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http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/ar ... day-crowds
Mixed emotions, staying open st8 thru? Wonder which employees drew the short straws on that one. Also where is law enforcement in case something does get out of control? I mean lining up people at displays is great but if there is a frenzy and something sells out someone is going to get mad.
This is sick... More and more I get turned off to the holiday shopping BS and this year I'm doing the only thing that sends a message to the retailers...I'm buying a whole lot less and from local stores. No way in hell is a dime of my money going to a big box this holiday season.
I agree with Tom. The older I get, even with kids, the more I hate what the Christmas holiday has become.
Friggin Home Depot had Christmas tress up on Sept. 8. That is just ridiculous.
However I do find that since I started celebrating Hanukkah, there is less of an emphasis on gifts and more an emphasis on family. And that is what its all about.
As for Walmart, I have never and will never ever shop there. No reason to create the mess that they do. They can sell $300 notebooks any day of the year. No need for creating a temporary scenario of value that can be found every day.
I worked for years as a Manager in the electronic retail industry.
I was a store manager at Best Buy in Westbury for several Black Friday's and I can tell you that they do it right. We gave out tickets for the "Door Buster" items and made people line up around the building. Then, at 6am when the doors opened, we would only let in ~50 people at a time. When we felt that things were getting a little tight inside, we simply shut off the door until some people left. The people in line didn't really flip out because they knew that if they didn't have a ticket, the door buster items were already gone. The most important thing was the communication. We would start walking the line @ 4am, with coffee & donuts, telling them how the process was going to work and let them know that there were plenty of great deals for everyone.
If someone started acting up in line, and getting nasty, we simply asked them to step out of line and refused them entry into the store. If they refused, we simply shut off the line and called 911 to have them removed. Because we always had such an organized plan in place, the cops were very appreciative and acted very quickly when we called them.
Black Friday is actually a lot of fun, if it's organized. There are people who start lining up Thanksgiving morning and sleep overnight. It's a yearly event for many who actually look forward to it. There is nothing wrong with $300 laptop door busters, it adds to the excitement & fun. When things are not organized is when the trouble starts.