Well, Black Friday 2009 has come and (almost) gone. Another high point in my day to day observation of the human condition. Ah, humanity…

Yeah.

Actually, once again, I didn’t really get it. I mean, I read the flyers and checked what would be on sale. In truth, most of the good stuff wasn’t even on sale that much. I mean, if you track the toy sales like I do, you start noticing trends, and the Black Friday prices for most stuff weren’t that impressive. There were a few steep discounts on particularly cool Lego sets and things like that, but it doesn’t really grab me. I would much prefer to buy several large cool Agents sets or Space Cop sets over one large Indiana Jones or Star Wars set. Three sets for $40 might not be so bad. One set for $60 is out of hand, I don’t care if it is 50% off.

Thankfully, my kids tend to agree with this line of thinking.

And don’t even mention the TVs and such. Sure they have some deep discounts, assuming you get one of the 5 or 10 guaranteed in stock. This year it was reported that several big stores guaranteed as few as 3 units of several of the most desireable items. Are you F-ing kidding me?

And you do know the other deep dark dirty secret, right? A lot of the big retailers like Walmart will sell a name brand TV like a Sony at a steep discount. At first glance it will appear to be the same model that other stores have for hundreds of dollars more, but you better check those model numbers. Look for unfamiliar model numbers or extra characters in the model number. It turns out that places like Walmart are notorious for offering products that appear to be the same as what the other guys, but are of inferior quality. TVs with fewer connections and no cables in the box, computers with inferior chipsets or inadequate RAM, GPS units that look like the ones in the other store, but maybe a few features are missing, or they don’t have the full hemisphere map set, just the continental US…maybe there’s no usb connection to upgrade the maps.

I don’t want to sound like a Conspiracy Theorist or Walmart hater and I’m not…at least not the former. These are facts. Consumer advocacy groups know that the big bad blue guys play these games every year, but it doesn’t end. And that’s why people get injured or even trampled in the stampede. And that’s why all the cops in Kingston were pulling down time and a half this morning.

Forget about Black Friday sale prices. Forget about seasonal business gifts from local merchants. Forget about free coffee with your three chocolate frosted and two jellies. Nothing beats approved overtime as we roll into the holidays.

Well, the hype is behind us. Another Black Friday goes into the history books and we can hear the distillations from the so-called experts come Monday. Swell.