Some Pros and Cons of Black Friday

You have to take the good with the bad; a motto in my life that I apply to Black Friday shopping. The end result of shopping are the products you receive (at major discounts) but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into them. So here’s my pros and cons list of many things Black Friday

BLACK FRIDAY

PRO: The money you save. This is the time of year when all these products are CHEAP…below cost sometimes. You will not find a better deal all year long.

CON: Everyone else knows this. So it’s hard work to get the products before everyone else does.

BEST BUY

PRO: I worked for Best Buy for a couple years, I know the preparation the associates go through. This is their super bowl. 90% of their staff are highly motivated and are working to HELP YOU make good decisions. They also want to up sell, but it’s not because they are commissioned based…. They want to help the revenue for their store. There’s not much personal gain, they just BELIEVE in the products they are selling.

Best Buy usually has a good line, and they are pretty good in crowd control. They’re one of the more organized Black Friday retailers I have been to…. That being said:

CON: They have a LONG line… and it’s in the cold. You have to wait outside for over 12 hours (If you want a door buster). IN THE COLD. But if you dress appropriately you can get through this unharmed.

That’s not the only line. Inside there’s one too, which can be annoying. Especially for the hot computer deals. They have a separate line for those, so you don’t have to wait to with everyone else. Unfortunately all the hot deals are in one line. So be prepared to spend ANOTHER couple hours inside waiting to be checked out. (At least it’s warm)

Wal Mart

PRO: INSIDE. Warmth. So you won’t have to pile on the clothes. I don’t know of any other Black Friday sales that allow you to wait inside. And you don’t have to start lining up as early as Best Buy. (At Best Buy to get a good spot in line you’ll have to line up 3-5 pm. At Wally World, you could get there around 930 PM or so and should be able to find a spot in line.)

Plus it’s Wal Mart, they have almost everything you need. So you won’t have to do much shopping anywhere else. Does another store have something you want? Wal Mart has a pretty decent price match policy. When I worked at Best Buy, we tried to be super strict about it.

CON: Warmth is nice….but I did Wal Mart black Friday last year, and the disorganization was SO FRUSTERATING. First off… we got there and didn’t know where to line up. Finally figured that out after an hour. My nephew and I were lined up near the GPS station to buy the GPS they had on sale. And all throughout the next 3 hours we would ask associates, “Are we in the right place?” We received a bunch of maybes, I don’t knows and yes’s….. try figuring that one out. Half an hour before they released the door busters we find out we’ve been standing in the wrong line. So they had to move our whole line to the other line. Luckily there were enough units and a riot did not ensue…but it was close.

Wal Mart employees are not as knowledgable as they should be. Granted, Wal Mart has many more departments it’s hard to keep track of everything. But it felt like NO associates knew what was going on. Where are the GPS units? No clue. Where are the digital cameras? “I don’t know” says the associate working in DIGITAL CAMERAS! A little more training might help. Who knows?

But there are also a lot of customers at Wal Mart…. I mean, A LOT! So be prepared to be treated like cattle. That many people in a building at one time can be very unnerving. Patience is definitely a virtue if you shop at Wal Mart. More people also means VERY LONG LINES to checkout. Bring a handheld game, or get some new apps on your smartphone. It takes a lot of time.

PRE BLACK FRIDAY SALES

PRO: Something new this year? A lot of retailers are doing “Pre Black Friday Sales” on the weekend. Good for retailers. It helps them get customers in all month long. Good for consumers too. I bought a laptop because my family needed one. I wasn't sure if I could get into Black Friday in time to buy one. I got a great deal on it, and we have one of our Black Friday items 2 weeks early and off the list. For electronics: Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon have had a sale every weekend, and plan to until Black Friday.

Con: The deals are still better Black Friday. If you're willing to do all the waiting and hard work; Black Friday will still have better deals. But if you don't want to chance it, or just want some extra sleep. Pre Black Friday deals are pretty good too

UPDATED:

Some of my friends had some things to share about Black Friday experiences.

Crystal Weber Western One of your cons should be RC Willey's checkout line, RIDICULOUSLY unorganized!!!

Kasey Wardell TOYS R US:

Oh my heck it was actually amazing! Haha! I didn't wait in line. I got there 30-40 minutes after the doors opened. We were free to roam the aisles without having to stand in line for a certain toy. I was able to go in and get the items I really wanted then actually browse for other things that peaked my interest. The check-out line was crazy long but it went really really fast! I thought I'd be in line for at least a half hour and it was no more than 10 minutes.

I had a larger outside toy that I needed a ticket for and I was able to pay for it at check-out but just drive around back and show them the ticket and pick up the toy that way instead of waiting for them to bring it up through the crowd. There were no crazy parents, rushing, or chaos.

It was handled well by employees and customers. I had actually heard by someone that worked there during the holiday last year that the year before the managers actually kicked out parents for pushing and causing unnecessary drama so last year it was handled well!