TRU Black Friday Ads - Jetwing Optimus Prime, Prime:RID, Kre-O

well. i need that jetwing prime.

And here we have the eternal struggle. Do you buy figures when they're released to support the brand or do you wait for deals like this to save some money?

chuckdawg1999 wrote:And here we have the eternal struggle. Do you buy figures when they're released to support the brand or do you wait for deals like this to save some money?

Both - BOGO means twice as many TFs to put in the Toys-for-Tots bin!

Thursday at 5:00 pm? Seriously?

I hate the continued encroachment on my Thanksgiving family time.

Caelus wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:And here we have the eternal struggle. Do you buy figures when they're released to support the brand or do you wait for deals like this to save some money?

Both - BOGO means twice as many TFs to put in the Toys-for-Tots bin!

Nah. I got my Toys-for-Tots TF figures at Olly's and Five Below for $5 a pop



As for them opening at 5pm on Thanksgiving.... You won't catch me there. Or at any store for that matter. I'll be with family, stuffing myself. There isn't a deal out there worth my wasting a family gathering over.

Erailea wrote:

Caelus wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:And here we have the eternal struggle. Do you buy figures when they're released to support the brand or do you wait for deals like this to save some money?

Both - BOGO means twice as many TFs to put in the Toys-for-Tots bin!

Nah. I got my Toys-for-Tots TF figures at Olly's and Five Below for $5 a pop

Also a great idea - I will have to remember to skim through TJMaxx and Marshall's for more TFPrime 1st Edition figures. I wish I'd been thinking about it last weekend when I saw that Starscream for $5.

megatronus wrote:Thursday at 5:00 pm? Seriously?

I hate the continued encroachment on my Thanksgiving family time.

I don't see how it is an encroachment on your Thanksgiving family time as nobody is making you leave your family to go shopping.

megatronus wrote:

LOST Cybertronian wrote:

megatronus wrote:Thursday at 5:00 pm? Seriously?

I hate the continued encroachment on my Thanksgiving family time.

I don't see how it is an encroachment on your Thanksgiving family time as nobody is making you leave your family to go shopping.

Nobody is making me leave my family, but I do have a problem with stores opening earlier and earlier each year to accommodate Black Friday craziness. I find it obnoxious, and that's my right.

I will second that whole-heartedly. It's on par with taking something that is sacred/respected and totally trivializing it, belittling it and straight-up sh***ing all over it for the sake of making a quick buck. It's immoral, it's offensive and the worst part is, entirely too much of the population is partaking in it which lends even further to my opinion that the human species is one of the lowest, degenerate forms of life on this planet.

That's just my opinion, many of you wont like it or understand why I'm so adamant about it but then a lot of you would sell out your own families for pieces of "plastic crack".

Back to the ad though... there's not a darn thing on there worth venturing out in the mindless cluster-**** that is Black Friday shopping. I've got enough Primes, I don't need another one that badly and TRU's selection of Generations figures has been sucking lately and I don't see them doing anything but peddling TF:Prime shelf-warmers up until the week before Christmas. It could be "buy 1, get 3 free" and I'd STILL pass on everything they have in stock. It's not worth risking an assault charge just for some toys.

T-Macksimus wrote:It's on par with taking something that is sacred/respected and totally trivializing it, belittling it and straight-up sh***ing all over it for the sake of making a quick buck. It's immoral, it's offensive and the worst part is, entirely too much of the population is partaking in it which lends even further to my opinion that the human species is one of the lowest, degenerate forms of life on this planet.

That's just my opinion, many of you wont like it or understand why I'm so adamant about it but then a lot of you would sell out your own families for pieces of "plastic crack".

Actually, that raises some questions that have long bothered me about Black Friday sales:

1. What portion of Black Friday shoppers are buying items for themselves, as opposed to others, or for their families as a whole?

2. What portion of Black Friday shoppers are able to take off a day outside of a holiday weekend, to go Christmas shopping?

3. What portion of Black Friday shoppers are in an economic bracket where they feel they can afford to pass up the deals offered on Black Friday?

I've long had some concern that the door-buster Friday-only Black Friday sales are coercive/exploitative of the upper-lower to lower-middle SES classes, which is deplorable, but if I'm right in thinking that most BF shoppers are not privileged individuals, then the blame is not something that should be shuffled onto the consumers. I do not know if that's the case though, which actually has me wanting to rush a survey to the IRB now.

Oh, and there's two other relevant questions that bug me:

4. What portion of Black Friday shoppers recognize Thanksgiving as a 'true' holiday?

5. Among those who do observe Thanksgiving, how many have something better to do on Friday?


That this post initially turned into what could be a good page or two of a research proposal tells me that it's a complicated scenario that I think has a lot to tell us about American culture and society.

I'm kinda tired of people complaining about stores encroaching on the "sacred" holiday of Thanksgiving.

A) Thanksgiving is a secular holiday; there's nothing sacred about it. We eat our Butterball turkeys and our canned cranberry sauce and watch NFL football.

B) For many families, Thanksgiving dinner is eaten early, and then everyone passes out while watching football. Going shopping for a couple hours in the evening isn't taking away from any meaningful family time.

C) Shopping can be a fun family activity. Maybe the women take the kids shopping while the husbands bond at home over football. Or maybe my brother-in-law and I take the kids toy shopping. Some families get a big kick out of waiting in line together for the stores to open. Those can be great bonding moments, just as good as anything you'd be doing at home.

D) Some of us would LOVE an excuse to get out of the house and away from the family, even if just for an hour. We all love our families, but c'mon. There are limits.

E) The original Thanksgiving was supposedly a celebration of their bountiful harvest. They weren't celebrating all the family they had, they were celebrating all the FOOD they had. In a way, Thanksgiving is a holiday where we celebrate CONSUMPTION, in all its forms. Maybe going shopping and spending our hard-earned money on a bounty of goods is perfectly appropriate!