Black Friday Purchases Good and Bad

[Hornet3d]

Amazon was the first place I looked but there was nothing there that really sparked my interests although I did pick up some coffee pods that were a few pounds cheaper but then I was buying them any way, sale or not. Then I looked at some to the Poser Market Places and I am afraid I had a mad 20 minutes. It is going to take a a good few hours to catalogue this all but I finished up with what should have been a $280 odd spend hit my card at $34 odd dollars. There was so much more I could have purchased but I was getting into the realms of 'I might use that' rather than 'I will use that' so I thought putting the card away was a good idea.

 

[Janet]

I used to do that too. Buy things for future use. Not as much lately though.

Where are you at? Black Friday isn't until next Friday I think. My older son wants a VR headset for Christmas and next birthday so he's going to be watching for them to go on sale next Friday.

Sounds like you got some good deals though!

 

[pommerlis]

hen I looked at some to the Poser Market Places and I am afraid I had a mad 20 minutes.

I can relate to that, I usually have those during the Holiday Sales

 

[Hornet3d]

I used to do that too. Buy things for future use. Not as much lately though.

Where are you at? Black Friday isn't until next Friday I think. My older son wants a VR headset for Christmas and next birthday so he's going to be watching for them to go on sale next Friday.

Sounds like you got some good deals though!

You could be right on next Friday being Black Friday. I am based in the UK and we really haven't got our act right here and the Black Friday term is used for many sales around now. Amazon.UK has certainly started it's Black Friday sale and I have had emails from Olympus and Sony along with a few other UK retailers just today.

Most of my sales were over at Daz where it is not shown as being a Black Friday sale but the discounts are higher than normal. I have purchased a number of items that were prices between $12.95 and $16.95 on sale at $1.99 once I added more than one item to the basket the price dropped to $0.80. Some were sat in my wish list so I product I knew wanted but could not really justify $16.95 is a very different proposition at $.80. Much of it was from Vendors still providing for Poser, such as Jack Tomalin, Forbidden Whispers and Petipet. Though the Iray add-ons from Jack were also more than 70% off.

 

[Miss B]

I think Amazon here in the US is also showing Black Friday sales, and I often really wondered when Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, were, as I think I always believed it was the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the following Monday.

That said, however, Thanksgiving doesn't come out on the same "date" each year, just the 4th Thursday of the month, whatever day that turns out to be, so I'm wondering if in recent years Black Friday sales were moved up to the week before. Could be because a lot of folks do their holiday shopping earlier than they used to years ago, just to make sure they get what they want. If you wait too long, you may not get it.

 

[DanaTA]

Everyone is correct...Black Friday is supposed to be the day after Thanksgiving, whenever that day happens to be. However, tradition and scheduling have gone to the burning place. Both brick and mortar stores and online stores have been having Black Friday sales for a couple of weeks now. Greed is the name of the game.

By the way, has anyone thought about the name of the "holiday"? It's not a benefit to the consumer, it's for the seller. It means they go big time into the black (profit margin), an accounting term. And I wonder what good Cyber Monday is anymore, since all the online outlets do the Black Friday sales as well? Just another way to beef up the profits. It may help us consumers, but the retailers are the ones who win big. Still, hard to pass up a good sale...except when you have no spare change to throw out there.

Dana

 

[Sunfire]

There are a lot of pre black Friday sales already happening here in the states, started up last Friday.

 

[Hornet3d]

I am not sure there are many stores that are having black days as far as profits go, at least not in the UK. Many stores have slashed their prices up to 70% just to get customers spending some of their Christmas Cash with them. We have lost about five big name stores so far this year and there is still a long list of those struggling to stay alive. Sure they have been impacted by on line shopping but there are other factors. My wife and I used to go into town once a week but then they upped the parking charge from £2 for four hours to close to £8. We now go into town once a month and that is only to pick up my tablets for a month from one of the very few independent Pharmacists who really knows his stuff. We normally make a stop in our favourite coffee shop where the staff are always smiling and chatty. Even before, with the cheaper parking, such service was rare as was having a shopping experience with good customer service. I will happy pay more if I feel a shop wants my custom or the staff have knowledge of the products they sell, sadly this is rarely the case.

For many shop staff Christmas 2019 will be a difficult one with many already losing their job before the event. Not only that, we have a Honda plant close to us that provides thousands of jobs but that closes in 2020. Unless the sales really do help put them in the black many more stores will not make it far into 2020.

For me Black Friday is not that much of an event and I tend to only buy what I would have purchased anyway so I just delay or buy early. 3D art is different, I do spend in the sales but then I tend to have a monthly budget range that I do not go over so if the is a sale I just buy more items for the same outlay. On some occasions I do breach the range but I claw that back the following month.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I can't think of the last time I purchased something from a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale. If I think about it, I may check to see if something I've saved is on sale, but generally, I lose patience quickly when I start checking the sales at Amazon.

I really, really hate the timed sales and "deal of the day" sales.

 

[Janet]

I've never gone shopping on a Black Friday. Always cringe when watching the new stories about people being trampled or worse. Wasn't someone actually shot at one? I don't watch Amazon for sales but since my son wants a vr set I figure he can watch for when it goes on sale.

 

[DanaTA]

I don't go to those opening day sales, either. I don't care for the crowds, nor the way they push and shove and generally behave like animals.

Dana

 

[Hornet3d]

I don't go to those opening day sales, either. I don't care for the crowds, nor the way they push and shove and generally behave like animals.

