The Holiday Formerly Known As Thanksgiving Debriefing Thread 2015

[NorthernZel]

As a customer, I didn't attend the big Black Friday sales, except for a little mom n' pop clothing store that had 20% off all items - got myself a nice little plushy sweater there. Needed one, anyway.

Funnily enough, when I went grocery shopping today, the store had 30% off toys - a thing they DIDN'T offer yesterday! So now I was able to buy a birthday gift to one of Lil' Zel's schoolmates that is a big bitter than expected

[Slave to the Phone]

Went to the grocery store today, it was empty. Bought 4 turkeys because they were 49 cents a pound and we have room in our freezer. These were the same fresh turkeys that cost $2.99/lb 3 days ago. What? we like turkey and they will be good for a year, not to mention that freezers are cheaper to run if they are full.

Went to a craft sale and bought some goat milk soap. I got an extra bar free because I always rave about her products which brings other customers in. Traded the free soap for a bunch of jewelry findings. Traded those for a lovely hand made topaz bracelet which will be a Christmas present.

Then I went to the car wash. Holy cow!!! It was a mob scene. I've never seen it so busy before. I tipped the guys who pre-scrub the front of the car a couple of bucks and they acted like I was the first tipper for the day.

Now I'm hiding in my warm cave and wishing that I had cookie dough that needed to be baked. Not wishing that enough to go back out, though. Wonders if I could trade some sandwich sliced turkey for some...

[wolfie]

In other news, turkeys will be very cheap over the weekend. I'm going to get a couple more. They are cheap protein, easy to cook and well worth the 50 cents a pound they will cost. Then, come Christmas, the SC's will complain that the same frozen turkeys they turned their noses up this weekend are so expensive when they are back in demand. BUT THEY WERE ON SALE A MONTH AGO!!!

The only excuse for being upset at the turkeys being expensive before Christmas when they were cheap after Thanksgiving is if you don't have the freezer space to store it in the meantime. Hello McFly, Christmas happens on December 25th EVERY YEAR, so you should know in advance that it's going to happen and that you'll need a turkey. If you see a good price immediately after Thanksgiving, GRAB ONE!

[Jay 2K Winger]

As I'm not in retail hell, I had no issues with BF at my job. I worked on Turkey Day, but I only took 3 calls during my entire 8 hours shift-- one from Dad, checking in, and two from the same guy, who was having password issues, but given his circumstances and the timing, he was cool about the fact that he'd have to wait until Monday for resolution.

Friday, I spent driving out to Leesburg to visit Mom at the nursing/rehab facility and having a quasi-Thanksgiving meal (picked up at Maggiano's) with her there with Dad, Sis, and Sis' Boyfriend... and our dog. Good time.

Today, I got together with friends, hanging out at Tom's place, playing games, and then laughing ourselves sick playing Cards Against Humanity.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Apparently over here not much happened.Everyone was going online for it instead.ASDA didn't do Black Friday,PC World had pictures of half-empty stores.Boots'flagship Oxford Street branch opened at midnight...to nobody... Other stores opened at 5am or 6am to maybe 40 or 50 shoppers...

[sirwired]

I know that the "Live From the Mall on Black Friday!" reports are one of the most dreaded assignments in TV journalism, namely they could run the exact same report from any time in the last several decades, and you'd only notice it was different because you saw somebody in the background using a payphone. This is the exact opposite of "news."

Not even the retailers really care about their BF sales that much. It is NOT (contrary to popular belief) the busiest shopping day of the year; that honor goes to the last Saturday before X-Mas Eve.

It DOES traditionally mark the beginning of the X-Mas shopping season, but as a retailer-created "holiday", it's about as newsworthy as a "Hallmark Holiday". I think, like many annoying things in the business world, retailers would much prefer to NOT open on Thanksgiving (or at the wee hours of the morning), but once one of their competitors does it one year, others feel obligated to follow like a bunch of lemmings. (I know retailers would prefer not to deal with the OT, disgruntled employees, and obligatory loss-leader specials.)

I'm hoping a bunch of stores proudly announcing they won't open on Thanksgiving itself this year becomes more of a trend and retailers stop the obnoxious practice of keeping employees from enjoying Turkey-Day themselves.

[siskaren]

I'm hoping a bunch of stores proudly announcing they won't open on Thanksgiving itself this year becomes more of a trend and retailers stop the obnoxious practice of keeping employees from enjoying Turkey-Day themselves.

Actually, TJMaxx/Home Goods/Marshalls (they're owned by the same parent company) did air commercials before Thanksgiving announcing that they wouldn't be open that day so that their employees could spend the day with their families.

[otakuneko]

I worked the weekend but not the holiday. I figured it would be either dead or hellish, since I thought some companies might take advantage of the long weekend for some much needed change windows, or there'd be some Black Friday meltdowns carried over into the weekend.

Fortunately for the most part it seems vacations and change freezes prevailed. It was indead dead, and I basically got paid a small pile 'o money to play games and watch anime*...and send maybe a half dozen emails, if that.

*Re-watching Higurashi, if you must know

[Trixie]

Black Friday doesn't mean what it used to mean anyway. Stores have "Black Friday" sales starting in the summer. I don't even recall seeing many Black Friday commercials this year. It just seems to be more of a mentality than anything else.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Actually, TJMaxx/Home Goods/Marshalls (they're owned by the same parent company) did air commercials before Thanksgiving announcing that they wouldn't be open that day so that their employees could spend the day with their families.

I just noticed this. It's not TJ Maxx here,it's TK Maxx!

[Lovecats]

Went to a grocery store on Saturday to get milk. Was not going to darken the doorway to Wally World for anything that day. Took me about 10 minutes which is normal. Sunday morning my husband opened the milk and it had gone bad. So after church I left to take it back to the store at about the same time as the day before. First it took me over 3 lights to be able to turn left onto the main highway thru town. Took me close to 30 minutes to get to the same store as it had taken me 10 the day before. If it wasn't for the fact that we needed the milk I probably would've turned around and gone home.