Is it really worth it to stand in line on Black Friday?
Black Friday.
Apparently so called because of the great amounts of calamity that is caused by so many people being out trying to get a good deal on a TV, or a stereo, or any type of new item.
Pixabay
Great deals.
Great amounts of people.
Nowadays we have Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and we also have sales that are starting on Thanksgiving Day itself.
There are essentially two types of sales.
Online sales and the dreaded in store sales that feature Doorbuster items.
Doorbuster items are not available online.
Doorbusters are the items that people will stand in line for hours in order to buy.
They call them Doorbusters, but they are really acting as loss leaders in which the store is taking an incredible loss.
If you've ever seen someone camped outside a store for 12 hours straight.... they probably got there before midnight in order to get that deal on a new PlayStation or TV.
Pixabay
They were looking for that Doorbuster item.
I used to work for a giant Electronics chain, and I can tell you that even though the advertisement makes it seem like they're going to have a heck of a lot of those Sony TVs for $200 the truth is that there's only going to be five of them.
Five.
So if you know ten people that are going to try to go and get that TV, and those people each know ten people that are going to try to get that TV, and those people each know ten people that are going to try to get that TV..... but there's only actually five TVs in the entire store..... you can understand why people camp outside for 12 hours or more.
Most of the time those people that are camping outside don't get that deal either.
Is it actually worth it to stand in a line in order to possibly get a deal that you're probably not going to get?
For the most part I would say no.
Pixabay
You can actually get some good deals on Amazon.com by shopping online, and most of these retailers have online deals as well.
These deals aren't as good as the Doorbusters though because some of those Doorbusters are simply too good to be true.
I can tell you that Amazon plans to have all of their Echoes on sale for the same price you can find them at Best Buy or Target during Thanksgiving itself.
That means $69 for a second generation Amazon Echo and $24 for a 3rd Generation Echo Dot.
You don't have to stand in line at Best Buy in order to get these deals.
Amazon also has some really good deals on TVs right now. However, they don't come close to any of the Doorbuster deals that I've seen.
Best Buy actually has a 43 inch Toshiba 4K HDR TV with a fire stick in it for $129 as a Doorbuster on Thanksgiving Day.
This TV actually retails for $329 right now so it is $200 off. Do you actually think they have more than two of those TVs available at any store? I'll bet you that they only have one.
Giphy
Good luck with that.
Target has a 55-inch 4K element UHD TV for $200. I'm pretty sure that this TV is not HDR, but it is a smart TV.... and it's an incredible deal. I don't think anyone's going to be able to get one with the exception of one or two lucky people.
Are you that lucky?
Personally, I am working on Thanksgiving.
I work until 4:00 and some of the stores actually open at 5:00. I'm not actually doing anything for Thanksgiving, so I'm probably going to try my luck.
It's very likely that the line from Best Buy and Target will be wrapped around the building.
However, if I can get one of these TVs I will be a very happy man.
On the other hand, it's possible that Amazon or a different online retailer will come out with a new Black Friday ad that has some of these TVs listed.
Giphy
If I could find one for maybe $50 more than I would just buy it online.
Who wants to wait for ten hours to save just a little bit of money?
That being said, if you're looking for a TV then you might be willing to try your luck with the Doorbuster, but if you want something like an Amazon Echo you can just skip the line and buy online.
Is it actually worth your time to wait in line?
Probably not.
Doorbusters are literally only for the first couple of people in the door.
I wish you good luck on all purchases.
i'll agree with you that you can easily find deals online so you don't really have to go to a store. Especially in my country the deals are just like 20-30% off so there isn't really any point of walking through the devils hands :p
There is just no way I am ever going to wait in a line that long for anything. Nope....
I understand the excitement some people get from the challenge and I leave it to them. Of course, now some people hire other people to wait in line for them but I say, then you have to consider that amount as part of the price of the item you want. Crazy.....
I know we have too many laws already, but I've always thought there should be some kind of requirement for stores to have to have a considerable number of any item they use for doorbuster ads.
Well doorbusters and loss leaders are mostly scams anyway except for a few small exceptions.
No, its never worth it. Ive worked many Black Fridays for various companies. Its unlikely you will get a limited quantity doorbuster without camping out. Camping out requires time, which could be used to be productive. You can get prices at BF sale prices online all the time and close enough to doorbuster prices to warrant not going. Then you also have to deal with traffic and stampedes etc. On BF.
Lost
I'm hoping some better online deals show up. I really need to buy a TV but you're right I don't think waiting in line at Best Buy is the best plan here.
No! Time is more valuable than money!!
True enough.
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