Are you into doing Black Friday?

brianlux

Before I started working with my wife at her used bookstore, Black Friday was something to be avoided. Once I started working with my wife at here store, I loved it. The high energy, helping people find good books, the much needed best sales day of the year for the store- it was great. But now that we are both retired, I'm happy to be avoiding Black Friday once again. So far this morning, my total accomplishments include, sleeping in, making coffee and breakfast, checking my email, and writing this. Perfect.

What about you?

josevolution

Nah I don’t like crowds as is so I stay away! My son was shopping today my wife did too I stayed home and cleaned 😂 while drinking some DOS XX 

stuckinline

I stay away from stores. I took time to catch up on my book club reading.

eeriepadave

No, I worked in retail for like 30 years. So I’m over Black Friday and holiday shopping. That being said I was at the king of Prussia mall (one of the largest malls in the east coast) for a few hours today. In my defense it was for work. I work at UPS and was helping delivering and picking up packages at most of the stores. It was pretty packed there. 

PJ_Soul

It's not so much a thing in Canada, obviously because it's not Thanksgiving for us right now. But all the stores do still have sales, and if I see a good deal on something I need I'll obviously buy it. As luck would have it, my 14 year old TV's picture is suddenly failing, so I just got a new Samsung OLED with $700 off the regular price. Still expensive AF, lol. But it sure is a massive upgrade.

I feel like most people do their black friday shopping online, no? Why would they want to go to the physical store on a holiday? What a crappy way to spend a day off.

brianlux

I was a bit surprised to see on another forum also said they either didn't participate at all, or stayed home and shopped on-line.  My wife had to go into town on unrelated business and said the traffic was horrible, so I guess a lot of people still go out to shop on black Friday (or as another person I know called it, "Blech Friday", haha!)

F Me In The Brain

Went and upgraded a TV.
Fuckface and his tarrif plans are gonna make them go sky high.

2-feign-reluctance

Nah, I worked retail from 16-21, burned me out forever. 

lastexitlondon

No I stay home

crookedcross

I dont even know when Black Friday is anymore. No clue why crowds still sit in traffic and line-up etc... 1. The items on super sale are almost always lame or of low quality. 2. Most stores offer "door busters" online. 3. Plenty tools to track prices, and deals are typically better other times of the year.

brianlux

crookedcross said:

I dont even know when Black Friday is anymore. No clue why crowds still sit in traffic and line-up etc... 1. The items on super sale are almost always lame or of low quality. 2. Most stores offer "door busters" online. 3. Plenty tools to track prices, and deals are typically better other times of the year.

#2 is an excellent point. I'm glad you brought it up!

 It's kind of amazing how much absolute garbage gets purchased simply because it cheap.  About 40 years ago I read in one of Wendell Berry's books (it was probably his book, Home Economics), where Berry wrote convincingly about the wisdom of buying durable products even if they are more expensive (they almost always are).  He pointed out that durable, well made products work better, are more efficient, last longer, and in the long run save the consumer money.  And that's just the benefits on a personal level.  The other benefit is that durable, quality products consume fewer resources and are better for the planet. 

Over the years, I've found this to be true myself.  Levi's last longer and are cheaper in the long run than "budget" brand jeans.  My refurbished HP Pro Book laptop has outlast the other computers I've had (including Dell), and cost a lot less in the long run.  This machine is a tank!  DeWalt, Stanley, Snap-On, and a few others (including, to a lesser extent today, Craftsman) tools last longer and save money in the long run.

Sorry if I sound like I'm preaching but, seriously, quality durable products just make far more sense.

lastexitlondon

There is a saying. 
" A poor man pays twice"

brianlux

lastexitlondon said:

There is a saying. 
" A poor man pays twice"

Good one.

I talked about the whole thing about durability on another forum once and some of the responses said, "Well you must have a lot of money because I can't afford quality items."  I tried to kindly explain that people with less money actually are the very people who would do best to purchase quality items.  I used myself as an example-- my wife and my income has always been less that the average for the entire U.S. country even though we live in the the second most expensive states to live in in the country.  The only reason we live fairly comfortably has been from learning how to manage our money well.  It's not really that hard to learn to do, but it takes time and patience by doing things things like keeping a budget, always remembering the difference between want and need, finding ways to invest what one can spare, etc.  And shopping wisely has been a big help.  For example, we really stretch ourselves thin in 2008 in order to buy a new Prius.  The first few years were shaky.  But the car was high quality (in fact, we still drive it) and I did the math a few days ago and found that because over its life time the car has averages 43 miles per gallon, the amount of money we saved on fuel all these years about equals the original purchase price of the car.  The care paid for itself! 

