*sigh* I went shopping on Black Friday

[underpants]

To buy ethanol free gas

$3.30 / gallon

There is no ethanol free gas in Richmond so I figured I would get some while I was out in Valley.

[pinboy3niner]

1. We're going to have to dock you for that

Your new DU username will be 'commando.'

[AnnieBW]

25. As long as it's not "Gowan Commando"

[Siwsan]

2. I confess - I drove up to Aldis to buy some hummus and black bean salsa

I've been avoiding the stores, all week, and was ill-prepared for a visit by my vegan nephew. Plus, I was out of beer.

[underpants]

8. We are getting Aldis soon

I understand they are a "no frills" grocery store

[Siwsan]

20. It's a bring your own bags, rent a cart for a quarter sort of store

It is a great store for basic groceries and I do most of my shopping, there. They are a "sister" company to Trader Joes and they get some interesting special items in, from time to time. For the most part, it's hard to beat their prices.

[hobbit709]

3. I went by Petsmart to get dog food, then hit the grocery on the way back.

[PumpkinAle]

4. I confess I went shopping

I bought gifts for toys for tots - gifts for elderly people from work's tree and groceries for the local food bank.

And I forgot to get the milk for me So, I am of mixed feelings about shopping and adding to the commericalism, but my money did go a little further and I could buy more for the people who really need it.

[underpants]

9. Wow good for you

Sorry about the milk

http://m.sadtrombone.com/

[PumpkinAle]

21. You know I love it that we are in the position

to help others.

Thank you.

Have a super weekend.

[liberal_at_heart]

35. I didn't do any shopping today but frequently take advantage of in store sales, so we

usually have a lot of groceries on hand. This came in handy on Thanksgiving. One of my husband's friends didn't have any food left, so my husband took a big bag of food over to his house on Thanksgiving. I do like knowing I can get good deals on food and share it. I just couldn't get in the mood to do any shopping yesterday or today, but I will continue to look for in store sales at my local grocery store, stock up, and donate what I can.

[PumpkinAle]

42. Hugs for what you

you and your hubby do - that is wonderful. Thank you for doing that.

[Kali]

5. the poor husband has been to the auto parts stores twice

that is a 20 mile one way trip. he had a chance to have a mechanic do the u-joint but he said nah he would do it.

[underpants]

10. Better man than me

Only thing I know about machines is to drive and prepare to battle them someday

[Kali]

11. do it yourself repairs IS battling them!

[fizzgig]

6. i'm off to the grocery store in a bit

outta cat food and litter.

[ileus]

7. I went to advanced auto and bought 181 bucks of brake parts.

One side down.....one side to go. Break for dinner now.


My DW did hit the stores around 7 made it back home a few hours ago, only wasted 200 bucks.

[snpsmom]

12. I went to

Four local independent bookstores and an independent record store.

[mmonk]

14. I stayed home like a good little boy.

[boston bean]

15. I'm thinking that tomorrow I gotta go get some toilet paper....

didn't want to go today, but it's running a mighty low.....

I've never run out of toilet paper before (at the house).

Usually buy it by the 40 pack..... LOL

Now I'm in a bind...... Damnit to hell black Friday!

[femmocrat]

17. That counts as an emergency.

No one will hold it against you! LOL

[femmocrat]

16. I went to the local grocery store (family-owned).

They had walnuts on special. I stocked up for Christmas baking.

The place was empty.

I combined it with a trip to the P.O. to pick up the mail.

[bearssoapbox]

18. My wife went TSC and Aldis this morning.

TSC had a sale on kitty litter, $2.00 off 25lbs.(12 bags) and 40 cans cat food for $16.00. (80 cans)

Some for us and our furbanies and some for no-kill shelter.

Aldis for chocolate, eggs, milk and chocolate.

[underpants]

19. What's Aldis like?

We are getting some in town

[bearssoapbox]

22. A bare bones grocery store.

Prices are generally cheaper and the food isn't bad.

I like their soups, bread(wheat and white) cheaper than walmart, milk never went over $3.29 and one week it was $1.79gal.

I'm eating a white chocolate, coconut bar with crushed corn flakes in it. Made in Germany and surprising good. But then for me, if it has coconut in it... 7+oz. $1.39

They're having bone-in chicken breasts on Fresh Meat Wednesday $1.79lb. We've had them and they are good.

Seasonal foods, toys, home stuff like small appliances, electronics, baking pans, mitts, towels etc...

Some have wine that my wife says that some aren't bad and she can be a wine snob. They sometimes have seasonal alcohol too. Spiced wine, mulled wine, Irish Creme. ex. Vanilla Cinnamon Wine Specialty, 750ml, Imported from Ireland ???. they do have a Zinfandel from Portugal, $6.99 750ml, that my wife likes.

According to the employment ads that they have run in the paper and a couple of friends that worked and have worked there, they have a decent pay rate and benefits package.

We've been eating their food for about 20yrs.or so and we think that they compare to about anybody.

We have found that we won't buy cat food or scoopable litter there. You just have to look and compare.

I think they are worth a look-see anyhow.

https://www.aldi.us/



edit: Be prepared to box, bag your groceries. Take sacks and you can usually use empty boxes from shelves and sometimes they have empties up front.

