[Market Research] Did You EVEN Bust Doors?
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Once upon a time, Black Friday meant fighting for your life in an overcrowded store while nursing a Thanksgiving hangover, not just getting twice as much retail spam in your email for the month of November.
Who remembers? Discuss your tales of bygone retail combat below.
- 10 comments, 13 replies
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I remember people camping out overnight in front of the big stores. I never felt the slightest bit tempted by all that nonsense.
@Pony this. And the fact I always had to work. Or if I didn’t have to is it I got later in life I volunteered to because the young people with kids have the day off
I knew it was a scam, so I stayed home.
I used to have an ice cream parlor in the Montgomery Mall back when that was still a thing. Black Friday was a PITA. Early hours, late hours and crazy busy in between.
The only time I participated was to buy 2 Oystr $20 clamshell phones from Best Buy for my mom and me. They were great, durable phones.
The only other time I participated was to buy a $99 laptop from Circuit City. It was a wonderful little all solid state machine. It worked great until Mr. Whiskers knocked my drink over into it.
@therealjrn
/showme Mr. Whiskers the cat wearing Circuit City employee shirt and pouring water onto laptop.
@mediocrebot
/giphy BWAHAHA
I once got up at 5am and rushed to sears dragging a very confused and much younger Englishman behind me. I was so excited. We still lived in the UK and they didn’t have anything like it. I was hoping to score a deal on tools we could bring back with us. So we tail it down to the store and we’re waiting. No one else in sight. The staff got there and looked confused. Then they opened and much to my chagrin, there was no huge Black Friday sale. It was surreal. I felt like I was in an episode of the twilight zone. He thought it was hilarious and poked fun for ages. That was early 2000s methinks.
@sillyheathen holy crap this reminds me of hosting some visitors from the UK for Thanksgiving and taking them to see (1990s) Black Friday craziness just for the spectacle.
They were beyond fascinated by the whole thing and couldn’t believe their eyes. (also we eventually had to explain that Black Friday was an annual thing and this wasn’t just how we behaved one day a week all year)
@jouest that’s what I was hoping for. I felt like it was April Fools day and not Black Friday. I guess the Cajuns thought it was too much fuss that year.
@sillyheathen You went the wrong day. They do that on Guy Fawkes day.
/showme Department Store full of shoppers wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
@cfg83 v is for vendetta!
@cfg83 and we have introduced our local Americans to bonfire night. We have a guy fawkes bonfire but we don’t his effigy because we probably would’ve helped with the gunpowder.
I remember going to Toys “R” Us for fun at night because I wanted to walk the floors while everyone else was in manic mode. The line was around the block so I passed.
@cfg83 It was really a mob at Best Buy. They had laid “channels” out on the floors with different coloured tape according to department to funnel the chaos.
I once stood in line for hours to be able to get my then minor child (she is now an adult) Christmas presents when I was in the middle of chemo. Somehow I managed to snag an expensive thing she wanted the very most for Christmas at an amazing Black Friday price. It made everything worth it seeing how excited she was when she unwrapped Christmas morning.
Another time, when my niece had lost her job, and her three little kids believed in Santa, I ended up shopping all night for Christmas for them. I remember being in one store where the line went all the way to the back of the store.
Staying up all night I managed to get each kid a Santa present, a present from their mom, a present from their dad, and a present from me. I also got them clothes that they needed.
When I went to UPS to send the big box, it was very heavy. I told them what was in it and why and they gave me a huge discount to mail it.
The kids never found out that year that there was no Santa as they were thrilled with their Santa gift. The youngest was just turned four and she got the desperately wanted. I no longer remember what I got the boys from Santa but I do remember they got from somebody remote control cars but their day.I made sure that Santa gave them the very best gift, their parents gave them the next gifts and what I gave them was what was left.
Oops, somehow deleted part of my answer. The four-year-old got her desperately wanted dollhouse. And the remote control cars made the day for the boys. The last big typo error that needs corrected was that their parents gave them second best gifts.
I actually somehow I ended up on TV when they were interviewing us in the line that went to the back of the store. That was pretty funny.
I have always done my absolute best to avoid stores from thanksgiving until new years.
Never work retail.
Never work retail during a holiday.
Never work retail during a holiday when people have their paychecks in hand.
Similarly, don’t work in food service – you have multiple rushes, including a double on weekends.
@pakopako On the contrary - every person should work retail or food service for a while at least once in their lives, so they understand what it’s like.
The only door I’ve ever busted was on a bedroom closet, when the oldest kid was about 4. He’d gone in and shut it behind him and the handle got stuck so busting was the only way to get him back out.