I am victorious!
Nov. 7th, 2009 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Today I finally got an Xbox 360. It was one of Walmart's doorbuster deals. My brother told me about it yesterday-ish, and I kept debating with myself of whether I wanted to bother. I didn't care enough to get there buttcrack early, but didn't want to get there at 8am (when the sale started) because then there would be no chance, and why even bother then? So I got there at 7, figuring that if I got there and the line was out the door I would just go home. My Walmart is 24/7 and they weren't closed the night before (unlike for Black Friday, when they're closed the day before, for Thanksgiving). When I got there the parking lot wasn't jammed and there wasn't a huge line, so I was like, yay maybe there aren't that many people interested.
The store itself was also pretty quiet... though once I got to Electronics there were a bunch of people in a quasi line. I asked one of the store employees what they were going to do re: the 8am sale, and his reply was this: The store manager had decided not to do one big line. Instead, when the time came, they would announce over the loudspeaker where each item's location was going to be. He must've already taken some flak from other customers about this plan, because he emphasized that it was not his idea, he did not support it, and he couldn't convince the store manager otherwise.
Obviously a shitty idea right? Creating even MORE pandemonium than usual? Did they not remember the poor Walmart employee last Black Friday who got trampled to death? People were totally grumbling about this and complaining to the assistant managers. Of course the people who were most upset were the people at the front of the "line," because they'd got there early and were being told that their "line" was not going to be honored, that they could stand there if they wanted, but there would be NO lines. The reasoning they gave for this was that this was expressly so that people wouldn't have to wait around the store for hours, and because it was supposed to be a "secret sale" and only the few people who knew about it would show up. LOL. Yes, a secret sale that was advertised on their Web site. OK.
Then another manager type showed up to talk to the increasingly frustrated crowd, emphasized again that their line was NOT a line, and that they would proceed with the plan to put the various items in different locations in the store. He said that at 7:30 they would start bringing out the crates of items, and it would be announced at that point where each item was going to be. At THAT point, if people wanted to line up for that item, that would be fine. They would pass out tickets for each item, up to however many they had in stock.
There were a lot of youngish people in the crowd, and guys especially, so I figured most of them were there for the Xbox deal (which was, purchase an Xbox Arcade console for the regular price of $199, then get a gift card for $100 at Walmart ... essentially paying $99 for the Xbox). However, when the location for the laptop was announced (it was a $298 laptop that was very decent if you didn't want to game on it or do anything graphics intensive) most of the crowd cleared out (they were running, and employees were like, NO RUNNING!! Seriously, you set up this system and expect people not to run?). The laptops, btw, were set up by jewelry.
As luck would have it, Xbox/Blu Ray Players were in electronics, so I was right there. There was a guy who was standing next to me the whole time, and he was like, where should we go? And I was like, let's stand by the cash register. So then a line formed up behind us, and these two people were "in front" of us, though in my opinion they were not fairly there, they just stood there. Anyway... the ad had said there would be a minimum of 10 Xboxes at each store, but this one only had 5. As you can imagine, this made the people behind the first 5 of us very bitter (warranted), and the assistant manager was like, no to rain checks. I'm like, Walmart is going to get some very angry feedback today. One of the guys behind me said that he had been there since 4:30am, so I felt kinda bad for him, but not enough to give up MY place, when there were 2 imposters ahead of ME.
Anyway, as it turned out, one of those two people was actually there for the laptop (they had 38 of those). We were like, dude, that's not here, that's in jewelry. So I was #3 for one of the Xboxes, woot. OK, story done.
I finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and loooooved it. I was crying so hard toward the end, which kind of took me by surprise. I didn't think I was that emotionally invested. Now I'm going to make my cousin and mom read it.
Tomorrow I am planning to make Benihana fried rice and Panda Express orange chicken. :)) Benihana has an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet during lunch on the weekdays. S. and I are planning to go check it out at some point, especially if I can use my discount card to get bogo, which works for their regular teppan menu.
