Black Friday used to be an awesome day, one of my favorite days of the year.
It is always within 4 days of my birthday, so the bargains of the day coincided nicely for me right off the bat.
I remember the good old days (before all the ads were available online weeks beforehand) when I would run out of my dorm first thing Thursday morning and buy the local paper. Back then stores like Best Buy actually had amazing deals.
One year I was able to get 4 $400 cell phones out the door for free after $250 off instantly and a $150 Best Buy rebate without even activating a plan!
Another time I got tons of fairly expensive electronics at CompUSA all for free after rebates.
I went religiously every year and often camped out at stores like Best Buy until 2005. (Besides for when my birthday came out on Black Friday on November 26, 2004, when I was down in S. Paulo, Brazil. I was so down about missing the deals that in a stroke of fate I decided to start a blog called ctownbochur.blogspot.com and shared it with a couple friends on AIM…maybe you’ve heard of it?)
I was always able to make enough money reselling the goodies on Ebay to feed my technology bug for the entire next year.
Last year’s Black Friday sales were lame.
This year’s offerings are worse.
I mean for 364 days out the year, no savvy shopper would ever walk into a Best Buy or CompUSA, but at least they had 1 day of good deals.
Do they think that the Black Friday hype is so great that they can still draw the same crowd while not offering any compelling offers?
Or have they simply gotten smarter and realized that selling items at a loss doesn’t make good business sense. After all the term “Black Friday” is thought to have come from the fact that this was the day when retailers would finally climb out of “the red” and into “the black” for the year, due to it being the busiest shopping day of the year.
It actually made perfect business sense. There were only a very limited number of deeply discounted items, but every store still drew thousands of customers buying other items to make up for it. Besides the best deals were always after rebates, which most people seemingly don’t even bother to apply for.
Black Friday used to be a bunch of marketing hype, but savvy shoppers could still come out ahead.
Now it is all hype, without any of the benefits.
Goodbye Black Friday. It was nice while you lasted.
Leave a Reply
22 Comments On "Who Killed Black Friday?"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Hey i got a early black friday deal in att of crownheights a free bluetooth headset and i think thats awesome they said they are running it for 5 days while supplies last
happy birthday dan!!
I wish you anther year of good deals!
Rachamim, share the gold . . . Where can we get our hands on them?
Dan happy bday!
Dan,
Best Buy has a very good desktop computer for $199 including a 17″ flatscreen and a 3 in 1 printer. They also have a Toshiba Laptop for $219 including a 3 in 1 printer.
Sounds like pretty good deals to me.
Happy Birthday , also great article, you should be syndicated nationally short sweet to the point and also very true , it is so sad that we dont even have one reason to shop anywhere else but sams club or costco
you can call them and they ship 718-363-5444 or you can go in to the store its on kingston between empire and montgomery not sure exact address but short block
http://www.wireless.att.com/global/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/MIR_NAT_Accessory_BT_010508.pdf
The computers that BB is offering this year are pieces of junk.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS – YOU (CTOWN BOCHUR AUTHOR) HAVE A BRILLIANT FUTURE AS A COLUMN WRITER! LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN TH NY TIMES! GOOD LUCK
Dan, i am writing this as a comment b/c you won’t respond to my email. Were you on shlichus in Sao Paulo? If yes, PLEASE email me @ shaya.com@gmail.com. I am on shlichus here now and have a very important question to ask you.
Thanks,
Shaya
Well Comp USA has a GOOD laptop, but the deal isnt that great on it…
From my office, I can see the local Best Buy- from early this morning, there was a row of tents- people camped out from LAST NIGHT for the opening TOMORROW. I can only see about 30 people before the line goes around the corner- there must be something great there!
Fellow Shliach-I literally get hundreds of email every day. Yes, I was on shlichus is s. paulo.
Feel free to post a comment or you can try emailing me again…
Chanan- I have no explanation other than people are creatures of habit. The Black Friday hype has been so big for so many years that hundreds will line up every BF to buy garbage.
I guess that explains why there are no good deals anymore. The stores got smart and realized people will still come by the busload without them having to offer truly good deals!
Yes dan, i have also been scoping out for some “metziyus” (bargains) and have found nothing but junk!
This is a calamity…
Where am i gonna buy good things? I’m DESPERATE for a laptop, but best buy does not have impressive deals!
where can i get a cheap basic laptop?
Big Fan. I am also looking for a deal on a laptop, if u find out can you let me know by posting or email me direct moishele2@juno.com thanks,
dell has a laptop for 300 that looks pretty good….
Could I get in on this decent-but-affordable-laptop thing? Like “d” said, please post or e-mail me (dsch1963@aol.com), too. Thanks, guys!
where can i get thaat deal with dell, i am looking for any decent lap top hat is a good deal, can anyone advise?
moishele2@juno.com
thanks
where can find a good deal on a desk top
i feel the same way, black friday is no longer as good as it use to be, but at the same time i’ve bought some much stuff that i really don’t want anything anymore (well whats on sale) for instance i bought a tv, a laptop, desktop, have way to many flashdrives, so whats left, hmm GPS well i have a iphone… suxs
May the Black Friday legacy live on.
where were you a shaliach in sao paulo? which chabad location? i would know them all….