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Black Friday 2015 Retail Musings

Chobel

Chobel

Member
You know the drill people, in this thread you report back on your shopping experiences this Black Friday. What games and/or systems did you see selling, was something sold out, were people buying horrible shit and you felt sad for their kids!? Give details!

Now that most sales start Thursday, it is important to include those anecdotes as well. It is also important to note that individual anecdotes and snapshots of sales periods are not barometers of actual sales rates, however this is in all good fun and could actually indicate consumer attention/behavior and awareness.

Most of the text shamelessly stolen from older threads by LOCK :p

Post away!
 
B

BannedEpisode

Member
Went to the Mall of America last night. Only ended up buying some pants.

It really wasnt that busy or chaotic. Even the Best Buy was pretty tame.
 
R

Rated-Rsuperstar

Member
Two guys behind me at Best Buy had uncharted bundles. Saw lots of copies of Black Ops 3 in hands. No fighting, bitting, or screaming to my disappointment.
 
B

blakep267

Member
My brother wanted an Xbox so we went to a few was marts today. We got the Xbox but Madden and NBA2k were completely sold out at both. Guess that $27 price point worked
 
M

massoluk

Banned
Well, all I can say was that Uncharted Bundle didn't sell out doorbustingly at my local target. Went to target pretty late, plenty to go around. Like shitloads, may be they stocked that bundle really really well. Didn't care for anything on sale, went home and watch Back to the Future alone. Forever alone.
 
T

TheKastorian

Member
Was at Best Buy last night. Saw at least 4 people with PS4 Uncharted bundles, 1 with an XboxOne bundle. Pretty chill otherwise. Kinda pointless going to retail since you can buy these things online. Happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to have a look. Just bought Mad Max: Fury Road on Blu-ray for $7.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Went to Target and Best Buy today. Tons of PS4 bundles. All WiiU and Xbox Ones were wiped out. Really surprised.
 
C

ChoklitCow

Member
There was a hot woman working at Gamestop (only stat that matters). There were also some kids that looked sticky buying refurbed 360's. I couldn't get out quick enough.

Seriously though, in my 10 minutes in store I saw four 8-14 year olds with parents\guardians walking out with refurbed 360's.
 
C

Chie Satonaka

Member
In total, I went to three places. Target, Walmart (twice), Gamestop.

Target, WiiU bundles long gone. Xbox Ones long gone. I see people with both of those leaving the store, but I didn't see one person with a PS4.

Walmart, TONS of people with Xbox Ones. Was insane. I saw at least 20 people in the 15 minutes between when I got my games and checked out. Still saw nobody with a PS4. Didn't see anyone with a WiiU there.

Gamestop, I was the only person there buying a PS4. Three people were there for Xbox One Elite bundles, one kid was there to trade his 360 for an Xbox One, a couple of other people picked up Xbox Ones and Amiibos.

Anecdotes, whatever. But in my experience, Xbones and WiiUs were moving very well, PS4's not so much. I was actually surprised at first that the WiiU was doing as well as it was, but that Smash Splat bundle is a fantastic deal.
 
B

BlackBuzzard

Banned
ChoklitCow said:
There was a hot woman working at Gamestop (only stat that matters). There were also some kids that looked sticky buying refurbed 360's. I couldn't get out quick enough.

Seriously though, in my 10 minutes in store I saw four 8-14 year olds with parents\guardians walking out with refurbed 360's.
Click to expand...

Yusuf Medhi redeemed!

People have been more satisfied with the Xbox 360 than the PS3, so in that respect people have less of a need to upgrade in the short term due to regular updates for the Xbox 360.
Click to expand...

Even now people would rather buy a 360 then a XB1.
 
T

the210

Member
Went to Best Buy last night to purchase a copy of Until Dawn. Store wasn't all that busy but I did see 4 or 5 people getting an Xbox and 2-3 getting ps4 in front of me in line. I came home and gave my launch Xbox one the stank eye for costing me so much with the now useless Kinect.
 
I

Isotope

Member
The one place I went to (Target) actually had no consoles available. 3-way tie for NPD confirmed!!!!11!!1

Went to pick up some games for family members and friends; met some really nice people and we just chit chatted for a bit about how surprisingly tame it was there; no crazy lines, no rude people. Everyone was just somehow nice to each other.
 
O

oSoLucky

Member
Went to Best Buy last night around 9. Store was really busy but not insane. There was about 3 times the stock of PS4 vs Wii U and Xbox 1. Looking at the line I couldn't see anyone with actual consoles, just a bunch of games and peripherals. There were more than 120 people in line though, so I'm sure I missed plenty with all of the huge TV boxes and bodies in the way. Thinking about going back this evening and observing the difference in floor stock.
 
