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Thanksgiving and Black Friday
Nov. 24th, 2006 06:09 pmHome. Oh, how nice it is to be home. It is quiet here, and there are no people talking to me. Also, I can sit, in a chair, and not buy stuff.
So, Thanksgiving was fun and the food was incredible and the family was remarkably well-behaved (even me). The day would probably have been nicer if I could have slipped off to have a nap, but we spent the entire afternoon settled at the kitchen table with the sales papers. I bought a newspaper on the way up there, and the stack of sales papers in it was incredible. We would go through the stack, put them aside (once they even got put away off the table) and then someone would bring it up again and off we'd go again. It was somehow more fun than it sounds, but by evening, my back was sore from sitting in a hard chair all day. Then I slept in an unfamiliar bed for an hour (or so it seemed) before getting up at four to get ready to brave the crowds. Four! In the morning! It was insane! My family is insane! And sure, I guess I was there buying stuff, too, but there's no way I would have went out there that early if I had had a real choice in the matter.
I started reading online on Wednesday night that Best Buy was not so much doing the price matching this year, even though they did last year. It was even printed on their ad. However, I was under the impression that they would still be matching the sales prices for the items that weren't on the seven-hour sale, so I didn't worry too much about the camcorder. The two MP3 players I bought, though, I knew were a lost cause. But then I came up with an alternate plan! Because Walmart also matches prices--their competitor's prices! And it just so happened that I had a Best Buy ad, and Walmart carries that mp3 player.. and it wasn't on sale. My aunt, who is my retail hero, even started calling a Walmart in another town (ours was closed yesterday) last night to make sure they would honor the time-limited sales. And it was working... my mom bought the first one (it was one per person).. and when they were done ringing her up, they decided that they had to keep the ad.. meaning that the rest of us couldn't purchase ours. I was really irritated, since I bought that stupid ad. Dad ran outside to buy a newspaper, hoping that there would be another ad in it... no dice. We ended up involving an assistant manager, who went back to give the electronics gals what-for but came back with his tail between his leg, offering us a consolation prize.. no more price-matching, but he would at least give us the Best Buy ad back. So, we attempted it again when we checked out in Lawn and Garden, but they were going to have to call Electronics and that was going to be a no-go so I just said that we didn't have time for it and left before we got our asses kicked. (They were.. irate, to put it mildly. This ended up being the theme of the day.) So, we ended up stopping at a second Walmart later in the day in another town, where they were pretty mild-mannered about it and just gave us the item at the Best Buy price without argument... although again, they had to get a manager's approval. Which really, that just proved that the first store was just being hateful about it. It's true that WalMart is a good thing in a small town, but they do take opportunities occasionally to throw their weight around.
Later in the day, we ended up at Best Buy, where we were hotly informed by customer service that they do not price match anything in the Thanksgiving weekend paper. I talked to a guy about the video camera... thinking that hey, I'll just buy another one and return the first one. They were out of stock, but he called a supervisor over to answer our questions about returning mine only to rebuy it. The supervisor was a very, very short man, and very angry about it. He was not best pleased to be having this conversation. My guess is that by 12:30, he had had said conversation very many times already. We went back and forth for several minutes. He claimed that there were people on a waiting list, so I couldn't just return it and then buy it at the new sale price. I inquired as to how it was that they do not honor their own weekend sales ad prices. Oh, but just not THIS weekend. Yadda yadda yadda. My mom jumped in at this point and said chidingly, "Couldn't you just do it this one time? They're expecting a BAYYYBEEE." And Very Short Manager said "Go. Over there. Fine." When we did not move quickly enough, he pointed viciously at the service desk and said, "Go. GO," and followed us over enough to inform three employees standing nearby that he had approved a price-match for us. One said, "okay.. you're the boss." The lady at the register was also not thrilled when I handed my receipt over and explained that Very Short Manager had approved it. She looked over to him for confirmation and he nodded at her, and she gave him a very nasty look for several long seconds before rolling her eyes at us and processing the price match. So, it was a very, very close call, but we ended the day with our $160 camcorder and the $35 MP3 players (regular price $70). My dad summed it up pretty well. He said that it seemed that everywhere we went, we ended up needing to talk to a manager, but that you could deal with some rude if you get $162 back.
(Sadly, we had to get the gray MP3 players instead of the pink, which were much prettier, and the last ones we bought were display models. I had been planning on taking them back to another Walmart in a few days to exchange for pink, but it feels kind of wrong to return opened packages, even if I didn't open them, for such a frivolous reason. I did really want a pink one, though, and wanted a pink one to give for a gift. And ironically, Best Buy actually still had four pink ones when we arrived just after the timed sale was over. We could have made it before the sale ended, but thought there was no need to. And even worse, on the way home, Dad said that an employee had told him that they were selling the stuff at special sale prices for the next hour, so I still could have bought them there and gotten the right color. Oh, well. They'll play just the same.)
So, there is my day of retail extravaganza. Next year, I will not be attempting to buy in advance like this year, but at least it worked out for me in the end. I also got my dad taken care of (plus the birthday present I was behind on) and something small for M, too. It was a mess out there.. the worst crowd being at Walmart at five, the worst traffic being at Best Buy. By the time we made it to Lexington, I was already worn out, and right now I'm thinking that a nap sounds divine. You know what the best thing is, though? I just realized that after two very long days off... it's now Friday evening. And I have another three days off. Life is good. ;)
(p.s. If Very Short Manager reads this post, thank you very much for your help. I'm sure you were having a dreadful day and it probably didn't help to see the person you helped out name you Very Short Manager in a public forum. Smooches.)
