black friday

[durango dude]

Looks like DeWalt is the brand for savings, this year. Lowes (no HD near me) has some amazing deals ---- including 40% off on the DeWalt sliding Miter Saw. ($360)

I was a little irate to see 20V drill/driver set for the same price I picked up a 12V set a year ago! C'est la vie. Truth is, 12V is really plenty for woodworking.

Woodcraft caught my eye with their Bora Miter Saw stand ($99) ---- but I already built my own table.

Rockler caught my eye with their router table ($189) and their snappy-type set ($39).

Too bad I already have their compact router table, and a snappy set.

I'm not really in the market for much, to honest. I'm pretty content with what I have.
Heck, I'm still trying to figure out the dovtail jig I received last year.

If I ever found a good price for a rip fence or a finger joint jig ---- maybe I'd get more exited.

My own focus right now is on making stuff .

[leehljp]

I don't think I have gone out shopping on "Black Friday" since the 70's. (Of course from the mid 80's to 2010, I was basically overseas). My oldest daughter loves the thrill of shopping on Black Friday, but she is the only one in our family.

I will this year though. Last year I went to Sams Club on the Monday after BF and found some of my OTC (acid reducer - Lansoprazole) on sale. The sale was for BF and they forgot to change the price from the BF sale. So Hopefully they will have it on sale. I usually buy 3 months supply at a time but at the sale price last year, I bought 6 months. Being prepared, I will buy a years supply if it is on sale this year.

I was in Lowes and looking for some of those storage containers like the ones that are $5.00 right after Christmas but everything was $9 or $14. I asked a guy and he said the large ones would be $6.00 this Friday and they open at 6 AM with lots of giveaways. Just might do it.

BTW, I was in HF today also and their $16.99 was on sale to members for $9.99. 1/16 to 1/2 by 64ths.

[Carlos]

I always get out of town and go stay in the desert with my brother and a bunch of friends with dirt toys. We ride, drink, be stupid, and forget the insanity that's going on elsewhere. I'll be back tomorrow and do my best to avoid stores completely until next year.

[atgcpaul]

Being overseas and living in the Middle East, I thought we'd be immune from the Black Friday mania. We spent 4 days in Cyprus starting on Thanksgiving day (got back today) and the crowds at their malls and especially their Best Buy-like stores rivalled what we have in the US.

[durango dude]

Carefour.. ain't it great?

[cwsmith]

I never did like standing in line, so BF is more or less BS for me. I guess there's nothing out there that I really want that bad for anyone I know or for myself. Fact is that we have pretty much completed our Christmas shopping by the time Thanksgiving has arrived.

I love the Christmas season and there's always been shopping bargains, but I don't like shopping like that, as we prefer to plan and buy at our leisure. It is a great time however to pick up bargains when you see them, and way back in 2003, which was the first season our local Home Depot had opened, I got some great bargains on Ryobi tools, so much so that I wasn't sure if they really knew what they were doing. Ryobi, back then had several bench-top tools that were around $100, and with tax I got my 9-inch band saw, and a 18-inch scroll saw for $79 a piece. IIRC, also picked up an 8-inch bench grinder for about the same price. At the time, Ryobi had two scroll saws, one at $99 and the other at $179, both were priced with the same discount price and I questioned that, but was told the price was as marked, so I got the 18-inch one.

A year or so later, the store was 'giving away' the Ridgid 12-gallon shop vacs for $25 on Black Friday. Great, even by late afternoon I got a one as they still had a stack of them. The following year on Black Friday, they did the same, but by afternoon they were all gone. I asked about that, and one of the sales guys I knew back then told me that two guys came in and filled both their pick-up's with them, buying almost every one that was on sale. "No limit?" I asked.

I've seen a lot of that since then. Just greed! I don't know, but I've been told that a lot of people do that and then resale on E-Bay and the like. Similarly, a lot of tool combo's get bought up with the same thing in mind.

Back in that period I managed to get some really nice deals on tools. Good for those times and I was fortunate, but here of late I simply don't need to add or update anything like that; and, if I need something during the year, I just go buy it, but such needs are getting less and less. Of late, I've been building on my photography equipment, but even there I don't do the BF standing-in-line thing. Our son and his family has even given that up. Too much pushing and shoving, and just plain nastiness with people. Nobody needs that, no matter where you live or how much you think you need the bargain.

I was in our local Walmart yesterday, place looked like it was over run with scavengers. Empty boxes, trashed items, stuff on the floor.... just a mess. I guess there was some good bargains on off-brand flat-screens as well as a few other electronics. Normally the best place to see what they had was to look at the "Returns" desk... but they had a sign there that refunds would not be handled until sometime next week!

Human weakness I suppose, but why stand in line to scoff up things that you are going to return a few days later? Guess it must be the excitement of the day... no thanks, I don't like standing in line and especially don't like dealing with crowds of people who probably want the stuff more than I do.

CWS

[tfischer]

I used to like Black Friday about 10 years ago... seemed like a fun way to get going on Christmas shopping and the deals were decent. Our kids were very young then and it was easy to please them with a cheap random toy. These days with the sales starting on Thursday and the deals being just as good on Amazon all month, it's hard to justify it. We did go to Target and Wal-Mart (gag) late on Thursday after our company left, and to Menards the next morning, in both cases long after the big crowds had come and gone. Picked up a few small things and some stocking stuffers but nothing worth going out for really.

[jabe]

I do all my HD Black Friday shopping on-line and pickup later when they LMK it's ready. No need to fight the crowds and stress over finding parking. I probably miss some in-store specials but at my age, I got most of the things I need or want already. My wife got smart and give gift cards to all of our grandkids, cheaper to mail and they pick what they want.