[underpants]

27. Thanks

Lots of info. I will check it out

[bearssoapbox]

29. Your Welcome

Having a piece of pumpkin pie/their whipped topping made with their groceries right now.

The pecan pie is delicious too.

[Retrograde]

23. I walked to the neighborhood grocery and bought some milk

and I went with a friend to a local yarn store that was promoting a knit-in so customers could socialize, and bought some stuff. But I'm staying away from malls until January.

[AnnieBW]

24. We went to Staples

We ran out of black toner on our printer. Oh, and we went do dinner at Noodles and Company.

[OriginalGeek]

26. Bought two sides of veg tan tooling leather

they were less than half price and i needed the leather for some upcoming projects. Then went to the mall and picked up a game my daughter ha pre-ordered. Neither place was nearly as busy as I thought they would be. Got a parking place right up front at the mall. Then I had some sushi and went home.

All in all a pretty mundane black friday. Oh and I paid 2.66 a gallon for tank full of gas.

[underpants]

28. Sounds cool

Regular gas back in Richmond is $2.39 or so. I just wanted to get same corn free gas.

[3catwoman3]

30. I stayed home and...

...watched (and occasionally snoozed thru) the Star Trek marathon on BBC America all day. and loved every lazy minute of it. The marathon is not over yet.

[oldandhappy]

31. stayed out of the car

Walked to see two different neighbors who are house bound. Did some reading, some knitting, annoyed the cat, and ate leftovers! A fine day.

[stage left]

32. I stayed home.

Made quilted change purses for my great nieces for Christmas. Tomorrow, though, I'll be going to Aldi's. The ninja princess says her dry cat food is running dangerously low and if it runs out there will be hell to pay.

[Spirochete]

33. So did I

i had to get some potatoes. I'd forgotten about it being Black Friday, and was appalled when I finally found a parking spot and got inside. They must have packed people in there with shoehorns. Bah, humbug!

[akbacchus_BC]

34. I am very curious as am not from North America, why

is a shopping day called black friday?

[LeftyMom]

36. It used to be retail jargon, and crept into the media about ten years ago.

The "black" is in the sense of "in the black" (as opposed to red ink) ie making rather than losing money, because the Christmas shopping season makes or breaks a retailer's profits for the year in most cases.

[akbacchus_BC]

38. Thank you LeftyMom

for the explanation. I still do not understand, do people just go out an buy things that they cannot afford just because it is a holiday?

[LeftyMom]

39. I think you might get a weird sense of it from DU, because scolding is what DU does best.

Traditionally here's how it works: the stores put out bigger than normal advertising circulars in the Thursday paper (on Thanksgiving day, when most stores were closed, although lately a few are open in places where this is allowed) advertising relatively steep discounts mixed in with relatively normal sale prices, sometimes with a few very heavily discounted "doorbuster" items that are in very limited quantities or only available for a limited time when the store opens on Friday. If there's a hard-to-get item like a new game system they'll often advertise that they'll have at least X available per store. So people line up for those items before the store opens. The store gets free publicity when the media reports on the lines forming (which they reliably do because most years the only other "news" is terrible weather causing flight delays and traffic.)

These days the model is broken up a bit by the stores opening on Thursday, with sale items being available online before the store opens, by ad circulars being available online weeks in advance. But the sales are popular, at least partly because people have a three day weekend and the weather in most of the country is reliably terrible at this time of year. A surprising number of people go out and buy very little- my mother and sister went out in the middle of the night last year and all they bought was makeup and boots. I thought that was nuts but I guess they had fun.

As to whether people can afford their purchases or not? I would argue that's a larger question about Christmas shopping and not so much related to a very heavily media-hyped shopping day. If anything because of the heavily promoted sales this is probably more a day where people are trying to stick to their budget and focus on getting deals, where the weekend before Christmas (the actual busiest shopping days of the year, generally) will probably see a lot more debt-fueled purchasing by people who have burned through the shopping budget.

[akbacchus_BC]

40. Thanks LeftyMom for the explanation. It is happening here in Canada too, I could not understand why

people would go line up the day after Christmas for bargains at 4.00 am in the morning. Guess some people need to trample other people to get what they want. Me, no, I could never do that, however, if that is how some people could afford to get what they want, hats off to them. We live and learn and tolerate as well!

[Warpy]

37. Gas here was $2.39 the last time I looked. It's most likely lower now

and will be still lower on Monday.

My little car does just fine on gasohol. It's also nice not to see a thick, brown cloud hanging over the valley in the wintertime, happening only a few days a winter when there is a serious temperature inversion.

My shopping was limited to a prescription and a wheat free pizza at Costco.

Traffic was very light today, so I don't think Black Friday got many stores into the black.

[LeftyMom]

41. I went to Goodwill and bought lamps and books,

and to Sears (which was nuts, but I'm moving and I need them ASAP) to buy mattresses, and to the auto parts store for oil and filters and brake pads.

I'm not convinced that waiting until tomorrow (when I'm going to be busy anyhow) to buy stuff I need anyhow is striking a blow against consumerism. If you need stuff and it's a good deal, go get it. If you just want stuff maybe think about it first. Every day.