Dana

My wife and I do all of our Christmas present shopping early because we hate crowds. During the year, when we have to go into town for any reason we are up early and in town for eight in the morning so we can park easily and then head for our favourite coffee shop. Then about twenty to nine we head for the shops, visiting those that open at eight thirty and then moving on to the ones that open at nine. We aim to be finished all the shopping and heading home at ten at the latest, that way we are already heading out as the town starts to get busy.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I've always hated crowds too. The only time I do go into a store is when I have to pick up a prescription from a CVS pharmacy. Other than that, I do all my shopping at amazon.

 

[HaiGan]

I still struggle with the whole concept of Black Friday, it's not officially a thing here, and then I go online and bump into it. No crowds, of course, if the only Black Friday deals are those online and then usually only those companies that are US based or have US connections.

 

[Miss B]

I've never gone shopping on a Black Friday. Always cringe when watching the new stories about people being trampled or worse.

There was a story on the 11pm news last night about the local shopping mall, which is about a 10-12 minute bus ride from here, and how a bunch of teenagers who were hanging out in the mall after school wound up starting a melee, and the mall had to be emptied and shut down. Supposedly it flowed into the street, where kids were ganging up on folks passing by.

That's the first time I've ever heard of something like this in all the decades this mall has been open, and the kids weren't there for holiday shopping, but having it happen now when the mall is most likely more crowded than usual, is quite an experience I can do without, thank you very much.

 

[Miss B]

My wife and I do all of our Christmas present shopping early because we hate crowds.

I worked with a gal years ago who always had her holiday shopping done by Labor Day weekend. For those who aren't familiar with it, Labor Day is the first Monday in September each year.

 

[Hornet3d]

I worked with a gal years ago who always had her holiday shopping done by Labor Day weekend. For those who aren't familiar with it, Labor Day is the first Monday in September each year.

We tend to aim to have it all done before the end of September. That is not to say we do not go to the shops in the week of Christmas we do, but only to enjoy the atmosphere knowing we can head for home the minute we find it getting too crowded for us. No having to stay and fight the crowds because we still have presents to buy. We are the same with birthdays so far we have already purchased Father-in-Laws present and his birthday is the end of January and I have all of my wives birthday presents and her birthday is the start of Feb. Looking to but for Mother-in-law this coming week or so which will take us to the end of March.

 

[Rowan54]

I solve the whole problem by not buying presents. At least, I don't buy big fancy presents with wrapping paper that have to be given on a certain day.
Given that many of my relatives (and some ex-friends) winced when given something homemade or handmade or inexpensive simply because it didn't cost enough (or wasn't fancy enough) for their ego...I got out of the habit of buying/making things for all these people decades ago. I think I was a teenager at the time, and it was certainly by the time I was in my 20s. I do not get off on having emotional kicks in the teeth. They all have/had way more money than I do, which means they can buy their own present for themselves and make it as expensive as they want to have it. Meanwhile, I buy something for myself, which means I get exactly what I want.
As for my best friends (housemate, renter & one other), I get something for them when something is needed/really wanted. Holidays, I make a feast and we all eat big. No present exchange unless there is something simple & cheap. Examples: A candy bar, something from Dollar Tree, something home made. A token, a remembrance...just a little something. And nothing mandatory about giving one, either. Ta da! No stress. Just enjoy the holiday.

 

[Miss B]

We tend to aim to have it all done before the end of September. That is not to say we do not go to the shops in the week of Christmas we do, but only to enjoy the atmosphere knowing we can head for home the minute we find it getting too crowded for us. No having to stay and fight the crowds because we still have presents to buy. We are the same with birthdays so far we have already purchased Father-in-Laws present and his birthday is the end of January and I have all of my wives birthday presents and her birthday is the start of Feb. Looking to but for Mother-in-law this coming week or so which will take us to the end of March.

I don't purposely buy a present that far in advance, unless I happen to run into an opportunity to get something I know a family member, or friend, wants. One thing my friends and I did back in the day was to make sure everyone in the group knew if there was something specific we wanted. That way, if it was a little more expensive, a couple of us could get together and purchase it for the birthday/holiday celebrant.

 

[Hornet3d]

I solve the whole problem by not buying presents. At least, I don't buy big fancy presents with wrapping paper that have to be given on a certain day.
Given that many of my relatives (and some ex-friends) winced when given something homemade or handmade or inexpensive simply because it didn't cost enough (or wasn't fancy enough) for their ego...I got out of the habit of buying/making things for all these people decades ago. I think I was a teenager at the time, and it was certainly by the time I was in my 20s. I do not get off on having emotional kicks in the teeth. They all have/had way more money than I do, which means they can buy their own present for themselves and make it as expensive as they want to have it. Meanwhile, I buy something for myself, which means I get exactly what I want.
As for my best friends (housemate, renter & one other), I get something for them when something is needed/really wanted. Holidays, I make a feast and we all eat big. No present exchange unless there is something simple & cheap. Examples: A candy bar, something from Dollar Tree, something home made. A token, a remembrance...just a little something. And nothing mandatory about giving one, either. Ta da! No stress. Just enjoy the holiday.

I do think that is something that is really lost in this day and age, or maybe it is just my grumpy old man syndrome kicking in but for me homemade seems to say 'I care' far more than something purchased in a quick panic just to have something to give. In a world where many are so short of time if someone takes time out to make something personal for me I value it far more. I am also very aware that a present cost a few dollars from someone for who cash is really tight is every bit, if not more meaningful, than one far more costly from someone where money means little.

Perhaps it is because I remember a time when my father was off work for a long period with TB, at a time when there was no sick pay. Christmas that year was pretty scarce on presents but high on happiness and having the wider family close. Christmas is still a special time for my wife and I, as it was for my father, but spending time together, helping my niece pick her Christmas tree, attending the local carol concert all beat anything I will unwrap on Christmas day.