Anyone here have Best Buy Black Friday information/experience?

[Azure]

So, I'm planning on picking up the Westinghouse 22" at tomorrow at Best Buy but I'm a little unsure as to what time to go. I heard that they hand out vouchers for various items at around 4 a.m. and that these vouchers are basically guaranteed tickets to the items they are for. Is this true? Also, how do I gauge whether the item I'm looking at (The Westinghouse 22" LCD monitor) is a hot ticket item or not (Whether it will be sold out fast and will require getting there the day before)? The monitor I'm looking at isn't even on the front page and isn't a doorbuster item, but it's still an insane deal (But I'm not sure how many people are aware of it and plan on getting it).

It's 11:00 p.m. here and I'm planning on getting there at 1:00 a.m.

 

[puiah11]

Is there a similarly discounted monitor online? Then you wouldn't have to wait and push and shove, in the cold.

I know that when the 360 came out people here were hella all lined up and I was like What b/c I didn't know it came out that day (I never really pay atention to that stuff).

Plus the PS3 people will be in line for too.

You couldn't pay me fifty bazillion dollars to get into that mess. Imo.

 

[James3Toe]

We drove by our local Best Buy a couple of hours ago (Irvine, SoCal), and there were probably 120 people queued up in front of the store waiting for the 4:00 am ticket handout. Looks like if you're not already in the queue, you may not get what you're looking for.

 

[mr_baseball_08]

If you'll get on BB's website, you may be able to snag one within the comfort of your own home. The deal was up then it went down and last I heard was up again. Who knows, but it's worth a look.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&ref=10&loc=01

On sale right now, Edit: and sold out again.

 

[pds6]

Those real cheap items are gone in one minute - Total madhouse.

As stated, check online for price.

 

[m_memmory]

Just reading around the threads of black friday (which I'd never heard of till this past week) I'm just amazed at what the shops get up to. If they ever start doing similar things in the UK (and I'm sure they will - we generally copy the States on most things) then there's no way I'm queueing up at times like that in the morning to go shopping.

 

[organicabstract]

didn't experience the best buy black friday, but i sure as hell experienced the circuit city one.

it was pure chaos. felt like i was in an episode of super market sweep (if anyone remembers that show) where people were just grabbing literally whatever their eyes landed on, in mass quantities.

i didn't walk away with the laptop that i initially wanted but came home with a few goodies:

polk audio 10" sub for the home theater system i'm building + a camera and sd card. not too shabby...

hope everyone got whatever it is that they lined up for at best buy or wherever.

 

[warubozu]

Pass by my local Best Buy this morning shortly before 1 a.m. and there was already a line forming for the 4 a.m. voucher handout. Chances are the item you're looking at will be a hot seller. Drove by my local Best Buy and Circuit City stores again shortly before 4 a.m. and the lines at both stores must have been easily +600 deep waiting for the store to open.

 

[Jahn]

how much was that elph?

 

[coolshot]

i got that same camera for $213 shipped bout 3 weeks ago. took a week to get here tho. I wish they had nikon d50's for BF.

 

[granodemostasa]

ah, life. my brother called me two days ago telling me about an Elph SD700 that was on sale for only 179 (very limited). he waited for many hours..... and then called me, and was like "ah, i made a mistake, it was a casio exilim, but it's soo cool, i'm sure you'll love it." while i appreciate his sacrifice... i sorta would hate to tell him that he waited out there to get a deal that was only 20 dollars off the regular circut city price.... and i'm wondering whether i should take it or not.

 

[pds6]

I just went on-line and took a look at the Best Buy circular. There are some good prices on named brand products. Other stuff have good prices, but off-brands merchandise - How good is a Westinghouse television.

I also Googled for a short period of time. I came up with a number of products in the same price range. If a really wanted something, I believe I could get it for about the same price as those charge today by Best Buy.

Waiting in line is acting like a monkey. Why would you act like a monkey for anyone at any price?

 

[lmilhan]

I ordered the 19 inch Westinghouse HDTV and a 4 year service plan from the comfort of my own home (managed to get one before they sold out). Total after the Best Buy rebate is $270 for the TV + extended warranty. I RARELY ever buy an extended policy, but since I don't know a whole lot about Westinghouse TVs, I figured the warranty was a good idea. This TV will replace the 13 inch tube TV my wife currently watches in the computer room.

I would rather gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon than stand in line with that much humanity just to save a few dollars. For the past 5 Christmas I have completed all of my shopping over the internet. My Post man acts as Santa Claus for me.

So my advice: If you can't order a "black friday" item over the internet, don't even bother. It isn't worth the aggrevation, and it is very unlikely that you will even get the item you want anyway if you were to actually go out and stand in a 10 hour line. FUNK DAT!

 

[ellover009]

My black friday experience was interesting this year. I went there around 9am, I had no difficulty finding a parking space, I mostly got movies (15 of them), a few games on sale (quake 4, battlefield 2142, and dawn of war), I got three of those 2gb flash sticks from consair, only thing on my list I didn't get was the norelco electric razor. I actually stood in line for less than 6mins when it came time to pay, I had a list so going through tings were fast, and it wasn't the same craziness as the years before, this show two things. The economy is still a little tough, expecially when the cost of living and gasoline have gone up. I remember a few years ago you would be able to find a lot of nice deals, I meant really nice stuff, what I found was that half the stuff in the circular were either not as nice as past years or really outdated stuff aka stuff that is about to be replaced, this years DEALS kind of sucked. How can I tell things were different than past years? a few years ago you would find better deals on televisions, good audio equipment, and lots of pc upgrade parts cheap (barely saw pc parts on sale besides Hard drives). I didn't even bother with the digital cameras, the line was too large, not worth the waiting time, could find stuff at similar prices online, only benefit is no shipping and tax free. I live in MASS, went to NH to shop, tax-free rocks. I noticed most of the good deals were at best buy this year, went to compusa, couldn't get into circuit city, it gets to a point where it's not worth the wait.

 

[puiah11]

^ those are some good points about the economy and such. Sales really only work when you can afford to provide a sale. But if I was circuit city or whoever I would just put everything on sale and reduce my margins and turnover my inventory a few times. It's still business, but deals more with quantity of sales and a lower profit margin, while still meeting your costs.

Because most online companies have very low overhead and have their FOB centers in buck-tuck-willwater hicksville local retailers can't really compete IMO.

Plus online selection is better. I did a research study once and found that people prefer shopping online because they can comparison shop and most are only interested in how easy the chekout process is and if they can return the product if they are dissatisfied. People want cheap prices and some care about low shipping costs, but mostly low product cost.

Why drive around in a car if you can comparison shop online from the comfort of your home?

I guess some people still think the internet is evil and they will die if they get DSL and buy something online.