People Still Go to Stores to Shop?

The last couple of days I've gotten and oddly perverse sense of satisfaction in seeing Best Buy fall on their face yet again, this time by not fulfilling orders placed a month ago and only letting their customers know about it now. No doubt most of the items were Christmas gifts so now people are left in the lurch to scramble for something at the last minute. And with times as tough as they are for many, people have been pinching every last penny that they can so now if they want to get the same item they'll have to pony up extra money and will be forced to buy it at a brick & mortar shop instead of ordering online because, well, there's just not enough time to get stuff shipped out before Christmas. This is going to be a PR nightmare and could be the final straw that pushes people not only away from Best Buy but from the online outlet of other brick & mortar retailers.

I long ago gave up on Best Buy after numerous headaches that they put me through. At times, I thought they were making it their mission to make people's lives as headache-ridden as possible. I also gave up on the whole Black Friday shopping madness that has become so much more ridiculous than I ever would have expected in the last couple of years.

It really baffles me that people will "use" (I hesitate to use the word "waste") so much of their time to line up and wait outside of a store to save a few more bucks on something than if they bought it elsewhere or online, and then they're not always guaranteed to get what they want. And since people are doing everything they can to save a buck the chaos at stores, as seen through too many a YouTube clip, is becoming unmanageable no matter how stores try to curb the nutso environment that minimal savings bring out in people.

Maybe I've started looking at things a little too logically, but my time is worth more than the few dollars I'll save on a bottom-of-the-line LCD TV or some Blurays of movies I've already seen. I'd rather pay the extra few bucks it might cost me to get them non-Black Friday and save myself the insanity of Black Friday shopping.

But what happened with Best Buy this time around wasn't with their in store purchases from Black Friday--it was in regards to their online sales, confirmed online sales to boot. It's not like people ordered something, got a confirmation of the order's completion, and then received a cancellation shortly thereafter--it was a month later. I've had situations where I've bought something online during a crazy sale and got an email after my "purchase" stating they're out of stock or that there were more orders than they could fill. I have no problem with that. This was a month later, though...

...and to kick people in the junk while they're down, many of the items being "cancelled" are readily available for purchase online right now at BestBuy.com for their regular price. So it looks even more like a retailer is just trying to screw over their customers, eroding any potential loyalty they may have left.

I know I'm rambling, but it's crap like this that has ultimately pushed me to do all of my shopping nearly exclusively through Amazon. I have yet to be let down price-wise, service-wise, or communication-wise by them. And with Amazon Prime, nearly everything I order arrives 2 days later at my doorstep. I'm amazed that Amazon hasn't put the likes of Best Buy completely out of business by this point.

Anyhow, I guess what I'm trying to say is, "Shame on you, Best Buy. I hope you do your damnedest to make it right with the customers you screwed..." and that I'm ultimately, I'm plugging Amazon because they've been everything that a retailer should be.

The Day After

I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year. For me, it was a pretty low key last few days. I went back to the Hayfield area to stay with my parents Saturday through Christmas. It was nice being back and since I was there for four days it almost felt like I was on a school break, like back in the good ol' days.

It didn't necessarily feel totally like Christmas, though. There were actually a lot of reasons that contributed to it, but the biggest was probably that I just didn't get into the Christmas "spirit" this year, no doubt to a combination of December being a very busy month, the dark economic cloud hanging over everyone's heads, and this being the first Christmas in a long time that I've spent single.

Also with my brother, Randy, not being able to be home for Christmas, we didn't really celebrate on the 25th. We decided to celebrate Christmas as a family next weekend when he'll be back home and we can all be together as a family, which is how it should be, and always has been. Of course, some day us boys will have our own families that we'll spend Christmas Day with, but it's not looking like that's going to be a likely scenario for a while yet. It was still very nice to spend time with my mom, dad, and littlest brother, Ryan, especially since I don't see them as much as I'd like to.

Oddly, church also didn't seem very Christmas-y. Sure, not much has changed, but then again, enough has to make it feel unfamiliar, and when you're looking for something familiar, that definitely feels odd. The church I grew up in has now switched hymnals, service pieces, and songs so even though the structure and general components that I know are there, they're all presented differently. And to top it off, on Christmas Eve service there was no "Joy to the World" sung, which has been a tradition since I can remember going to Christmas Eve service. It left the night feeling, well, somewhat unfulfilled. It's odd how just having one song not there can change the feeling associated with an event so much.

Of course, it sounds like I'm just complaining and being a negative nancy, so I don't want everyone thinking I hate Christmas or that Christmas this year sucked--it didn't. It was just different. I couldn't have been happier snowed in with the 'rents during the whiteout that we had on Sunday (we seriously couldn't see across the yard at times), watching football, napping, catching up, and simply taking time to decompress from our hectic everyday lives. It's not often that we do get a whole day to kick back, turn our brains on low, and indulge ourselves in a little old fashioned sloth.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, no matter how you spent it. It hasn't been Christmas for me yet. We'll be having it a week late. Who said you had to celebrate Christmas only on the 25th? Not me.

