News
Black Friday brings out die-hard shoppers in Point
The Pointer
nmeye177@uwsp.edu
The day after Thanksgiving, now notoriously known as Black Friday, brought shoppers out of their homes in massive numbers early in the morning on Nov. 28, 2008.
The economic downturns of the past few months couldn’t keep the hordes of consumers away from the infamous low prices stores were offering.
Stevens Point stores saw firsthand what this day means to people; some stores saw people show up as early as Wednesday evening to be first in line for the shopping extravaganza.
“People showed up on Wednesday night in lawn chairs at around 7:30 p.m. to be the first in line,” said University of Wisconsins - Stevens Point junior and Best Buy employee Josh Deisinger.
According to Deisinger, before Best Buy even opened their doors at 5 a.m. on Friday, the storefront was already flooded with around 200 customers thirsty for deals. Best Buy put up a snow fence outside to keep the line that wrapped around all the way to the back of the building orderly.
“Once the doors opened it was just a mad frenzy,” said Deisinger. “People were trying to get in and out so they could move on to the next store.”
The store saw a heavy flow of traffic all day, implementing a “20-people-at-a-time” system early in the day to keep the customer flow smooth. The store had prepared for two weeks for the Black Friday rush, but still ended up running out of one of the hottest items, the Nintendo Wii gaming system that didn’t seem to slow people down.
“Some people were irritated; some just laughed,” said Deisinger.
Wal-Mart also felt the effects of Black Friday preparing for the sale they call blitz months in advance. According to store manager Mike Phipps the store saw around 10,000 customers throughout the day. Even with the heavy flow of customer. Smith called the atmosphere as rather calm and described customers patient.
“It actually went really smooth,” said Phipps. “We did have an incident with a customer needing medical attention but it had nothing to do with the sale or other customers.”
Many UW-SP students got out and dealt with the masses of consumers as well - some to grab good deals and others just for the tradition the day has become within their families.
“I’ve never actually had a ‘true’ Black Friday shopping experience before this year,” said UW-SP student Kayla Schmidt. “It is tradition in my boyfriend’s family to go Black Friday shopping though, so I thought I would give it a try, too.”
Prices are the main motivators for shoppers on Black Friday, taking on the cold and waking up early. Some students weren’t as convinced that becoming a part of the mad rush was worth the deals.
“Supposedly there are ‘amazing’ sales and prices on items that you will never see again, and yes, this may be true for some things,” said UW-SP senior Kelly McAvoy. “But in reality, it seems many of the stores have items so jacked up in price, that when the sales of Black Friday do come around, the prices are lowered at a cost that is actually a ‘normal’ price.”
It seems even though money is a main concern for many people in the current economy Black Friday has become a part of the American culture and is here to stay.
