Black Friday computer shopping
Victory.
That explains my Black Friday early, early, early morning shopping experience in one word.
My goal seemed simple but yet common to many people: To purchase a new, good laptop for as little as possible.
After examining the advertisements in the newspaper yesterday after Thanksgiving dinner, I reached the decision of going for an HP Notebook 2.0GHz Dual-Core Processor with 3.0 GB RAM, a 160 GB hard drive, and of course, a dual-layer DVD burner. Conveniently, Office Depot had such a laptop computer advertised for only $349.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.
That’s where the fun began.
Like most electronic stores, the Office Depot advertisement said that a minimum of six of those exact laptops would be available for purchase.
Minimum in this case should also be considered the maximum. In other words, don’t plan on there being more than the advertised number of units in the store’s inventory.
So this led to the ultimate question: Just how early do you have to wait in line to guarantee yourself one of those laptops?
Here in the northern metro Atlanta suburbs I conventiently live very close to an Office Depot store. This one is in its own little commercial area that usually gets nowhere near as busy as the other stores in the more popular areas. With the store opening at 6 am and with it being in a lesser busy area, do you still want to wait around and get to the store around 4 or 5 am?
No!
On Thanksgiving night I was still deciding when to leave for the store. I already had my mind made up that I was going to take a folding chair and just camp out by the door for quite a few hours. The only problem was figuring out when to leave for the place. Part of me wanted to leave my place here at midnight, while the other part wanted to wait until around 2 am or so and then take my chances.
As it turned out, I was staying up all night working on my computer when I started nodding off. Ten minutes flashed by, and then a fifteen minute gap, and another ten minute gap quickly went by. As I was trying to stay productive and fight off the temptation of sleep, the time flew by and it was already 2 am before I knew it. By the time I had my stuff ready and made it to the store, it was nearly 2:30 am.
I was quite pleased when I rolled into the parking lot and only saw a couple of people waiting by the door. As expected, they were all there for the same laptop that I wanted. At that point I was the fifth person in line for the laptop, and the sixth person arrived a mere five minutes after I did. Just after 2:30 in the morning we already had six people waiting for a product that said there were a minimum of six of them in the store. Everything seemed fine and the waiting game began.
As the minutes ticked by more people slowly arrived at the store. Sure enough, they also wanted that very same laptop that was advertised for the ultra-low price of $349. The problem for them was that they had to wait with the rest of us even though there wasn’t a guarantee that a laptop would be available for them. All of the other stores in the area had lines at this point, so the people had to decide whether to stay and wait for a possible computer, or to go home and try again next year. Needless to say, most of them stayed and waited.
By the time 6 am arrived and the workers were ready in the store, this particular Office Depot had roughly fifty or so people in line, and the line itself stretched far down the sidewalk to the neighboring grocery store. And of course, many of those people were hoping that there were many of those laptops in stock.
Unfortunately for them, that wasn’t the case.
This was the same exact store where I bought one of my desktop computers two years ago. Back then I only waited outside for about half an hour and was still able to get the computer. Back then the demand for laptops was also very high, so it wasn’t a problem for me to get my desktop. Two years ago the store manager came outside and handed out vouchers for the items for sale. Each person was allowed to have one voucher and this eliminated any stampeding once the store opened. This also allowed people to move on to a different store if their item wasn’t available at that time.
Talking to my fellow shoppers, this system was also used last year.
Today was different.
The manager came outside, but instead of handing out vouchers he explained that we would all be staying in line and would march to the cash registers to immediately pay for the items that we wanted. Once that item was out of stock, it wouldn’t be sold anymore and the people would have to choose something else. Oh, and the catch? There were exactly six of those laptops in the store. Five were sealed in boxes and the sixth was the display model.
Yep, six laptops exactly.
As it turned out, we all went inside in an orderly manner and went to the cash registers. It turned out that two people ahead of me changed their minds and bought different laptops, so two more people behind the sixth person in line were given a chance to get the computers. The other people in front of me in line didn’t pick up their laptops immediately, so I was actually the second person to receive a brand new laptop still sealed in the box.
You should have seen all of the evil glares that people gave me as I proudly carried my prize out of the store.
Did they have the right to be angry at me? Well, not really angry, but more jealous. I would have been jealous, too, if I waited outside and couldn’t get what I wanted. Then again, I wasn’t the one who underestimated the crowds. I made it a point to get there extremely early and sit out in the cold, and it paid off and I got the deal. On Black Friday, if you snooze, you lose. It takes a little bit of luck, but you’ve still got to make it a point to get there early!
So as of right now I’m already using my new electronic toy as I type out this article. So far I’m thoroughly entertained with the laptop (this is my first laptop), and I’m looking forward to using its mobility as I take it with me as I travel out of state and around town. I’ve been eyeing laptops for the past few weeks, and this Black Friday deal was a perfect opportunity to finally get a laptop. All of the waiting was worth it.
And just for the fun of it, I’ve now been up nearly nonstop since 9 am Thanksgiving morning and I’m still going strong!
Victory!