What's Left After Black Friday?

by Robin Fiedler

I returned home from my Black Friday adventures and noted that it was busy, but not crazy. While I shopped for bargains at Best Buy, Toys R Us, Sears, and Target, I noted my fellow goal-oriented cohorts carrying Black Friday ads and their shopping behavior. Except for Toys R US, there were enough sales associates on the floor for decent customer service and most of the electronics were still in stock. black-friday-sales

I purposefully made my rounds mid-morning to peruse what was left after the early morning crowds finished ripping the meaty deals from the shelves. Toys R Us was the busiest, with clogged aisles of shoppers jostling full shopping carts and waiting in long lines. Zhu Zhu's were long gone, however. The video game section was bustling with lots of inventory; the Nintendo DS still well stocked. One couple was frantically excited to find Xbox games in stock that they couldn't find at Wal*Mart.

Best Buy still had rows and displays of boxed TV's, plasma and HDTV of all sizes. The busiest section was the laptop aisles. The shoppers at Best Buy seemed the most tech-savvy. Armed with Internet research, they asked sales associates tough questions about model specifications and disparities. Best Buy had a plethora of decent deals on cell phones and smartphones with 2-yr activation contracts. Gateway, Eee PC, Dell netbooks were all available from $300-$400, but no Acer Aspire Ones. An 8 year old boy almost lured his parents into a netbook sale until he closed the lid, saw flower designs, and bemoaned that it was for a "girl," walking away in disgust.

Over at Sears, the tool and electronics sections were the busiest. Doorbuster TVs were still in stock, and associates were busy ringing up sales, but not too busy to ask if I needed help and answer a few questions. One mother pointing to her Black Friday Ad disappointingly asked when the Guitar Hero sold out. Perhaps she needed reassurance that she hadn't "just" missed out on scoring the last one. Sears' toy section was small and empty of shoppers. The toys were priced at regular retail prices with no chance of competing with Wal*Mart and Target's toy price war. Great luggage deals though.

Target was somewhat busy, but with their 2-day sale, not just a few hours of specials, the shopping seemed more relaxed. For example, a Westinghouse 42" LCD HDTV for $550 was still in stock and the sale still continued through Nov. 28. The toy aisles were the busiest, with parents loading up on toy deals. The Christmas decorations and household sections seemed a particular draw as well.

The demographic of the shopper was family-like. Today I saw plenty of solo men, couples, and families shopping. Sears attracted the men with its tool sales while plenty of men were in the TV and computer sections at Best Buy. Couples strolled hand in hand as well, almost as if Black Friday deals need to be browsed as a precursor to buying later after feeling out the all the competitors.

Black Friday has become solidly embedded in our culture's Thanksgiving holiday, and we seem to be enjoying it. And it's even better when we find that one deal we can brag about, but with only a few hot items sold out and most TVs, video games, and computers still in stock, the best may be yet to come. There was plenty left for Saturday and Sunday shopping, and then came another blast of deals on Cyber Monday.