Black Friday !

I had written in on my earlier posts about 'Black Friday', the huge retail showdown that overtakes America post the thanksgiving day.
This year, it happened within a week of my landing in this country , the weather was horrible with sub zero temperatures and snow. I was thinking against going out and standing in the snow just for the sake of buying something cheap , but then decided to take the plunge when I saw the newspaper Ads on the thanksgiving day. I couldn't believe that someone could give a Sony Vaio Laptop for about 350 $, so decided to try out the hype and hooplah firsthand. And boy, never would I regret that decision.

We had out dinner and reached the mall at about 12 pm the previous night thinking that we would be the early birds. Please keep in mind that the shops were to open only at 5 the next morning. And guess what, I saw almost a 100 strong crowd already in front of the stores , armed with tents, comforters, blankets etc... Junta had pitched their tents in their position in the queue and were gung-ho about crashing into the store and grabbing as much as they can.

One amazing thing was the discipline with which people were standing in the queue . No jumping the lines, no artificial barricades, no proxies. By now , it had started snowing and still people stayed put at their place and enjoyed the party. Some of them were really excited about the event and could be seen screaming with joy & excitement.

We stayed put for sometime in the queue , but the weather worsened with time and we decided to crash into the car and sleep some time. We got up at around 2 in the morning and headed to the queue. That was the time when we realised what a dumb decision we had made. The queue now encircled the huge mall and beyond. Boy, the mall itself was an imposing structure, and imagine people all around it , standing and braving the snow. Anyways, we too stood at the end hoping for some lady luck to smile on us.

The shops opened at around 5 in the morning for the sales. We had plans for laptops and some other electronic stuff. Ne'er even got to see them though :)
I grabbed a camcorder and a watch from the sales. Nothing takeable was left in the shops anyways.

I don't really know how the retailers make up for the losses incurred .Is it made up by the volume of sales incurred ? or is it just a tactic to increase brand awareness and make people walk into their respective malls. Anyways, some of the consumers did make away with awesome deals . And why not, anything and everything from blankets to huge TV sets were out on offer, something to satisfy everyone's taste.