What’s your time worth?
Goldy visits Fry’s on Black Friday.
The 19-inch HDTVs? Gone. The picture frames? Gone. The 32GB USB flash drives, which I didn’t really need, but how could I pass one up for only $29.99? Gone. Not that it really mattered, as there was no way in hell I was going to append myself to the end of that interminable line—assuming I could even find it—all for the sake of such trifles.
“Three hours… maybe four… who knows?” a stunned store clerk estimated when I asked how long the wait might be, and that alone was more than enough to send me home empty handed, no matter how enticing the bargain.
…
By 7:30AM I was back at home, a cup of hot tea in hand, browsing for bargains from the comfort of my own living room. Oh look… a 19-inch LCD HDTV, only $199, with free shipping from Best Buy. Sure, it’s a little more money, but it doesn’t require a four-plus hour wait in line. And given my experience this morning, that’s what I call a bargain.
In a nutshell, that’s why I was still in bed at 10am on Black Friday morning. There’s no reason to crawl out of bed to be the first in line to save $20 on something if I have to get out of bed at 3am so I can be in the parking lot at 4 to be in the middle of the pack when the doors open at 5 when I may not even get out of the store until 9. And for what? The same deal will be there in two weeks.
Me? I’d enjoy my day off.
I am normally an early riser, so I don’t mind getting up early to shop. But 3:30AM at Kohl’s? No friggin way.
I got up at 6:30 AM (like usual), made coffee, drove to Fred Meyer and scored some really great 1/2 price socks, and then went to Macy’s (where it was completely insane) and bought a new food processor–which I’ve been shopping for and the price was good.
Even with the zoo-atmosphere at Washington Square, I still managed to get through the check out at a good pace..mostly because a nice woman saw me standing in the epic line in Housewares and sent me following her trail of breadcrumbs from the back of the linen department.
The worst part was trying to find parking at Washington Square. After 20 minutes of cruising the lot by JCPenney’s (where there is ALWAYS parking), I ended up across the street on the back side of Les Schwab.
I only did the black friday shopping craziness once, 2 or 3 years ago. I’d been shopping for a 19″ LCD monitor and the models I had my eye on were hovering around $329. Then Staples had one of those on a black friday special for $229 in-store and another $30 in mail-in rebate. I got in line about 4am for the 5am opening, picked up the monitor as well as a cheap hard drive for my wife’s system.
Yes, it was crazy. No, I haven’t seen any comparable deals for anything that I’ve needed since then.