Walmart Is Sad Place On Black Friday
We did something early today that we have never done before. And before I go any further, something we will never do again.
At 12 midnight James, Rolf, and I experienced our first black Friday shopping experience. The idea was not to buy but to see others foam and stampede. After seeing this all happen on TV each year I wondered how crazy might it look up close.
The question was where could be go to get the whole experience?
It did not take us long to know that there was no better place to see the spectacle than at Walmart.
It turned out to be theatre-in-the-round and Rod Sterlings “Night Gallery” all in one place.
The store opened at midnight but the big items went on sale at 5 AM! I was a bit surprised at first that almost everything in the store could be bought at 12:15 but those few items they stocked for the ‘doorbusters’ were not even allowed to be touched for many hours down the road. As I said this was a new experience for me.
People were starting to stand in lines in various parts of the store for the gadget or widget that was advertised as the shocker sale of the morning. It should be noted that after all the standing and waiting for five hours they might not even get what they wanted. After all, there was a limited supply of the big sale items.
When I asked one of the employees if one really needed to wait five hours for the chance of getting the item at the end of a line he sheepishly said “well, yeah”. A Walmart worker even knew this all was just ridiculous. He smiled when I smiled. I am sure he was thinking he needed to apply himself in college so he would not have to work at Walmart much longer.
These shocker sale items was just another selling gimmick for Walmart, a store that I have always had disdain for. Lots of folks were grabbing other things they did not have to wait until 5 AM to purchase. Let me tell you that there are lots of folks about to open Christmas packages that contain blue towels. One woman had a cart of them. I bet she had 30 of them shoved in and around a deep-fat fryer.. If I correctly saw the look in her eye as we passed she was headed next to buy mens ties!
Other customers had brought out chairs and stools from the sporting area etc. of the store to sit on as they waited in line. I had the feeling that many of those in the store had done this many times over the years. I am only surprised that Walmart, in its greed for more money, did not sell water and pizza to those in line. Or even a chance to own their very own T-shirt that stated “I Am With Stupid In Line At Walmart On Thanksgiving Night”. That and a thong and you have the perfect wedding gift for a red-neck’s honeymoon.
There were others that had carts loaded with toys galore, and I wondered why shop at midnight for items that could just as easily be bought when the sun shines at 2 PM. Again, I am a novice at understanding black Friday.
We did get a parking space close to the store. Our friend drove and made it a great time to laugh and relax. Being close in, meant we had a fast way out.
All in all it was just too much greed and not enough of the reason we have Christmas. That is why I have never shopped on black Friday. I love to buy presents and wrap them. But I like to do that when there is snow in the air and Christmas music being played. Last night at midnight when the store started allowing sales to be made there was an announcement. “Shoppers may start cashing out at the front of the store”.
There was no “Good Morning” or “Happy Holidays”. Instead it was ante up to the registers and open your wallet.
Gag.
I love to shop and buying tech stuff is always fun for me. I love a good sale too. But I still do not understand the lust for shopping like this on the day after Thanksgiving. As the three of us left the store we all said we had seen it up close, and would not need to repeat it.
As I walked back to the car in the frigid Madison air I knew that the best part of this or any Thanksgiving was around the kitchen table. It would never be in a store.
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I was also out on Black Friday, but I was going to go with a neighbor to pick out some doors, since he was going to be at Menards as well. The doors opened at six, never thinking this store would be so packed. After slowly moving through a 4 car accident and a 2 car accident and not finding a place to park, I decided to just head home. I agree that everyone likes a deal, but when will we understand that all these sale items are just stuff. Stuff. We really have to ask ourselves if this is what I need or if this is stuff I want. It was my first and last time as well.
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=26408
excellent post i agree that too much is made of shopping at this time of year
how about you join and fight back against walmart everyone should
http://www.1worldcommunication.org/Walmart.htm
All the ads and then the news coverage makes me ill. There is too much greed and Walmart is part of the problem. The shoppers also have to be blamed for this mess.
You missed the point.
I think there is too much greed in the nation, and that Christmas has turned into one large buy-a-thon that misses the reason for the holiday.
