[mooby]

I've worked Black Friday at 2 different stores (Toys-r-Us and Target) and I gotta say it's painful. First off those big deals that they advertise in stock, well it's a sham. They'll have between 1-5 of them in stock and if you aren't in line at midnight to get your spot in place they will be gone by the time you do get in the door, and that's only if they aren't reserved. When I worked at Toys-R-Us they had a deal, it was a 30 gig Zune for sale (this was back in '07) for 150 bucks, and that was on the front page of the ad where you know everybody would want one. Well, we only got 5 of them in stock, and my manager of the store said that if any of the employees wanted to buy it, just tell him and he'd put one aside for the team member in particular. Well 5 people wanted one but the manager said he had to have at least one in stock for the sale, so he put 4 of them aside for 4 employees and when the store opened at 5 am there was one left, and it went to a guy who had been waiting outside since about 10 pm which was the time my shift started.

So if you see a really great deal that you think you might have a shot at, don't even bother unless you're willing to be in line at midnight at the latest. Same thing happened when I worked at Target 2 years ago, there was some flat screen tv's on sale in the Black Friday ad and when the store opened there was like 1-2 of them in stock, which was ridiculous.

Not to mention all the frustrated customers that wait all night only to be told it's not in stock. That's one of the worst parts of the day, it happened to me both times I was working. It's inevitable that someone will get pissed for waiting outside for 5+ hours only to discover the thing they want isn't in stock, but the whole reason stores do it is to get people to come to the store, not because they actually have plenty in stock. I'm sure that's not the case at every retail store but just take it for what it's worth. There are good deals to be had on Black Friday, I just wouldn't advise getting your hopes up and waiting all night for a store to open because odds are if it's a massive deal they won't have but just a couple in stock.