Black Friday (or the lack thereof)

[Winchester]

I miss Black Friday. On Thursday night, after everything was cleaned up from Thanksgiving, Rick and I would sit at the kitchen table to check out all the newspaper ads to see if there was anything we wanted. Make our shopping lists. Grab any pertinent store coupons we might be able to use.

We would get up early, hit PetSmart first and stood in line for their Tidy Cat litter; we bought pails and pails and stored it in the basement. We'd get cases of food that was on sale. Then to the mall, just to walk and check out the stores. Buy anything that was on our lists. Complain about the people, complain about the slow store clerks. Back home to drop off our bounty in the house.

Out for breakfast/lunch. Then to a different mall; I don't know why because the stores were pretty much the same at all of them.

Back then, the Grands were small and we spent a lot of time perusing the toy section for those items that were on their lists.

Out for dinner. Then home and collapse. Did we save any money? Not really. But we really enjoyed our day. I guess we liked it because I worked a swing-shift at the paper plant for almost 20 years. And Thanksgiving, along with many other holidays, was not considered a holiday, so I had to work.

 

[bobkater]

Sales are tricky. So watch out for the following two classics, aptly depicted by the quotes:

What you don’t need is expensive at any price.
Half price in special offers means paying half of what you would have paid if the price were double. (bobkater)

 

[klunick]

I would much rather pay full price than to deal with the crowds and craziness that goes along with Black Friday.

 

[neely]

I would much rather pay full price than to deal with the crowds and craziness that goes along with Black Friday.

I absolutely despise the traffic. We had to go out yesterday and people were driving like maniacs. I like to find out what the Black Friday sales are but they're nowhere as good as they used to be.

 

[denice]

I never got into the Black Friday thing. When they were really crazy I liked to watch the videos on the news, those videos confirmed why I didn't participate. There would also often be a story or two about people getting into an altercation over the last item at the super low price.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I think working retail during college spoiled it for me. I could probably enjoy it with the right person; but on my own the crowds and craziness isn’t fun. The day after Christmas was way worse though. My boss literally lectured the crowd before opening the gate! She said she had been pinned against a fixture one year. And she made all the employees stay behind the register. 18 year old me was .

When DD was a baby I did try one year. I had several specific things I wanted to save money on; like a play yard and standing baby toy. I had hosted Thanksgiving and got up at like 2:30-3 for the shopping with stores being half an hour away. By the time I got home I wasn’t sure how id gotten there. I only managed the play yard and toy. And it was the last one and slightly damaged. It was a letdown for sure.

I did run into 2 friends who were dating when I was looking at the big baby toy thing and a few minutes later they walked back over, put some money in my hand and said “From Aunt K & Uncle T.” 🥹 Thats my best memory of the whole experience. And that toy lasted through both my kids before I passed it on to my cousin for her 2.

DD enjoys craft fairs with me now. So maybe she would like to try Black Friday sometime. But probably not at any crazy hours. Neither of us are morning people. But doing it together might change my opinion.

 

[betsygee]

That sounds like such a fun tradition for you two, Winchester !

 

[IndyJones]

I would much rather pay full price than to deal with the crowds and craziness that goes along with Black Friday.

I skip the lines with Amazon prime. Only way I can get into black friday sales is online shopping. Plus free delivery can't get better than that.

 

[misty8723]

Never did Black Friday, just too crazy for me and the sales were very seldom worth it. They've been doing Black Friday all month. Even the online sales don't seem to be worth it.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

I hate the way shops here have adopted Black Friday. Utterly meaningless, it's just a money grab.

 

[Kat0121]

I miss Black Friday. On Thursday night, after everything was cleaned up from Thanksgiving, Rick and I would sit at the kitchen table to check out all the newspaper ads to see if there was anything we wanted. Make our shopping lists. Grab any pertinent store coupons we might be able to use.

We would get up early, hit PetSmart first and stood in line for their Tidy Cat litter; we bought pails and pails and stored it in the basement. We'd get cases of food that was on sale. Then to the mall, just to walk and check out the stores. Buy anything that was on our lists. Complain about the people, complain about the slow store clerks. Back home to drop off our bounty in the house.

Out for breakfast/lunch. Then to a different mall; I don't know why because the stores were pretty much the same at all of them.

Back then, the Grands were small and we spent a lot of time perusing the toy section for those items that were on their lists.

Out for dinner. Then home and collapse. Did we save any money? Not really. But we really enjoyed our day. I guess we liked it because I worked a swing-shift at the paper plant for almost 20 years. And Thanksgiving, along with many other holidays, was not considered a holiday, so I had to work.

Petsmart's sales get worse every year. Remember when they had the Tidy Cats pails for $7.99? Those were the days. The "deal" on Tidy Cats this year? Buy one get one 35% off. They have other litter for buy one get 50% off. Wow. Thanks.

NO Black Friday sales on wet food at all.

Chewy also. NO holiday deals on food.

