You survived Black Friday, did ya? Pushed and shoved by other more daring, less courteous shoppers around you, no doubt. I was there too, and was also overwhelmed by the humanity wanting to get to the $50 RockBand before the rest of us. Or was it the $29 320GB External Hard Drive? I don't remember, but what I can tell you is that I didn't make to the big-boxed video game in time – they were gone before I'd even made to the correct end cap!
Venturing out at 6AM was not new to us, we'd done it once before a couple of years ago and swore never to do it again, but this year was different. We had a plan and stuck to it. A soon as we got to a store, one person immediately stood in line at the cash register while the others went on a merchandise-finding mission. (We should have brought GPS gear besides our cell phones because the crowds were intense, and we could hardly hear ourselves talking on the phones).
Unfortunately, not all advertised goods were in stock once we got there, and after asking a very cooperative store manager about locating an item in another store, she came up with this statement, “Our district did not get that particular item advertised in the newspaper”.
WAH, WHAT?
I had to hold myself back from jumping over the counter to get a look at her computer screen to make sure she was telling me the truth, but instead I asked her directly if she was telling me that San Diego did not get any of the advertised laptops. Yup. She confirmed it.
We walked out, found our merchandise at other retailers, and were home by 12PM.
Feeling a bit fooled, I started calling the office products retailer's local headquarters and then corporate just to get further confirmation about this product not being sold in San Diego. The explanation I got is quite laughable, “Our store managers are not informed of what merchandise other stores get for this Black Friday event.”
Heard of False Advertising?
Well, I was a victim of the ploy to get me in there with a false add hoping I'd buy something else. Sorry to tell you Staples folks, that didn't happen, and it's not happening for quite a while. In fact, quite the opposite is going to happen. “I will never shop there again”, is my current status regarding this huge waste of MY time.
Not even a paper clip from your store will cross my threshold.
Nada.
Did anyone else get suckered into a shop only to be frustrated and dissapointed?
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