So I watched the pilot of V on Hulu. Thought it was decent, but not super compelling... yet. I never saw the original so at least I don't have to work past the "no remakes of things I love!" bias. I like Morena Baccarin and Elizabeth Mitchell, and of course Alan Tudyk, whose fate I guessed immediately as soon as I saw him in the credits. :))
The store itself was also pretty quiet... though once I got to Electronics there were a bunch of people in a quasi line. I asked one of the store employees what they were going to do re: the 8am sale, and his reply was this: The store manager had decided not to do one big line. Instead, when the time came, they would announce over the loudspeaker where each item's location was going to be. He must've already taken some flak from other customers about this plan, because he emphasized that it was not his idea, he did not support it, and he couldn't convince the store manager otherwise.
Obviously a shitty idea right? Creating even MORE pandemonium than usual? Did they not remember the poor Walmart employee last Black Friday who got trampled to death? People were totally grumbling about this and complaining to the assistant managers. Of course the people who were most upset were the people at the front of the "line," because they'd got there early and were being told that their "line" was not going to be honored, that they could stand there if they wanted, but there would be NO lines. The reasoning they gave for this was that this was expressly so that people wouldn't have to wait around the store for hours, and because it was supposed to be a "secret sale" and only the few people who knew about it would show up. LOL. Yes, a secret sale that was advertised on their Web site. OK.
Then another manager type showed up to talk to the increasingly frustrated crowd, emphasized again that their line was NOT a line, and that they would proceed with the plan to put the various items in different locations in the store. He said that at 7:30 they would start bringing out the crates of items, and it would be announced at that point where each item was going to be. At THAT point, if people wanted to line up for that item, that would be fine. They would pass out tickets for each item, up to however many they had in stock.
There were a lot of youngish people in the crowd, and guys especially, so I figured most of them were there for the Xbox deal (which was, purchase an Xbox Arcade console for the regular price of $199, then get a gift card for $100 at Walmart ... essentially paying $99 for the Xbox). However, when the location for the laptop was announced (it was a $298 laptop that was very decent if you didn't want to game on it or do anything graphics intensive) most of the crowd cleared out (they were running, and employees were like, NO RUNNING!! Seriously, you set up this system and expect people not to run?). The laptops, btw, were set up by jewelry.
As luck would have it, Xbox/Blu Ray Players were in electronics, so I was right there. There was a guy who was standing next to me the whole time, and he was like, where should we go? And I was like, let's stand by the cash register. So then a line formed up behind us, and these two people were "in front" of us, though in my opinion they were not fairly there, they just stood there. Anyway... the ad had said there would be a minimum of 10 Xboxes at each store, but this one only had 5. As you can imagine, this made the people behind the first 5 of us very bitter (warranted), and the assistant manager was like, no to rain checks. I'm like, Walmart is going to get some very angry feedback today. One of the guys behind me said that he had been there since 4:30am, so I felt kinda bad for him, but not enough to give up MY place, when there were 2 imposters ahead of ME.
Anyway, as it turned out, one of those two people was actually there for the laptop (they had 38 of those). We were like, dude, that's not here, that's in jewelry. So I was #3 for one of the Xboxes, woot. OK, story done.
I finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and loooooved it. I was crying so hard toward the end, which kind of took me by surprise. I didn't think I was that emotionally invested. Now I'm going to make my cousin and mom read it.
Tomorrow I am planning to make Benihana fried rice and Panda Express orange chicken. :)) Benihana has an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet during lunch on the weekdays. S. and I are planning to go check it out at some point, especially if I can use my discount card to get bogo, which works for their regular teppan menu.
So I watched the pilot of V on Hulu. Thought it was decent, but not super compelling... yet. I never saw the original so at least I don't have to work past the "no remakes of things I love!" bias. I like Morena Baccarin and Elizabeth Mitchell, and of course Alan Tudyk, whose fate I guessed immediately as soon as I saw him in the credits. :))
