My husband and the oldest son ate turkey and crane berries at Thanksgiving last Thursday and left the door to queue outside Best Buy for a Black Friday deal. The Dell in question, if any of you were wondering, was a Toshiba laptop. The laptop was a Waller 249 door spreader. Meaning you can’t buy it unless the doors open at 5:00 AM. This is a first come first serve deal. It only makes sense that longtime high-end people get the best deals, doesn’t it?
When they got there at 6 pm on a Thursday, there were 14 people in front of my husband. Not everyone was buying that particular laptop in front of them, they were there for other deals. My husband assured me he would get one of the laptops. It made him feel better because he had 10 hours left to stand in the cold. Also, this laptop deal was only announced online and not everyone in the class was aware of this extraordinary deal. I spent $599 on the same laptop four months ago.
Arriving Details
By 10:00 PM families with young children started arriving and the line was running to the back of the parking lot. People were setting up tents for the long night. By three in the morning, more and more people started lining up. People start biting in front of others. The streak is not good anymore. The manager of Best Buy came in telling people that they are not allowed to cut in front of people and that he is calling the manager. Bites people anyway.
By 4:00 a.m., the manager was out with all the big deal passengers. The flyer had a 9249 laptop. When people saw this laptop deal, they started calling their friends and family on their cell phones. Crowds and throngs of people began to arrive, and cut in front of the line where their friends and families had stood all night.
At about 4:30 a.m., Best Buy employees begin queuing to ask everyone what they want to buy. And then he would give them tickets for that thing. When the manager went to my husband and asked him what he intended to do, he had no laptop left because there were now 60 or more people (hardcore) in front of him!
My husband and son stood outside for ten hours in the cold, waiting for the door to open, smoking secondhand smoke all night, mostly at 30 degrees. He turned around and left the line, wondering what had just happened. By the time he got home, he was still dumbfounded.
What did my husband learn from this experience?
Here’s what he told me: Unless you’re the first person on the queue, Black Friday door deals are a scam. Almost taste and practice switch. Only those who cut the line get deals. The bottom line is that the laptop’s last-minute cutting tools didn’t line up all night. No, they stood in line for over an hour! They are the ones who have laptops!
After that day, I went online and did some research of my own, and found out that the experience he had was similar to standing in line. At the last minute, buyers show up and cut the queue. Black Friday is not for honest people who can’t afford a new laptop. Black Friday is for the mentality of the greedy, dishonest mob who has crossed the line.
My suggestion to retailers is this: they should give out tickets for items when people are standing in line. In this way, it ensures first come first serve policy and ensures adherence to principles and work ethic. But I don’t think the latter will happen.
My husband also said that the Black Friday streaks are just for the mindset of the crowd. He hates mobs but is tired of wanting a great computer at an unbelievable price. Tell me to tell all the honest and straight people out there that it’s not worth it to stand in line all night hoping for a deal because you’re going to get scammed in the end. Save your money and wait for the actual sale when they come out.
No word can bring it all together as this video did for me. Happy shopping.