“That’s it! That’s it!” A Walmart team member yelled to customers when the stockpile of the game they were clamoring for, Rockband, was depleted. It was a Black Friday special, on sale for $50, half the regular price. Another hot commodity on the Black Friday list was the HP Pavillion PC, which was on sale for $398.
The Rialto, Calif., Walmart opened at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, although Black Friday deals were not available until 5 a.m. on Friday. Hundreds of people crowded into the store pushing, shoving and shouting out their game plans for scoring the cheap deals.
“I just let them go because I didn’t want to get trampled,” another sales team member said in reference to attempting to enforce the one computer per customer limit. It was a stampede. Incredibly, one shopper placed three HP Pavillion PC computers in her cart.
While many shoppers believed the deals were worth braving the chaos, others found Black Friday to be a rough shopping experience not worth repeating.
“This is my last experience, I’m not going to do this again,” said Francois Davis who had been waiting in line since 2:15 a.m. Davis was a first-time Black Friday shopper who hoped to purchase a camera for half price.
The Black Friday holiday shopping tradition does offer bargain basement deals, just be prepared to deal with the lines, the crowds and the frustration — you may or may not walk away with the deal you hoped to get.
–iesha daniels
