Red Friday for the blood spilled today. Shopping just ain’t what it used to be. A Walmart employee was trampled to death in a stampede of shopper in Long Island today. Meanwhile, out in Palm Desert, CA, 2 men were killed in a Toys R Us.
On the economic front, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, aka the Dow was up 1300 points in 5 days which is an all time American record. It was the biggest point gain in the history of the US stock market.
What does all this mean? Is the end in sight as far as the recession? If people are out there trampling and killing others to buy things, there must not be a real shortage of money. Supposedly, the retailers did very well from first reports, even though customers were looking for deep discounts. Are people spending beyond their means? Are these same people those who haven’t paid off Christmas from last year?
Does anyone have an exciting Black Friday story to tell?
Juturna,
What’s the cost of the gift that keeps on giving? And what countries do you donate these goats to?
I like angels from Salvation Army Christmas trees myself.
It is all how you are zoned and how much property you have. They would not be allowed inside the I-66 corridor. Just squirrels.
Juturna, do you do this worth-while gifting through your church or some other organization? I know you don’t go goat shopping.
Mackie, I guess it is good someone is out there watching out for our rights. However, I feel the situation was so avoidable. I guess it boils down to: to each his own.
The appliance industry is different than most retail businesses in that customer traffic normally slows down right after Thanksgiving and stays that way until mid-February. But that being said, my business was pretty good on Friday, given the time of year.
I am an Appliance Connection fan. Bought almost all our appliances there since you first opened behind Jack Sullins. He was a Wbdge HS teacher and had a faithful following.
I send the goats mainly to Africa through Heifer International.
I really don’t have a problem with my receipt being checked. I was surprised though by the off duty cops at Best Buy. I guess I just didn’t realize how shoplifting-prone electronic stores were. I think the walmart thing is just awful, especially when I read that people refused to leave the store when store officials asked them. I guess they just thought they’d walk around the crime scene investigation. I can’t quite figure out what item in Walmart could be worth having at the expense of another’s life. I personally am not a willing black friday shopper, but my husband has this thing about shopping on that day AND the day after xmas. As if we need anymore discount tree ornaments:) I used to work at Hechts back in the day before barcodes and I hated the day after xmas. I always ended up having to greenline the xmas sales items. For those of you not familiar with greenlining, it involves looking down a list to figure out how much 33 and 1/3% off of each item was, then writing the new price on the price tag with a stupid, green felt-tipped marker. Why did Hecht’s used to mark things down by 33 and 1/3%? Who can do that in their heads? By the end of the day I was covered in green marks.
Happy Thanksgiving Supervisor Nohe. Say hi to Mrs. Nohe and all the little supervisors.
Glad to hear Friday was a good business for you, Mr. Nohe. Thanks for your input to our blog. Is this where we wish you many more excellent retail days 😉
Just remember folks, all our good retail days help our VA budget with all that sales tax. How much of that does each locality get back?
DB, Was Decht’s green felt tip worse than overhead markers? 😉 I agree with you. I don’t mind showing a receipt. There is too much stealing which ends up costing us all money. I just saw a staggering report on teenage shoplifting and cheating. I will try to do a post on it the next day or so.
M-H
SECRET POLICE AT THE DNC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHehRYD81DY
Obama kids sing for their Great Leader
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2naSzb1psU
Yes M-H, if you can get someone like Marty Nohe or Lucky Duck to answer, I would like to know how a B poll tax works. What’s the rate? How much does more shopping in PWC help our government’s budget and how does less shopping hurt? Why was it so bad that retail sales fell 15 percent after the Resolution was passed? I always assumed it as a common sense deal that a drop off in our local economy last year was bad. But what’s the rate? Should we do our Christmas shopping only in PWC in order to help us out of our slump?
I try not to purchase anything outside of PWC. We need the money here more than our neighboring counties.