November 26, 2010
What recession? Shoppers eat up Black Friday deals
Sharply reduced prices on flat-screen TVs helped fuel many stores' sales, according to Marshal Cohen, market research analyst at NPD Group Inc. Stores were grappling with a glut of TVs heading into the season because they had overestimated consumer demand.
Let's travel back in time to the Black Friday just before the latest recession began (December 2007).
November 23, 2007
Strong Black Friday showing for retail shares on Wall Street
Shoppers wrestle for discounted items at Circuit City, whose stock rose the most since 1980 on a 19% gain.
How did that ultimately work out for Circuit City?
November 10, 2008
Circuit City files for bankruptcy
Struggling electronics chain Circuit City announced Monday that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
We tend to replace a TV only when it dies. That's how we've reached retirement age on only our fourth telly. The first was a little black-and-white Italian job - lovely styling. For a while we had a second small black-and-white, a present from someone who wanted rid of it and couldn't be bothered to take it to the tip. Then there was the colour TV that my mother bought us when she became fed up of having to watch black-and-white when she visited us. Then there's the present one.
ReplyDeleteMind you, we don't watch a lot. In particular, we hardly ever watch the news.
dearieme,
ReplyDeleteFor what it is worth, I once played video games on computers but these days I use a game console hooked up to a TV.
Like you, I stick with the same TV until it fails (or the failing picture tube becomes annoying). I've purchased 3 since graduating college in 1987, the last one being my first big screen LCD a few years ago. It is expected to last 20,000 hours but since I am a game addict and my unemployed girlfriend loves cable TV, that might not be all that many years, lol. Sigh.
In the grand scheme of things, the cost of the TVs is swamped by the cost of cable. Our monthly bills are ridiculous. If I was living alone I'd revert back to basic cable or rabbit ears.
My black friday buys:
ReplyDelete-two pop up drain assemblies for a new bathroom sink that would not fit
-one flexible bathroom sink assembly to circumvent the issues with the one size ones
-new rubber gasket due to the one that comes with the assembly being too small for the sink
Total: $80 and plenty annoyed.
At least the new sink, vanity, light fixtures are in. Not bad for 8 hours work, HA!
GYSC,
ReplyDeleteIs this a Mastercard ad for our new economy? ;)
Two Chinese drain assemblies, one Chinese sink assembly, and one Chinese rubber gasket... $80
8 hours of American work... priceless!
We had cable for a while but then they started cancelling all the interesting channels. First the French and German channels went - intended by us To Improve the daughter - then the gorgeous Italian girls on a channel devoted to some sort of game shows, then the Spanish channel that carried the bull-fighting. Bah, we went back to free on-air channels.
ReplyDeletedearieme,
ReplyDeleteI assume that the price of cable was dropping as the interesting channels were disappearing. So what's the problem? ;)