Black Friday Sales Intensify in Downturn

I took Mo to the video game store yesterday and that place was packed!

Most of the people in line in front of use were spending several hundreds of dollars each. It seems that they were having a pretty amazing sale that I was unaware of. They only had two clerks working and they were overwhelmed.

I think discounting is going to reach a frenzy in a few weeks.

boomer- I promised myself that I would stay out of the stores between Black Friday and the day after New Years'. I am at the point where I just don't want to deal with the crowds.

I think that Amazon will get most of my business this season.

The stores don't want to have huge inventories come January 1 because of tax implications. On the other hand, when there is 3 or 4 or 500% markup for retail on a whole bunch of stuff, they can offer huge discounts and still make a profit; just not as much as they want. And it does reduce earnings somewhat, of course, which invariably spooks the stock market even more when such lowered expectations are announced.

Phoenix is right though. I already resent inadequate, untrained, (or indifferent) store personnel sufficiently to do most shopping on line these days. Add long lines, and I have to want something pretty bad to stick around. I figure at a certain age we're entitled to be a bit eccentric.

I haven't checked into it as of now, but Houston is not suffering as badly as much of the nation. I am not sure how great our sales wll be.

I've already done most of my shopping so that I don't have to visit stores during that period. I dislike shopping and hate crowds. It would take an unbelievable price on something I already need to drag me to the stores.

Understaffed seems to be the order of the day in all service sectors.

We're not eccentric. We're smart!!!