You may think as you so state that I “suck”, but I think you are not a very comprehensive reader or thinker.
okay this is ridiculous, the social snobbery and smug-self-satisfaction here is off the charts
People shop at Walmart not because they are dumb or morally inferior. They MAY be dumb and morally inferior but that’s not why they’re there. Dumb and morally inferior people hold public office, enormous wealth, positions of power, teach, manage and…write blogs. However. People do not shop at Walmart out of those “laughably stupid” qualities that amused you so. They shop there because Walmart has the cheapest prices and (maybe you didn’t know) the economy is REALLY bad. Grocery store prices (it’s not really making the news too much) have sky-rocketed.
etc etc
People shop at Walmart for the same reasons they used to shop at The Miner’s Company Store. They are not physically constrained like the miners would have been, but they ARE financially constrained.
here’s how it goes (you’re obviously too financially comfortable and affluent to know so I has to ‘splain it to ya)
You can’t afford all the stuff you need without pinching pennies and cutting corners.
When you look at the total picture of a poor family’s finances, being able to buy milk and socks and notebooks while also paying rent etc means getting the VERY cheapest prices on ALL items.
If that means you stand in lines to save 10 dollars, you do it.
Or you go without A lot of the time you go without even after standing inline for cheapest prices at politically unfashionable “BigBox Stores” There just is not enough to go around
Another basic concept you apparently never experienced due to your money levels– these cheap prices do not last, if you miss this day it possibly means NEVER getting that item -ever.
And how disgusting! For all you know that Blue Towel Woman you found so humorous works at a Battered Women’s Shelter and they got a years’ supply of towels at a fraction of the price and so can now buy some OTHER stuff they would not have been able to afford because of her late night and ‘greedy” efforts.
Read this as many times as it takes to sink in to your skull -You can not tell a person’s story by looking at them pushing a cart late night around Wal-mart. Didn’t your parents raise you right? Middle-class boy? YOU DO NOT KNOW A PERSON’S STORY FROM ONE DERISIVE DISRESPECTING GLANCE
I wonder what kind of BS you’ smugly fabricate about me? I am often a morally inferior person trying to meet my family’s basic needs in a rock-bottom fashion late at WalMart. Almost every time now I end up having to “re-assess” my cart, because our “necessities” have exceeded the allowable cash. I end up putting items back every week. Okay we have just enough shampoo in the bottle, put that off till next week. Etc.
This is till America, people still have a cultural expectation to provide SOME kind of nice meal, SOME kind of “generous-looking pile” under the tree. These are Christmas memories of our Children, We (poor people) want them to be memories of a “generous Santa” or Mom and Dad love me and got me what I always wanted.
That means pinching every freaking penny. every one
It’s nice you enjoy your carols and your Tech stuff, it’s nice you don’t have to worry so much. It’s not nice that you went there to laugh and berate. And feel superior. That’s what you were doing. Laughing at the antics of the poor telling yourself and probably your sons that they “act that way out of choice”
I think you kinda suck frankly
I’d like to think you’re ashamed of how you think about people, but just like you make judgments on “my kind” I make them on YOUR kind. and I have seen and heard the kinds of rationalizations that comfy middle class “professionals” (and beyond) like you make about why the poor ARE poor while then being also for so-called “liberal social programs”. Both people like you and the truly wealthy have as their bedrock beliefs a sense that they are somehow more deserving of what they have. It’s in your post here. You might hide it from your own conscience, but trust me it shows to others
Not everyone gets to go to college, “apply themselves” and then be int the morally superior “non-greedy (I’ll bet) Non-walmart lofty echelons of humanity like you.
Barbara Bush laughing at the New Orleans poor, you laughing at the Walmart poor.- only a matter of degree.
You won’t allow this thru comment moderation
See you at Walmart sometime, hope you get a good laugh at what’s in my cart, maybe the way I dress too while you’re at it. Go ahead and make assumptions about the crappy and animalistic nature of my family life too. That’s the best part.
Yeah, Wal-Mart was a nightmare….