So, Thanksgiving was fun and the food was incredible and the family was remarkably well-behaved (even me). The day would probably have been nicer if I could have slipped off to have a nap, but we spent the entire afternoon settled at the kitchen table with the sales papers. I bought a newspaper on the way up there, and the stack of sales papers in it was incredible. We would go through the stack, put them aside (once they even got put away off the table) and then someone would bring it up again and off we'd go again. It was somehow more fun than it sounds, but by evening, my back was sore from sitting in a hard chair all day. Then I slept in an unfamiliar bed for an hour (or so it seemed) before getting up at four to get ready to brave the crowds. Four! In the morning! It was insane! My family is insane! And sure, I guess I was there buying stuff, too, but there's no way I would have went out there that early if I had had a real choice in the matter.
I started reading online on Wednesday night that Best Buy was not so much doing the price matching this year, even though they did last year. It was even printed on their ad. However, I was under the impression that they would still be matching the sales prices for the items that weren't on the seven-hour sale, so I didn't worry too much about the camcorder. The two MP3 players I bought, though, I knew were a lost cause. But then I came up with an alternate plan! Because Walmart also matches prices--their competitor's prices! And it just so happened that I had a Best Buy ad, and Walmart carries that mp3 player.. and it wasn't on sale. My aunt, who is my retail hero, even started calling a Walmart in another town (ours was closed yesterday) last night to make sure they would honor the time-limited sales. And it was working... my mom bought the first one (it was one per person).. and when they were done ringing her up, they decided that they had to keep the ad.. meaning that the rest of us couldn't purchase ours. I was really irritated, since I bought that stupid ad. Dad ran outside to buy a newspaper, hoping that there would be another ad in it... no dice. We ended up involving an assistant manager, who went back to give the electronics gals what-for but came back with his tail between his leg, offering us a consolation prize.. no more price-matching, but he would at least give us the Best Buy ad back. So, we attempted it again when we checked out in Lawn and Garden, but they were going to have to call Electronics and that was going to be a no-go so I just said that we didn't have time for it and left before we got our asses kicked. (They were.. irate, to put it mildly. This ended up being the theme of the day.) So, we ended up stopping at a second Walmart later in the day in another town, where they were pretty mild-mannered about it and just gave us the item at the Best Buy price without argument... although again, they had to get a manager's approval. Which really, that just proved that the first store was just being hateful about it. It's true that WalMart is a good thing in a small town, but they do take opportunities occasionally to throw their weight around.
Later in the day, we ended up at Best Buy, where we were hotly informed by customer service that they do not price match anything in the Thanksgiving weekend paper. I talked to a guy about the video camera... thinking that hey, I'll just buy another one and return the first one. They were out of stock, but he called a supervisor over to answer our questions about returning mine only to rebuy it. The supervisor was a very, very short man, and very angry about it. He was not best pleased to be having this conversation. My guess is that by 12:30, he had had said conversation very many times already. We went back and forth for several minutes. He claimed that there were people on a waiting list, so I couldn't just return it and then buy it at the new sale price. I inquired as to how it was that they do not honor their own weekend sales ad prices. Oh, but just not THIS weekend. Yadda yadda yadda. My mom jumped in at this point and said chidingly, "Couldn't you just do it this one time? They're expecting a BAYYYBEEE." And Very Short Manager said "Go. Over there. Fine." When we did not move quickly enough, he pointed viciously at the service desk and said, "Go. GO," and followed us over enough to inform three employees standing nearby that he had approved a price-match for us. One said, "okay.. you're the boss." The lady at the register was also not thrilled when I handed my receipt over and explained that Very Short Manager had approved it. She looked over to him for confirmation and he nodded at her, and she gave him a very nasty look for several long seconds before rolling her eyes at us and processing the price match. So, it was a very, very close call, but we ended the day with our $160 camcorder and the $35 MP3 players (regular price $70). My dad summed it up pretty well. He said that it seemed that everywhere we went, we ended up needing to talk to a manager, but that you could deal with some rude if you get $162 back.
(Sadly, we had to get the gray MP3 players instead of the pink, which were much prettier, and the last ones we bought were display models. I had been planning on taking them back to another Walmart in a few days to exchange for pink, but it feels kind of wrong to return opened packages, even if I didn't open them, for such a frivolous reason. I did really want a pink one, though, and wanted a pink one to give for a gift. And ironically, Best Buy actually still had four pink ones when we arrived just after the timed sale was over. We could have made it before the sale ended, but thought there was no need to. And even worse, on the way home, Dad said that an employee had told him that they were selling the stuff at special sale prices for the next hour, so I still could have bought them there and gotten the right color. Oh, well. They'll play just the same.)
So, there is my day of retail extravaganza. Next year, I will not be attempting to buy in advance like this year, but at least it worked out for me in the end. I also got my dad taken care of (plus the birthday present I was behind on) and something small for M, too. It was a mess out there.. the worst crowd being at Walmart at five, the worst traffic being at Best Buy. By the time we made it to Lexington, I was already worn out, and right now I'm thinking that a nap sounds divine. You know what the best thing is, though? I just realized that after two very long days off... it's now Friday evening. And I have another three days off. Life is good. ;)
(p.s. If Very Short Manager reads this post, thank you very much for your help. I'm sure you were having a dreadful day and it probably didn't help to see the person you helped out name you Very Short Manager in a public forum. Smooches.)
