Mighty Bargain Hunter

“It’s called Black Friday, Mr. Pavlov!”

November 24th, 2006 | by mbhunter |

At least the retailers are needing to ring bigger bells this year.  (Woof woof!)

Sears stores ponied up $2,000 worth of gift cards to early birds.  A 42″ LCD TV went for a thousand at Best Buy.  Turkey sandwiches satiated some brave line-standers.  Stores are raising each other in this high-stakes holiday game, all in the name of laying claim to ever-scarcer shopping dollars from tapped-out Americans.

The lines outside some consumer electronics store chains were huge today, as this video shows.  I wonder if any of these folks had their Black Friday gear.  (I also wonder why it’s so hard for a majority of these same people to get up — hours later in the morning – on Sunday to go to church, but that’s another topic. )

The stores with the blowout sales will probably fall victim to their own success.  Consumers will expect better and better treatment, and bigger discounts next year.  And if the stores don’t comply, they’ll go somewhere else.  Treat my disposable income right, or else!

I mean, you can only sell at a loss for so many people.  It’s hard to make up on volume what you’re losing on each unit.  Limited quantities mean a few satisfied customers and a whole lot with a bad taste in their mouth, if they were just a little too late to get the cheap flat-screen.  In retail, it’s known as a BAD THING when your money’s angry at you.  What do you say?  “Sorry you didn’t hit the jackpot, but as long as you’re here, spend some money?”  I don’t know about you, but I really wouldn’t be feeling the love for the store right then. 

It will be entertaining to see where this circus will go next.  I envision:

• Black Friday VIP passes.  Take your dozen or so biggest customers from the first eleven months of the year and treat them to limousine service and first crack at any Black Friday deals the night before.
• Competition lock-out.  How much would it be worth to Best Buy to keep a good customer out of Circuit City on Black Friday?  As in, “Enter the store when it opens, spend $1,000 here today, and remain in the store until Circuit City closes, and we’ll give you a $250 Best Buy gift card.”
• Live early-morning entertainment.  A live band makes freezing your butt off a little more fun.
• Kevlar®-reinforced shopping baskets.  Hey — it can’t hurt.

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