Black Friday

I hate Black Friday (read this and this). I hate it for two reasons. One, I used to work at Wal-Mart in highschool. I'm still scarred. Two, as a consumer, it's a shameful example of what people will do to save money and what companies will do to make it. Very sad to me. That said some companies just don't get it. They don't understand. The RIAA doesn't get it. They won't until they've sued every single customer of theirs. It seems Office Depot doesn't get it either (and as a result will never get another dime from me).

I was crusing some of the BF sites, I think I followed a link from engadget or someplace. I found this. How lame is Office Depot? bf2005.com is trying to help consumers (hear that office depot? help them. something you should be doing since you need us, more than we need you) to know what will be on sale where. Most BF sales are only 5-6 hours long. Unless you're lucky enough to live in a city where all retailers are lined up along a several block strip, stores are spread out. Consumers have to pick and choose what is worth going after in that short window of time that is the BF sale. BF sites are here to help us as consumers be educated. If Best Buy doesn't have jack that I want or want to give, then I can skip them. This maximizes my spending power. I'm not wasting time going to stores that have nothing to offer and missing a store that has exactly what I want.

This also forces retailers to offer quality and quantity. They can no longer get away with having very few items in their BF sale and at not very good discounts. Rather than embrace this concept and offer what consumers want, Office Depot seems to have chosen to keep us in the dark, hoping we'll show up, just to see what they have.

This kind of thinking needs to change. Consumers hold the power, retailers, not you. Figure it out. Embrace it and you'll succeed.

So to Office Depot and Jill A. Cook (Sr. Litigation Attorney, T: 561.438.3773; F: 561.438.5075)