Olengie

Olengie

Member
Last year, the games were way more plentiful. Other than long lines, it was pretty tame this year.

Seems like Wal Mart didn't have Far Cry 4 Complete Edition in store at all from what I could tell.
 
R

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Isotope said:
The one place I went to (Target) actually had no consoles available.

3-way tie for NPD confirmed!!!!11!!1
Click to expand...

oh-noes-everybody-panic.gif
 
E

Elandyll

Banned
I guess my story at Kohls might be of interest?

Knowing it was the best deal (afaik) for a PS4 this BF, I still wasn't planning on fighting hordes of shoppers, so I just showed up at 9:30am this morning with little hope,jsut thinking taht if they had huge stocks (probably not for a door buster item), they might have some left, specially given that most people don't generally associate Kohls and electronics.

Of course, the electronic isle had been picked clean by then, and no XB1 or PS4 on the floor. I waited for the shoppers who were assaulting a poor store employee about mini speakers to be done, and asked him if they possibly had any in theback, expecting him to say "Nope, all gone".
He actually said he didn't know and went to check. About 5 minutes later, to my amazement, he was back with an UC PS4 bundle, which I hastily grabbed with a Thank You!.
On my way to the front of the store to pay, I grabbed a Battleship Star Wars game (discounted down to about $20) to bring me right over $300, and a woman stopped me asking how I found one given that they were out of stock, and that it was the best deal a store had on PS4s.
I told her I asked an employee to check the back, and she went on her way.
At the cashier, I was a bit nervous expecting her to say that the stock of $299 bundles had been sold and that it was a regular $349 pricing, but no. It rang at $299, and along with the boardgame, it triggered the $90 gift card.
They also asked me if I wanted to apply to a Kohls credit card for 25% off, and I said "why not?". Unfortunately, it did not apply due to the PS4 being a door buster, but the boardgame was discounted a further $6.
On my way out, I saw the same woman who asked me earlier, and she did not have a PS4. Either she wasn't really interested ... or I got the last one.

I then went to Walmart for Infinity 3.0 and saw that all the pallets of PS4s and XB1 had been sold, but some items were still behind doors. About a dozen XB1s, and 2 P4s (1 LE SW with destiny and 1 UC collection).
 
finalflame

finalflame

Member
Anecdotally, there were plenty of PS4, XBO, and WiiUs available at my local Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart. Definitely saw more people with the Uncharted PS4 bundle than anything else.

Also, at WalMart, Splatoon seemed to be the only game sold out on their game shelves. Couldn't find a single copy by 6:15, but there were still copies of everything else.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
I started late (11am) and either everything worth getting was already got, or they just didn't have anything worth much for me. I ended up getting some christmas shopping done, but nothing that was marked down. Did get my first few Amiibo though so I have that going for me at least.
 
Chobel

Chobel

Member
Oh for fuck's sake! I made sure to bold this part in OP. "It is also important to note that individual anecdotes and snapshots of sales periods are not barometers of actual sales rates"
 
N

Nephtes

Member
Apparently here in the dirty south we like our Xboxes... There was still a gigantic pile of Uncharted Collection PS4s this afternoon, while the stack of $299 Xbox Ones were half the size...

That, or there wasn't as much Xbox product to begin with...
 
F

friskykillface

Banned
saw every system being bought - xbox one, ps4, wii u, 3DS XL and lots of fallout x battlefront x black ops 3 being bought and they weren't on sale

saw 5 people buy call of duty ghosts for $6 after GCU, see activision, have fire sales for the old call of duty games and we will bite

saw a kid steal an amiibo, Nintendo sweatn'
 
T

Toki767

Member
People should keep in mind that PS4 boxes are smaller than Xbox One boxes so they're probably more stocked to begin with.
 
Begaria

Begaria

Member
I didn't go anywhere and no one came to my home to buy any consoles. Therefore nothing sold on Black Friday :(

Seriously though, I expect Xbox One to do pretty well from Target - that gift card value is pretty damn good.
 
A

Abdiel

Member
Our district's stock of the cheap xb1 bundles is largely depleted, but we've got plenty of the uncharted bundles left, because Sony sent us a ton right before the weekend. Then we've got all these fucking tomb raider bundles people keep looking at like they're plague ridden or something. It's stupid.

Basically, last night and today have seen both systems sell really well. Definitely good. But why didn't ms send us more inventory of the cheap bundles? I don't get it. Sony stocked us up for their entire weekend.

(Sigh) is it closing yet?
 
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