some ways.
But in general, you are right.
ANYTHING USING OLDER TECHNOLOGY IS BAD.
Oh, wait. That's preposterous.
Brick and mortar is dead
and after the next recession most non-corporate retail businesses will be destroyed
and just wait 'til we gotta pay for all of the BIGLY tax cuts bestowed upon us by Glorious Dear Leader
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
Black Friday is not was it
Black Friday is not was it was years ago before online shopping.
I was at Best Buy early in
I was at Best Buy early in the week and they already had tvs that were bigger than my wall for less than 500 dollars. I looked at the Black Friday deals and , meh. In fact most of the things I looked for deals on across all the stores were , meh. In fact some of the places I have been monitoring prices on they had better deals two weeks ago then their Black Friday deals. For cameras the camera stores are posting Black Friday deals that are the same as regular pricing at other stores.
I think retailers got sick of the liability of people getting killed at their door steps (imagine , it took long enough) and realized that by almost giving things away they were not making any real money today. A loss leader only works if you buy something else while shopping but these were attracting people who are only looking for that one deal. Plus the last time I was in a big store like Best Buy on Black Friday (I used to get my computer deals at the Downtown Staples back in the day, they had the same deals as Best Buy but nobody ever thought to go there and you used to be able to park right out front) was 2000 and I was working for HP as a rep. They had such a large crowd that the store was set up like a war zone. Product stopped people from walking up and down the aisles. It was all set up just to keep people under control . I honestly do not know why I was there trying to demo my non Black Friday stuff, nobody cared. That is when I realized Black Friday was all smoke and mirrors. We couldn't even convince people to buy ink and paper for their printers they grreat prices on... they never did a Black Friday special HP thing again after that. I Made 3k that weekend between working 24 hours on that Friday and lots of hours all weekend plus bonuses for working all that extra time but I sold less in that weekend period then I did the weekend before or after working just four hours a day.
Bait and Switch is Rampant
Those "5 per store" or "20 per store" are usually lies. Confront the management and you get "they only sent us 2" and a shrug. Of course they have much lesser deals available instead ... and even the super deal items are usually stripped down models. Not worth it.
most people shop online now
most people shop online now because of the F'N traffic.
There's something downright
There's something downright sad and kind of creepy about this:
"Hey, watch this, if we toss them a few scraps we can make the peasants sing! We can make them dance! We can make them wait overnight in the cold in front of our store!"
Don't have to camp on
Don't have to camp on concrete in the freezing cold for Buy Nothing Day.
You can still camp out
Just observe Opt Outside day as an overnight event!
Why do people do this?
Why do people do this when you can get basically the same price on these items pretty much any other time if you look around. I can only conclude sociologically that people do it for the "entertainment" of it. They feel like they are "part of something". Then there is the more pathetic type of person that is almost literally hypnotized into doing it by the media. A year or so ago a woman was interviewed on the news at a mall on so-called Black Friday and was asked why she was there. All she could come up with was "I feel like I should be here".
Money vs Time
People without a lot of money sometimes have the time to do this.
A trade off of sorts.
Illegal Practice
These door buster ads constitute an unfair or deceptive business practice and are thus illegal. They are also illegal because they discriminate against the elderly who can not wait out in the cold. It illegal to advertise a product when the store does not have enough to meet the expected demand. Bait and switch where a store advertises a product they do not have enough to meet expected demand to get customers in to sell something different or at a higher price are illegal. Stores should be required to give rain checks or substitutions for advertised items they do not have in stock. To be sure these door busters will likely disappear if this is required but the products at the advertised price arent available to most people anyway.
What?
You had me with everything but "they are also illegal because they discriminate against the elderly who can not wait out in the cold". Most ridiculous thing I ever heard. With that logic, everything that causes anyone to have to wait in a line in the cold from ticket sales to food pantries is illegal and discriminatory.
Emptiness of American Capitalistic Society
I don't get this Black Friday tradition crap. I don't spend a dime on this day. I am happy not being a materialistic person. Unless I'm a hustler I know how to make money - I spend on certain stuffs and resale it to make profits. I know spending these electronics or other merchandises made in China or whatever countries are going to end up in the landfills accumulating somewhere. Its not good for Mother Earth.