Black Friday or Thursday...or Countdown to Insanity???

OK everyone?  Not sure what to call this anymore.  Black Friday? Thursday? "The running of the Turkeys" ?? I understand why black Friday was invented.  Everyone has the day off so lets add in some bargains to get them in the store.  Black Friday has evolved from 8 am on the Friday after Thanksgiving to 6 pm on Thanksgiving.  Where will it end.  4 pm on the Wednesday before the Friday after the Thursday the last week of November?  Or perhaps 2 pm the Monday before the Wednesday before the Thursday just to spite the Friday after Thanksgiving.  

Sunday evening Sams club had there invite for Premium club members. So now its the Sunday before the Thursday...you know!! So once again we lined up outside 2 hours in advance in 15 degree weather. We still were 20th in line.  At T minus 30 minutes the manager starts handing out tickets for the Big TV we wanted.  Sure enough we were 3 people short and had to go away empty handed after an hour and a half in the cold. What did this accomplish for the store?? Did it build loyalty?  Sales?? In our case (me and the first lady) it meant it built a pile of resentment and hard feelings.

Why have a sale if you can't fill the obligation?  You know the losers are going to be pissed off at the least.  With the advances in internet why not make this available to everyone with a quick finger?? Now I have to wait for T-day interrupt so the First lady can go out and see if she can score the item we wanted.  Anyway I am way off topic.  Where will Black Friday find a home?  Who will take the lead and push it back to Friday where it belongs?  I guess we will have to wait till next year to find out.  As for me I think I'm gonna take someones advice that was standing in line.  "Why not spend the 4 hours waiting in line at work and just pay retail!" Touche!!

"Today's Youth" The new benchmark in laziness!!

    I was at a Quiznoes yesterday and it was late in the day.  The store was only open for 45 minutes but it was open...ahhh so I thought.  I went in with the "first lady" and was polity greeted by a young lad who let us know in no short terms that we were imposing on his early closing.  What the hell does someone need to get of of work early for on a Sunday night?   The bong will wait...cheetoes breath. I was once young and understand that getting done with an thankless job and hitting the town is a priority, but to basically tell someone to get out, that is pure stupidity.

     Kids don't want to work anymore and when they do they have no skills.  They can't greet you at the drive up, they can't communicate anything, they don't seam to think for themselves, and last of all,  lack all types of common sense. It's almost like they are pre-programmed with a script and if you go off topic they glaze over and become useless bags of malt-o-meal. After the Quiznoes disaster we went to Burger King and got cold food and wrong beverages, AND THERE WAS NOBODY THERE!!

What are we as adults doing to better this action or encourage.  Well for starters, without getting too political, we pass laws to encourage pot smoking.  Dole out food stamps and welfare for half the country.  Let me put it this way...If you see Dad smoking pot and collecting food stamps, what type of role model does that promote?  Letting the kids lay around all day doing nothing would have lasted about 30 seconds in my house.  We mowed lawn, baby sat, bailed hay, shoveled snow, all in our early teens. We wanted to work and make money.  Money meant new fishing gear, records or cassettes... freedom.  I hope to start instilling those values in my kids.

I recently visited Kohl's in Owatonna and had a small problem.  I wanted to use my khols cash on a recent purchase and needed assistance since I lost the certificate. (I don't know why half the store was pregnant but I don't think that had anything to do with the story)  Instead of the staff telling me "sorry" or "I can't help you with that" I got "hmmm that's a interesting problem lets do this..." they proceeded to fix the problem, save me another $50, and let me feeling great that I decided to do business with that store.  There is hope.  The jury is still out on meat-head at Quiznoes but there is hope!!

Going Going Gone!!

 

Never really paid attention to home accessories  but now since I am a new home owner I am trying to invest in nice, high quality items. I made a recent visit to the furniture store to look at nick knacks and other items.  (They always have the coolest accessories at the furniture place) I started by looking at the lamps for the bedroom set we bought and they were very cool but a hundred bucks each I thought was a little steep.  The guy said he could lower to around $65 until I asked to take the floor models. Boom scored both for $80.00.  So I started catching on to this "take it off the floor" idea.  I looked at the comforter set and it was price at $165.00.  Wow I don't think I have paid more than $50 on clearance for a bed in a bag set.  $165.00 seamed like a good chunk of change for sheets and a comforter.  I had taken another picture of one on my iPhone I really liked (the one in the picture), so I decided to seek that one out.  OMG $569.00  I thought to myself, they make stuff that expensive.  Paying $165, just maybe, but $569 NO FLIPIN' WAY!!  The sales clerk got tied up with another sale while I was pondering Overstock.com. I looked up the set online (lovin' the iPhone) $509 but on clearance for $87.50 No stock available. Could not find any online so I had only one option. Do you think I could talk my way into getting the one on the floor for the same $87.50?  Well I love a good challenge so with a little convincing, arm pulling, and distraction I now own a $565.00 comfortable, elegant, and downright cool bed set for the price of $87.50.  Who would have thought!

The next time you go shopping for a clock, bedding, lamps, or wall art, go to a furniture store.  Everything is negotiable, generally in great shape (Kids get off that!!) and ready to become yours for less then you think.  BTW Doesn't hurt to buy a crap load of furniture and hang that over the sales person head either.