Christmas Shopping...

...is something I usually try to have done, if at all possible, before Thanksgiving. This year I didn't quite make it, and I was so far behind that I had to do the majority of my shopping this last weekend. Shopping in the couple of weekends before Christmas, especially in a mall environment where everyone goes because they don't know what to get people and hope to the heavens above that they'll stumble across something for whoever they have to buy crap for (that's why I was there, at least). Every store was packed with people, and not just every day people--these are holiday shopping mutants.

Everyone seems to transform into another, less sane, more aggressive, impatient form of him or herself. I don't mind taking my time when I'm shopping. Being rushed is not that much fun and it's not as if there aren't enough deadlines to meet while I'm at work, so giving myself artificial timelines when I'm doing something that's supposed to be enjoyable just seems ridiculous.

I did manage to brave through the crowds and get the majority of my shopping done. I still have no clue what to get my parents, but it's pretty much an established fact that parents are the hardest people on the planet to shop for. And, of course, I did some shopping for myself while I was out and about, mostly new clothes and the third season of Lost (almost finished with the first season...).

Each year for the last few I've made a habit of getting myself new dress clothes at JC Penny. The reason why... their wonderful $10 off a purchase of at least $10 coupons. My family collects a bunch of them and then puts them all to great use. See, I find one article of clothing that I want, check out using the coupon so that whatever I'm getting is close to free, go find the next article of clothing I want, check out with just that one item with my next coupon, then repeat until out of coupons. This year I ended up with 4 new dress shirts and a pair of gray suit pants for around $35. No complaints here.

One other interesting thing I noted while trying to find something for my roommate is the single anomaly in the Minnesota teams sports store. This store is a great place to go to for anything related to Minnesota sports teams. They have Wild, Timberwolves, University of Minnesota, Twins, and other Minnesota sports related items that make great gifts. However, in one corner of the store there was something that stuck out as not quite belonging--a rack of Kevin Garnett jerseys... as a Celtic. I wonder if they sell more of those jerseys than they do of jerseys for actual Minnesota Timberwolves players. I'd guess yes.

Now, with my shopping adventures behind me, I will be plenty happy to not have to visit a mall for at least a month or two, if not longer. I'm done being a consumer for the foreseeable future!

Lonely Halloween

Having Halloween in the middle of the week just isn't as fun as when it comes on a weekend. No one really wants to go do anything on Halloween when it comes on a Wednesday. I finished with a long day of work and knew I had a long day of work the next day so the last thing I really wanted to do was find somewhere to go out to and "celebrate" the holiday. If it was a Friday or Saturday, sure, I would have tried to do something interesting, but it was a freakin' Wednesday, probably the lamest day of the week. So I stayed home to hand out candy to kids...

...only not a single kid showed up. I live on a pretty main road and am only about 6 blocks from two different schools, so I figured I'd have at least a few little rugrats show up. I even know some of the people living on my block have kids, so at the least I thought they'd stop by. Instead, nothing. I had my porch light on, was upstairs watching TV in the main floor living room, and waited from 5:30 until 8:30 for any trick-or-treaters to come by. No one did, though.

It's a little sad that my whole night was spent looking forward to giving little kids I don't know candy that their parents probably don't want them to have in the first place, but I always remember Halloween being a fun day, so I wanted to pass some of that fun back on to the little ones in my neighborhood.

I talked with my parents to see if they got any kids out on the farm and they also didn't have a soul stop by. My mom mentioned that a lot of the schools, churches, and other kids groups in their area had Halloween activities that they did instead of trick-or-treating. That's cool, I guess, since kids aren't running around town but... dammit, I wanted to give away some of the candy I had building up in the house! Since I couldn't push it off on to kids, now I'm stuck with it and Lord knows I have no will power when it comes to candy. I might as well get prepared to put on a few more pounds. *Sigh*

It's Halloween!

Halloween is one of those under appreciated holidays, at least in my mind. Sure, you don't get any days off for Halloween and the traditions seem aimed at younger kids, but it's still a fun holiday. If anything it should lighten up the day a little bit and make things a bit more fun.

For example, when I went to visit Caribou this morning for my coffee fix, all of the employees were dressed up in different costumes. It was neat and they seemed to be having fun! Kristi was having a Wizard of Oz theme at her work. They decorated their cubicle area and turned the place into a veritable corporate Oz. I can only imagine that it kept things a little more light hearted for the day.

And then there's my workplace. I work for an accounting firm and, as the fates would have it, accountants are allergic to fun. As I get in to work today the only thing different than any other day is the candy dish at the front desk has more candy in it than usual. Everyone is still dressed in suits and business attire. There are no decorations anywhere. It's the same drab environment we're always in.

The same will go for other holidays. When Christmas comes, there are no decorations or Christmas cheer--it's just business as usual. It really shows the difference between the uptight corporate work atmosphere and the atmosphere of companies where fun has not been banned. I want to have that cheesy Halloween crap, as odd as it sounds.

Hopefully I can at least bring some cheer to some kids this evening handing out candy to trick or treaters...

...oh crap, I need to buy candy!