Black Friday...did you, or will you, go Christmas bargain shopping?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Bargain-hungry shoppers braved early hours, chilly temperatures and crowds this morning to score juicy deals on "must-have" holiday items. First reports indicate big crowds at discounters, including No. 1 retailer Wal-Mart, with a brawl at one of its Orlando, Florida, stores. Despite the robust start, at least one industry analyst is betting the momentum will stall before the weekend's over.

http://www.cnn.com/

[losdiablosgato]

1. My families Christmas shopping is done, months ago

We buy a few gifts a month. Bargains, outlet malls, that sort of thing. We spend a little here and little there and have no big bills. But we buy nice gifts for all on out list, about 30 or so people and the kids.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. You do better

on Overstock.com, IMO.

[JDPriestly]

3. I have less money than in any recent year.

I think a lot of other working people are also making less. Gas prices are high and other prices are rising. I'm sick of buying cheap imports. I don't want a lot of junk for Christmas. I just want to spend quiet time with my wonderful family and counting my many blessings -- especially all those good things that are free.

[ohio_liberal]

4. Me too

I have very little to spend this year. I took a long time off work with a broken leg, lost a significant portion of my yearly income. My kids are bummed out but they'll get over it. Most of the stuff Santa has brought for them in years past was forgotten in a couple of months anyway. The adults in my family haven't exchanged gifts for years. It's enought to sit around the table and drink wine and have conversation once a year.

[JDPriestly]

14. If your children are young,

I suggest you help them make gifts for each other or give them small gifts like crafts. If they are older, give them useful things that you would have to buy anyway and take them on an outing to the park or the woods or to a museum that is free for kids. That is what we did when our children were small and money was short. We gave our children our time , our love and our patience, and, now that they are grown, they are rewarding us by giving us their time and love and patience. Those are the gifts that keep giving -- time, love and patience.

[Radio_Lady]

27. Husband is caught in the vortex this Friday morning --

We need luggage for a spring 2006 trip. We decided to get a digital camera -- and may use it for a New Year's jaunt, but it certainly ain't a necessity.

However, I never go to any stores the day after Thanksgiving. Chalk it up to agoraphopia -- I just hate the crowds.

I'll be hanging out at the gym working off the turkey.

[Radio_Lady]

40. Update: He bought a camera and luggage. I stayed home and

cooked. One who capitulated and one who resisted.

So it goes in this 32 year marriage....

[texpatriot2004]

5. That's true for us to right now. n.t

[hlthe2b]

18. ditto... very low key the past two Christmas seasons...

No children and my sister and I have agreed to limit family purchases.

[Jamison]

6. The answer is NO. 3 reasons for that...

1. I abhor the rabid consumerism (and crowds) of Black Friday.
2. It's 17 degrees outside...too cold.
3. It's too early. I'm off work, why should I wake up at the crack of dawn?

[wellstone dem]

7. I went out

to a locally based store and bought some things I targeted in the ad. I probably won't do it again, as folks in line were talking about kicking other people in the shins. They were kidding, but it wasn't funny.

I then went to the coffee shop I frequent and was the first customer, they were so grateful. The manager told me that yesterday, she and a co-worker had come to work, fixed up 8 lattes and took them over to the local emergency room. That was the highlight of my day.

[mongo]

36. Good for you!

I hope that lots of people decide to give their hard earned cash to local business this year.

This is typically a slow week for us. People tend to get the big ticket items and toys for the kids out of the way before buying sex toys for xmas.

Either that, or they are afraid the store will be crowded and someone they know will be in here.

Either way, it's been a slow morning.

[NewHampshireDem]

8. I'll be going out to Home Depot

They have a couple of good deals, so I'll be getting a new ladder and a shop vac for myself ... nothing too exciting. All of my holiday gift-giving will mostly be more meaningful items than can be found in the mass-market retailers.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Yawn!!! I have two loads of laundry that has be done.

[Radio_Lady]

28. My washing machine will be chugging, too. (sigh...)

[ernstbass]

10. I have to work today

[Radio_Lady]

41. Much later: Ernstbass, I hope you get home early and enjoy the weekend!

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Won't be buying anything today or until January, except food and

dog food! Sopping for gifts was done by the end of October.

[msongs]

12. it will be an anti-american made-in-china xmas.....& religion free

for most people. it is all about the anti-christ, greed, vanity, and ego. happy holidays indeed :-)

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[UDenver20]

13. I quit buying gifts for everyone last year...

Instead, I only buy gifts for my partner, my mom, my dad, and my sister...

I send everyone else a token of a large donation I've made in their honor to Camp Heartland, a summer camp for children affected and infected with HIV/AIDS.

I believe it is a far better way to celebrate the holiday than to spend thousands of dollars on shit that people don't need, that people don't want, and that people are just gonna take back on the 26th anyway.

[Flirtus]

15. vicarious shopping as an enabler

my daughter had saved enough for at least part of a laptop purchase, so I shopped the bf2005 ads for her and found -hooray- that Best Buy had a door opener that she could afford. She's happy, and dead asleep now; I'm off the hook for a big present, tho' she'll still get a pair of earrings I already bought. And she got to stay out all night with three other 17 year olds, with police cruising the parking lot, and Port-o-lets provided by the store, and lots of very nice people in line (yes I went by at midnight) it was fun for her, but I wouldn't really call it Christmas shopping.

No big splurges this year, have to fix the roof, etc.

[ewagner]

16. Goin' to Fleetfarm

to get a new pair of "swampers".

[hlthe2b]

17. hadn't planned to, but the Starbucks craving overook me...

