The Internet is open 24 hours a day including holidays. How can the big retailers compete with that?

/and lets me sleep in

themindiswatching: The Internet is open 24 hours a day including holidays. How can the big retailers compete with that?

/and lets me sleep in

By offering a small number of very limited quantity items that appear to be very well priced in order to encourage customers to physically enter the stores with an urgent and anticipating mindset while offering a large number of reduced (but still profitable) priced items to be offered as an effective consolation prize available for immediate purchasing gratification to sate the original desire to get the huge deal before the opportunity arises to step back, research the item, and compare prices on the internet.

TheOmni: before the opportunity arises to step back, research the item, and compare prices on the internet.

I guess you haven't heard of any of the iOS/Android barcode scanning apps.

SUBBY: The only winning Black Friday game is not to play

How can any farker screw up a line from WarGames?

How about:

The only winning Black Friday move is not to play

Hasn't this girl got enough attention, we don't have to give her a game too

In my opinion, the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year.

So the chain will revert to its original plan to open at 4 a.m. on Friday. "I think there's a group of customers that don't aspire to get up in the middle of the night," Aiello said.

This guy's insight is as keen as a vorpal sword.

themindiswatching: I guess you haven't heard of any of the iOS/Android barcode scanning apps.

People who have and use those would be sitting at home buying on the internet.

I've done the Black Friday BS once. ONCE.

Never friggin' again. The only shopping I do on Black Friday is Amazon, and this year possibly not even that. I am having a couple safes delivered/installed, but that's just because it was a convenient time for the company to do it.

It's a zoo, the customers are pains in the ass, and the deals suck; they're usually on crap that isn't worth owning anyway- so what if that flat panel TV is $200? It's a cheap Chinese POS that makes Westinghouse look like high end gear.

Hell no, I won't go. Out of respect for myself and my money, I want no part in it. Especially out of respect for the retail workers, who are abused by both the company and the customers on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. If enough consumers would do this as well we might just see a retreat from this kind of crap, but no, the people don't. They go out, shop, and whine about how retailers, in catering to them, mistreat employees.

Never shopped Black Friday. Never will. If I need things, I get them. If I don't, I don't. Insufferably smug about it, too.

/That said, for years my wife had to work on Black Fridays and I'm really happy she doesn't anymore.

Some local retailers are still undecided on their Black Friday hours and will make last-minute decisions, according to Cohen.

Congratulations, local retailers. You picked the one option which virtually guarantees nobody will be coming to your store. "Will we be open? Even WE don't know! Come to the store at some ungodly early hour of the morning and find out!"

Sarah Palin's Conscience: My SO is working Black Friday at Big Box Retailer. He's a big dude, so they've got him working "security" on a pallet of "high-end" goods.

They're not paying him any extra money, nor are they offering an extra day off in exchange for dealing with this BS.

The job market in our town is so bad, and job security there is even worse. He can't afford to say, "fark you, this is bullshiat" and walk out, like he wants to.

/they short his hours, too
//gotta keep that CEO pay high
///because, fark you

I'm still convinced that the people who decided to have stores open at Midnight won't even been working on Black Friday

This story is top shelf spin, pure and simple.

The truth is the mall and the retail outlet has been declining for years due to decreased consumer purchasing power, the rise of online shopping, and economic depression. Retail outlets don't want to admit that its because of changing times and decreasing consumption habits, so they play that off with a lil sour grapes music: "oh, we've changed our policy." "people don't really like Black Friday." "It's not that important to our bottom line."

But we all know the reasons.

t3knomanser: Black Friday is a great thing- to be nowhere near. From Thanksgiving through New Year's day, I do not go near a shopping center for any reason. There could be a terrorist with a nuke in the nearest mall and I'm the only one who can disarm it before it goes off, and I still wouldn't go there.

Amen brother. Maybe 12 years ago I could set the alarm for 4:AM, hit three stores and be home by 6 to get a few more hours sleep.
The year after that I saw lines with 100's of people in front of every store I wanted to go to. Not worth it.

Prank Call of Cthulhu: I will be celebrating this Black Friday just as I have for the past six years: By using the day to watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended version DVDs), and enjoying turkey sandwiches and beers. It is, in my opinion, the finest thing one can do that day.

Um thanks - i just figured out what the kid and I are doing