My wife is really into all this and has talked about writing a little book about managing money.  I keep hoping she will do that some day.

crookedcross

brianlux said:

crookedcross said:

I dont even know when Black Friday is anymore. No clue why crowds still sit in traffic and line-up etc... 1. The items on super sale are almost always lame or of low quality. 2. Most stores offer "door busters" online. 3. Plenty tools to track prices, and deals are typically better other times of the year.

#2 is an excellent point. I'm glad you brought it up!

 It's kind of amazing how much absolute garbage gets purchased simply because it cheap.  About 40 years ago I read in one of Wendell Berry's books (it was probably his book, Home Economics), where Berry wrote convincingly about the wisdom of buying durable products even if they are more expensive (they almost always are).  He pointed out that durable, well made products work better, are more efficient, last longer, and in the long run save the consumer money.  And that's just the benefits on a personal level.  The other benefit is that durable, quality products consume fewer resources and are better for the planet. 

Over the years, I've found this to be true myself.  Levi's last longer and are cheaper in the long run than "budget" brand jeans.  My refurbished HP Pro Book laptop has outlast the other computers I've had (including Dell), and cost a lot less in the long run.  This machine is a tank!  DeWalt, Stanley, Snap-On, and a few others (including, to a lesser extent today, Craftsman) tools last longer and save money in the long run.

Sorry if I sound like I'm preaching but, seriously, quality durable products just make far more sense.

There's a reddit thread called "BuyItForLife". It's great. I still have a 2011 MacBook Pro. I have repaired it and upgraded it myself a few times. Apple realized people are doing this so in 2013 they soldered every part. Ha. I recently repaired my washer's motor simply because I refuse to buy a new one. Manufacturers have perfected the art of pricing their crap just at the right price point to where buying a new one will be just a lick more expensive than paying to repair it. To your point, I agree, I am very much a you get what you paid for kind of guy. Put quality products on sale, cool I'll bite every now and then, but I refuse to take part in the consumption of these Temu-ass products that big box stores are slinging. 

lastexitlondon

I select wisely never having much money but the quote is true as far as you buy what you can afford and often it breaks. And you buy again 

brianlux

crookedcross said:

brianlux said:

crookedcross said:

I dont even know when Black Friday is anymore. No clue why crowds still sit in traffic and line-up etc... 1. The items on super sale are almost always lame or of low quality. 2. Most stores offer "door busters" online. 3. Plenty tools to track prices, and deals are typically better other times of the year.

#2 is an excellent point. I'm glad you brought it up!

 It's kind of amazing how much absolute garbage gets purchased simply because it cheap.  About 40 years ago I read in one of Wendell Berry's books (it was probably his book, Home Economics), where Berry wrote convincingly about the wisdom of buying durable products even if they are more expensive (they almost always are).  He pointed out that durable, well made products work better, are more efficient, last longer, and in the long run save the consumer money.  And that's just the benefits on a personal level.  The other benefit is that durable, quality products consume fewer resources and are better for the planet. 

Over the years, I've found this to be true myself.  Levi's last longer and are cheaper in the long run than "budget" brand jeans.  My refurbished HP Pro Book laptop has outlast the other computers I've had (including Dell), and cost a lot less in the long run.  This machine is a tank!  DeWalt, Stanley, Snap-On, and a few others (including, to a lesser extent today, Craftsman) tools last longer and save money in the long run.

Sorry if I sound like I'm preaching but, seriously, quality durable products just make far more sense.

There's a reddit thread called "BuyItForLife". It's great. I still have a 2011 MacBook Pro. I have repaired it and upgraded it myself a few times. Apple realized people are doing this so in 2013 they soldered every part. Ha. I recently repaired my washer's motor simply because I refuse to buy a new one. Manufacturers have perfected the art of pricing their crap just at the right price point to where buying a new one will be just a lick more expensive than paying to repair it. To your point, I agree, I am very much a you get what you paid for kind of guy. Put quality products on sale, cool I'll bite every now and then, but I refuse to take part in the consumption of these Temu-ass products that big box stores are slinging. 

Nicely done, crockedcross.  And thanks for that reddit "BuyItForLife" tip, i will check it out.