I needed to grocery shop, Safeway had not yet opened (6AM, Denver) so I popped by the Super Target around 6:30 this morning. Not crowded, though two local news channels were filming. Certainly none of the craziness others have reported at WalMarts. I'm sure the nearby mall may have become crazy, but the shops beyond the mall don't even open until 10, so my pup and I enjoyed some calm North Cherry Creek window shopping after my relaxed jaunt through Target.


I feel compelled to say that I never shop WalMart, and will no longer frequent Target's pharmacy, given their policy towards morning after pill (although I can't imagine that is an issue in Liberal Denver stores). Target, seems a reasonable compromise for when one must go to a "big box" store or for grocery items you can't find elsewhere.

[Dulcinea]

19. I'll start shopping next week.

I do most of my shopping online. Most of my family lives far away, & that way I can get things shipped to them. I'll go to the mall on a weekday morning when most people are at work.

Wild horses wouldn't get me near a mall or big box store today. I hate the crowds & shake my head every year at the mouth-breathers who voluntarily get up in the middle of the night to fork over their hard-earned money. It makes no sense to me.

[earth mom]

20. I just bought the book Simplify your Christmas for $1.99 at the Goodwill.

We haven't been able to afford a big Christmas for years now, nor do we want to even if we had the dough to do so. Our kid gets the majority of the gifts and Dh and I usually buy each other something small though there have been recent years when we couldn't afford to get each other anything. We buy something for my MIL and a couple of teachers at the school and that's about it. Even though our Christmas is pretty simple, I would like to pare it down more. Ideally one gift for each of us and that includes the kid-lol!

I despise the crass commercialization that's taken over the country, which at Christmas is a gazillion times worse and near impossible to escape. I've heard that it's not so bad in Europe and if we can ever afford it, I'd love to spend Christmas there instead of here!

[pdxmom]

21. I totally refuse to go out the day after Thanksgiving. I don't like

moderate crowds, much less the nastiness that seems to exist on this particular day.

Actually, a little later this afternoon, I do intend to go to the paint store. I figure it will be fairly safe and sane there, and I need to paint a bedroom this weekend, for soon-to-arrive holiday company.

[Touchdown]

22. Bargain shopping doesn't happen until Jan 15th.

When things not sold in Bush*'s economy are marked down by 50%. I'm a man, so I have a built in excuse for missing/forgetting/being late on my holiday gift giving. "Oh' he's a guy. They never remember anything!" :evilgrin:

[Touchdown]

23. I got a couple of friends who go just to watch the fights.

They head to the lawn & garden department, grab a couple of chairs, drop by the snack bar for popcorn and Icees, and bring them to the electronics dept., sit down and watch the zoo animals scramble. One even eggs some people on like "That takes batteries." or "Be sure and get a digital card for that camera." sending them back into the melee.

They have some stories to tell!:rofl:

[Dulcinea]

25. That's great!

I need to try that one year! Better than Ultimate Fighting or WWE!

[dkofos]

26. Now that's entertainment

[ncrainbowgrrl]

24. I do much of my shopping at estate sales.

Great way to get very high quality stuff and books and CDs and fine china for dirt cheap.

Especially here in Chapel Hill, NC where the overwhelming majority of the estate sales come from liberals trying to downsize before moving off to a retirement community... I've cleaned up in the past couple of years on stacks of bestselling non-fiction/pro-liberal books for $1 to $4.00.


On edit:

My parents are down from NYC and my b-day is next tuesday. They're the type that don't take no for an answer re: commercial gift- giving (at least to other people, like their daughter!) So, I suppose I will be going to the mall today. :evilgrin:

[sandnsea]

29. For the very first time

My dad left me some money so for the first time I'm going to go out in a minute because I have always wanted yard stuff and I actually have a little bit of money to buy some. If I can get some at half price, all the better. Otherwise, I don't have a bunch of money to spend and I would never be in line at 5 am and I generally think the Friday shopping thing is just tacky, so I picked other.

[Historic NY]

30. Stay in bed, the real bargins will come in a few weeks.........

[proud patriot]

31. I bake for Christmas not shop

[flvegan]

32. Nope. Happily celebrating Buy Nothing Day, here.

[Catrina]

38. Me too

I decided not to buy anything this year ~ I might donate to a charity that is helping victims of war or poverty, earthquakes of hurricanes in people's names. Maybe just telling them that thinking about people dying of starvation or cold makes it impossible to go shopping for luxury items that are totally not necessary for survival. If I can afford it ~

[Individualist]

33. I voted other - hell no

It's insane to get into that Black Friday pandemonium - driving around and around parking lots trying to find a parking space, being smothered by crowds, standing in line endlessly waiting to pay for an item purchased. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

[Initech]

34. I try to avoid stores as much as possible during December

:puke:

[BulletproofLandshark]

35. Have to admit, I got caught up in it a little.

K-Mart had some decent PS2 games for $8 each. Bought 2 of them, got 2 more gifts out of the way. Amazingly, I got in and out of the store in 10 minutes. But think it's crazy for people to wait until Black Friday to start shopping. I started the first week of October, doing just a little bit at a time,and it's a hell of a lot less stressful.

[AndreaCG]

37. I got bargain gifts en masse for people (not today)

Le Sportsak makeup cases for female friends and Star Trek posters for my geek friends, only 3 bucks each at the Museum of Television and Radio on NY. Two of them are going to have to settle for Twilight Zone posters though. Personally I like the TZ one better as it has a Hirshfeld caricature of Rod Serling on it.

[mandyky]

39. Other

I never shop on Black Friday. This year things have been so bad for us financially, we'll be lucky to have a tree and groceries. I haven't been able to food shop in 2 months, so that is priority #1 for us.

Even when I have money, I rarely go overboard on Christmas. It is usually last minute and very minimal. I hate the whole idea of being a consumer.

[MrSlayer]

42. I bought a couple of things off of Ebay, does that count?

I hate shopping in reality, online is the way to go.