Black Friday tells me...

[Jiddy78]

...the American consumer will not stop on his quest for neverending chindian crap.

No slowdown in sight based on what I saw today at the mall...Good God.

[Vegas]

You're brave for trying out the mall today.

[Tom Joad]

I try not to go to the store on this day. I'll never forget the video on CNN of people trampling each other at dawn to be the first one through the door to get a pittance of a discount on some insignificant consumer electronic.

[Jiddy78]

You're brave for trying out the mall today.

Aye...'twas a madhouse...I got 5 dvd's for $25...Dumb & Dumber...Grinch who stole Christmas...King Kong...Skeleton Key...40 year old virgin...Took a f*cking hour to check out.

Aye.

[Vegas]

Aye...'twas a madhouse...I got 5 dvd's for $25...Dumb & Dumber...Grinch who stole Christmas...King Kong...Skeleton Key...40 year old virgin...Took a f*cking hour to check out.

Aye.

I can't believe you couldn't have found the same items online for the same price or less without having to drive or put up with the crowds.

[i_hate_righties]

Aye...'twas a madhouse...I got 5 dvd's for $25...Dumb & Dumber...Grinch who stole Christmas...King Kong...Skeleton Key...40 year old virgin...Took a f*cking hour to check out.

Aye.


never fished through walmarts 5 dollar dvd display I take it?

[BoredWithNoSB]

I can't believe you couldn't have found the same items online for the same price or less without having to drive or put up with the crowds.

Crowds weren't that bad here. I walked into the Apple store and bought a new docking station. They have super-swift mobile checkout. Coolest thing ever. They also had the store way overstaffed. It was, like, 1-1 employee-shopper ratio.

Then, I went to Express men and got a dress shirt (1/2 price) and some nice jeans (for $30 off). They tossed in a $40 pair of pajama pants for free. I had three people in front of me in line. I'e seen it worse on normal days.

I guess that's the upside of 9% unemployment.

[Jiddy78]

I can't believe you couldn't have found the same items online for the same price or less without having to drive or put up with the crowds.

I was out already because my stupidass office desktop internet connection crashed while I was transferring data to our new server...so I had to re-establish the upload....It happened again yesterday so I'm going back again. I just stopped at the mall on the way back...It's on the way.

[Jiddy78]

never fished through walmarts 5 dollar dvd display I take it?

I don't shop at Walmart because, unlike yesterday which was a once in umpteen years thing, Walmart is the Black Friday experience everyday with one big difference: On top of bigass lines because of so many people, they pile on top with about 3 cashiers. F*ck that store. I'll never forget the last time I "regularly shopped" there (Think I've been there 3 times in 7 years)...Some lady had TWO shopping carts full of crap...One of baby crap...Formula etc...They check her all out and when payment time comes, out comes the food stamps...Well...The first 5 minutes I held my cool while this a-hole is being sent running through the store looking for the plain beans instead of the flavored beans...because God forbid you can't have the flavored beans on food stamps...So I sit there patiently...Sh*t happens right? That's when the cashier looked a little closer at the coupon and said "I'm sorry, I can't accept some of these...We'll have to put the baby stuff back...These aren't good until Tuesday." So they start sifting through stuff and rearranging the 2 carts for what she can take and what she can't"...It was Sunday. I told the cashier, with my groceries on the conveyor next and 5 people behind me that if she didn't honor the stupid stamps that I was going to leave and never return. (Normally I would say nothing but the lady and her husband spoke horrible english and the cashier spoke only english-please refrain righties) The cashier told me that was not the rule. I asked for the manager, who was 5 feet away and heard me ask...and came over immediately confirming that the rule "must be upheld."

I walked out. Left the groceries and never said another word..."Sir....SIR...Aren't you going to take your groceries?"

F*ck 'em all...

[ryr8828]

Crowds weren't that bad here. I walked into the Apple store and bought a new docking station. They have super-swift mobile checkout. Coolest thing ever. They also had the store way overstaffed. It was, like, 1-1 employee-shopper ratio.

Then, I went to Express men and got a dress shirt (1/2 price) and some nice jeans (for $30 off). They tossed in a $40 pair of pajama pants for free. I had three people in front of me in line. I'e seen it worse on normal days.

I guess that's the upside of 9% unemployment.

Where is there 9% unemployment?

[BoredWithNoSB]

Where is there 9% unemployment?

Metro Detroit. Official number is 7.6%, but there a lot of vastly underemployed comtractors that i'm sure are not being included.

[BoredWithNoSB]

Metro Detroit. Official number is 7.6%, but there a lot of vastly underemployed comtractors that i'm sure are not being included.

Actually I was wrong Official number was 8% in October for metro area

http://www.michigan.gov/dleg/0,1607,7-154-10573_11472-180300--,00.html

State is at 7.7%

City of Detroit is at 12.6%.

We rock baby.

[swordfish]

I for one won't be out shopping at 4 am. My friend said it best.

"I might get up at 4 am to go make money, but I damn sure won't be getting up then to spend it." --- Jeff Messemore

[IBC]

Actually I was wrong Official number was 8% in October for metro area

http://www.michigan.gov/dleg/0,1607,7-154-10573_11472-180300--,00.html

State is at 7.7%

City of Detroit is at 12.6%.

We rock baby.
They also stop counting those that are on UE for a long time, or those that give up looking for work.

[ryr8828]

They also stop counting those that are on UE for a long time, or those that give up looking for work.

Another liberal fallacy that always gets trotted out in any discussion of the unemployment rate.

http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

Because unemployment insurance records relate only to persons who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to actually count every unemployed person each month, the Government conducts a monthly sample survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country. The CPS has been conducted in the United States every month since 1940 when it began as a Work Projects Administration project. It has been expanded and modified several times since then. As explained later, the CPS estimates, beginning in 1994, reflect the results of a major redesign of the survey.

There are about 60,000 households in the sample for this survey. The sample is selected so as to be representative of the entire population of the United States.

Every month, one-fourth of the households in the sample are changed, so that no household is interviewed more than 4 consecutive months. This practice avoids placing too heavy a burden on the households selected for the sample. After a household is interviewed for 4 consecutive months, it leaves the sample for 8 months and then is again interviewed for the same 4 calendar months a year later, before leaving the sample for good. This procedure results in approximately 75 percent of the sample remaining the same from month to month and 50 percent from year to year.

Each month, 1,500 highly trained and experienced Census Bureau employees interview persons in the 60,000 sample households for information on the labor force activities (jobholding and jobseeking) or non-labor force status of the members of these households during the week that includes the 12th of the month (the reference week). This information, relating to all household members 16 years of age and over,

A sample is not a total count and the survey may not produce the same results that would be obtained from interviewing the entire population. But the chances are 90 out of 100 that the monthly estimate of unemployment from the sample is within about 230,000 of the figure obtainable from a total census. Since monthly unemployment totals have ranged between about 5 and 8 million in recent years, the possible error resulting from sampling is not large enough to distort the total unemployment picture.

[BoredWithNoSB]

Ryr, I'll agree its an overstatement. However, people who have given up looking for work (and have decided to instead retire, or become housemoms, or off themselves) are not included in the figure. Similarly, contractors are a big mess here. Most employment figures only count those seeking employment with an employer. Your independant mutual fund or insurance salesman is very difficult to count. Even at my grandmothers real estate office, they often don't know poeple are really gone for several months. They are still technically employed by the agency, they simply have chosen not to participate in their employment since the prospects are so bad.

So, I'd argue there's about a 10% fudge factor available (pulling that number entirely out of my head.)