Amazon's Black Friday deals on food are a joke. It looks like they took some of their normal subscribe and save deals and slapped a Black Friday banner on it. One "deal" is 8 cans of Fancy Feast with a catnip mouse and a booklet for $17.

Now I'm just looking at deals on scratching posts or cat trees.

 

[IndyJones]

Depe

Petsmart's sales get worse every year. Remember when they had the Tidy Cats pails for $7.99? Those were the days. The "deal" on Tidy Cats this year? Buy one get one 35% off. They have other litter for buy one get 50% off. Wow. Thanks.

NO Black Friday sales on wet food at all.

Chewy also. NO holiday deals on food.

Amazon's Black Friday deals on food are a joke. It looks like they took some of their normal subscribe and save deals and slapped a Black Friday banner on it. One "deal" is 8 cans of Fancy Feast with a catnip mouse and a booklet for $17.

Now I'm just looking at deals on scratching posts or cat trees.

Depends on what youre looking for, pet supplies aren't technicaly appliances though some automatic feeders and fountains could be classified as such. The black actualy refers to black goods such as computers and tvs and small appliances.



Amazon has some good deals on microwaves right now for example, best buy too.

Now the best deals are usualy at the end of the year clearance sales.

Ps. Cat litter in pails, that reminds me of maxx scoop litter, it came in a pail and was honestly the best litter I ever used. Never understood why they stopped making it.

 

[denice]

Ps. Cat litter in pails, that reminds me of maxx scoop litter, it came in a pail and was honestly the best litter I ever used. Never understood why they stopped making it.

Petco used to have litter that was in a large container and could then be scooped into a refillable pail. It was cheap. They did require initially buying the refillable pail filled with the litter. That was the best litter that I ever used. I don't have a set schedule for emptying the litter boxes and starting fresh, I just do that when the litter looks like it needs to be completely replaced. That litter lasted and lasted.

 

[Jem]

I'm in Canada, so although we have "Black Friday" sales, even though we don't have Thanksgiving on the same day as you guys. I don't really take advantage. Our sales aren't that great...well, not enough to warrant dealing with the crowds and traffic anyway.
We never used to have Black Friday but when the powers at be saw how much Canadians would cross the border to go shopping, they decided to start.
I have in the past, watched for sales online for things I need, but that's about it.

 

[misty8723]

I hate the way shops here have adopted Black Friday. Utterly meaningless, it's just a money grab.

That's what Black Friday is, a time for stores to "go in the black."
But it's no longer a day, it's all month, and sometimes middle of the year (:Black Friday in June!").

 

[Kat0121]

Depe

Depends on what youre looking for, pet supplies aren't technicaly appliances though some automatic feeders and fountains could be classified as such. The black actualy refers to black goods such as computers and tvs and small appliances.



Amazon has some good deals on microwaves right now for example, best buy too.

Now the best deals are usualy at the end of the year clearance sales.

Ps. Cat litter in pails, that reminds me of maxx scoop litter, it came in a pail and was honestly the best litter I ever used. Never understood why they stopped making it.

Black refers to profits. BF marks the official start to the holiday shopping season and when some retailers go from profit losses (in the red) to profit gains (in the black). Petsmart and other pet retailers have had BF sales for a long time and food, litter, etc was always included. They just got stingy this year. I get better deals on litter at Publix when they have it BOGO which is pretty often.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

That's what Black Friday is, a time for stores to "go in the black."
But it's no longer a day, it's all month, and sometimes middle of the year (:Black Friday in June!").

It irks me because it's an American date - the Friday after Thanksgiving isn't relevant here - and Black Friday in Australia has a very different meaning, the terrible Black Friday bushfires of 1938-39.

 

[IndyJones]

Black refers to profits. BF marks the official start to the holiday shopping season and when some retailers go from profit losses (in the red) to profit gains (in the black). Petsmart and other pet retailers have had BF sales for a long time and food, litter, etc was always included. They just got stingy this year. I get better deals on litter at Publix when they have it BOGO which is pretty often.

I don't shop at petsmart or the big chains anyways. Petvalu is a chain but its canadian and a smaller one. Their stores are genneraly smaller and they don't sell pets except bettas at select locations.

Petsmarts mistreatment of animals deserves its own thread though.

 

[susanm9006]

I was never really into Black Friday shopping. Unless it was a gift on someone’s list that was in sale, I never went out shopping and I pretty much never shopped for myself until after the holidays.

 

[nurseangel]

That does sound like a wonderful tradition. I did Black Friday one time when Belk was giving out coupons to the first x number of people who came to the store. One was worth $5,000. I think I got a $5.00 coupon. It was fun, though. I've never really been into Black Friday, but my mom and I would save change through the entire year in an elf cookie jar. We would roll our change at Christmas and instead of eating fast food when we did our shopping, we would go to a nice restaurant. Now the nice restaurants seem to be either crowded or closed down entirely.