Friday Poll: How will you spend Black Friday?
Will this be you the day after Thanksgiving?
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)CNET News Poll
Black Friday is my favorite day of the year--not just because retailers and manufacturers are falling over each other to try to nab my holiday dollars, but because the rush at the big-box stores is hilariously insane.
Working at a Best Buy-like store for several years, I made sure to take full advantage of my tryptophan-induced coma so I'd be ready to go for the 16-hour workday ahead. In the end I was always exhausted, but also happy, as I'd helped many people get the good deals they were looking for.
We've featured quite a few Black Friday deals in the last few days as they trickle out, and we're sure many of our Crave readers are gearing up for the Super Bowl of gadget buying. So we'd like to know: what, exactly, is your strategy for tackling Black Friday this year?
Vote in our poll, and if you're planning to mark the day in a way we didn't cover, be sure to let us know in the Talkback section below.
With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. E-mail Matt. 
- by Donniebrasco November 20, 2009 7:16 PM PST
- I'll check around online. That is it. <br /><br />Its too bad its come to this. Working retail is humiliating enough. Then they ruin your Thanksgiving by having you worry about how early you need to get to work the next day (if they don't already open ON Thanksgiving). Then you come in at 4 AM to a line of losers out front waiting to get a universal remote for free with mail-in rebate, who then complain to you when you run out of the crappy item they want to get for nothing. <br /><br />Really, does anyone know how this "Open at 4 AM" thing came about? I mean Best Buy could start the sale at noon if they wanted and people would still be lined up. Heck, they could do it tomorrow and still sell plenty of POS Dynex TVs. The whole concept of Black Friday is a slap to the face of the retail employee making $7.50/hr but expected to "sacrifice" for things like this. <br /><br />It would really funny if one year, none of the employees actually show up for Black Friday. Take a stand. See how well the sale goes with no one to work the register. Take back Thanksgiving for gorging on food, watching football, and passing out when you feel like it.
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- by coal686--2008 November 20, 2009 9:00 PM PST
- "Really, does anyone know how this "Open at 4 AM" thing came about?"
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<br />I think that some stores wanted people to go there first before they had spent all of their money at other stores. So, they appealed to their greed by saying that they could go there early and get the deals there and still have time to get deals at other places. This is true, but you are right. Making a minimum wage slave work early like that is wrong. I once worked frozen food at a grocery store and worked so late into the night cleaning the freezers for a regional manager inspection that I saw the opening manager getting ready to open the store before I went home. All for $5.50 an hour! Thank heavens for my college education.
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