Dapper, thanks for telling us about your experience. I was at a Target Store. I went to try and purchase a T.V. Not one of the TV's that is big enough to cover an entire wall. I was looking for a 32 - 40 inch.
There were two people in the final line in front of me that were very decent. They were also first time Black Friday folks. All of us ended up leaving. There were people who had the Tickets to buy big screen TVs and they were going up and down the line trying to sell the tickets.
I guess it is a mixed bag. It just felt very tense. There were two police cars parked out in front with their lights on, people who came late were blocked off from even being able to get into the line that was wrapped around the store.
Here in the SF East Bay in another city there was an attempted robbery of a family walking back to their car with their purchase made at a Walmart. One person was seriously injured, he was shot, one suspect got away, another did not. Maybe it seemed more crazy because of the economic times we now live in.
One more story, not Black Friday stuff but over this holiday weekend. Julie and I went to Trader Joe's to buy some groceries on Saturday. That store is usally a zoo but people are civil. Anyway, outside of the a few feet away stood a woman holding a sign that she had children and needed to feed them. The woman could not speak very good english and one of her daughters, about 8 years old stood there with her. It was heart breaking to see. I was heartened to see many people giving her money in a respectful way and showing human compassion and kindness.
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Originally Posted by DapperButch
I had never been a Black Friday shopper. Over the last 6 or so years I have done it, I would guess, 3 times (for partner's kids electronics). I enjoyed it. All of those times it was for only a few specific items and I never had a problem in any of the stores (Kmart one year, Best Buy one year, and Target another year...this was before Target did their donation bullshit). Anyway, each time it was kind of fun to stand outside in the cold and talk with people. I was bummed last year when my girlfriend's son did want a large ticket item, so there was no reason to go (same thing this year and she is away, anyway).
My experience was a relatively orderly crowd. People walked quickly, but no one jumped link and/or pushed past each other going into the store. Two of those times the stores handed out numbers for the big items, so you were assured the item prior to going into the store, so that probably helped. On the other hand, not everyone was there for those items, yet people were still calm. Guess I have been lucky.
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