Your Black Friday purchase

[22hornet]

Just bought some down sleeves from JacksRBetter, more to come I'm sure. Jim

[Squid In The Woods]

Already done. Passed on a potential $20-30 savings and just purchased my 0°+1oz Incubator. Beat the rush and will have nothing to do Friday

Did the same thing myself except on a 20 incubator. Don't mind paying full price when it's a high quality item from a great company.

[Greddy]

Can some please explain the origin of Black Friday just curious

[Irishjihad]

Can some please explain the origin of Black Friday just curious

It's the day after our (U.S.) Thanksgiving holiday which is next Thursday. In the retail world it marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and many/most traditional stores have sales and "doorbusters", which are extreme deals on small quantities of particularly appealing items to entice more people/nutcases. As someone who hates crowds, I basically hide at home. Cyber Monday is a more recent invention by web-based stores, particularly tech oriented ones, and is the same idea, but on the following Monday.

[sunsetkayaker]

I think it started because people just had nothing else to do on the Friday after Thanksgiving. So since it was already a big shopping day, the stores started adding big deals to get more money from more people sooner.

[humer91]

Black Friday traditionally was the day after Thanksgiving when due to sales, retailers went from being in the red (losing money) to being in the black (true profit)

[OneClick]

Gotta love it! A great day to wake up in the middle of the night, fight crazy traffic, possibly get trampled by a mob, buy a bunch of junk electronics for 1/9th the price of a decent product and watch it die 7 months later.

I love staying home and enjoying some coffee and TV, killing time online, maybe hike if there's snow, and know where my extra $200 went on a good TV when it's still working like new 10+ years down the road.

[pgibson]

Another even more recent movement that grows each year is Shop Small. It's promoted by American Express Credit cards and tries to get folks out in support of small business. With so much focus from Black Friday being channelled by large box stores and national retailers Shop small instead helps to direct folks to support local and mom and pop stores that the economy stands on. Where many of the vendors that participate here on HF are considered cottage internet business I think that Shop Small is a great mantra for folks to remember. Many of us smaller shops only survive by word of mouth and participation through forums like HF.

This year as I have in the past I will be posting my Shop Small recommendations. These are the stores that I shop at myself. Some of them are member based cottage shops from here on HF, some are not, but they are all small mom and pop---your dollars keep the lights turned on and heat coming out of the furnace this winter---type of stores.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday this next week.

[paulw]

just pulled the trigger yesterday on a new river long 4 season, my first u.q. 25% off sale . after doing my head in with research. bottom line it came down to $$$$ so for a full length quilt I think I got a bargin.

[Hobopelican]

, Mr. Arrowhead.

Actually, since I'm still pretty new to hanging, I've made a number of recent purchases just prior to some of the big savings. 10 to 20% savings if I had waited for the deals. But i don't regret it a bit. The dealings I've had with the "cottage vendors" here have been amazing. I'm good with paying full price for great gear and service.

That being said...I'm hoping to find a nice (and really cheap!) bad weather tarp to add to my kit!