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Looks like Microsoft weathered the first “oh God will we sell any Xbox 360s in this economy?” storm last week, and then some. Redmond sold 25 percent more Xboxen this Black Friday weekend then it did last year, which was well before the general public had their 401(k)s on their mind. The Xbox 360, we’re told, outsold the PS3 by a three-to-one ratio, which isn’t exactly surprising. Outside of being an inexpensive Blu-ray player—a really inexpensive Blu-ray player if your credit is still good—can you name three reasons to buy a PS3? Outside of Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet, I’m struggling.
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[image credit: Farriella for the NY Daily News]
I was hoping we’d make it through this Black Friday without one of these incidents, but unfortunately it’s happened again: If you haven’t heard already, a worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart was crushed underneath the feet of hundreds of shoppers while trying to hold back the crowd. Shopping events are notoriously dangerous in this way, but I’d hoped people would have learned by now to be more careful, or at least help the poor man up. Instead, they thronged over and around him and he was pronounced dead at the hospital this morning. Shocking.
Our condolences to the man’s family and friends.
From here
We received our first Black Friday report this morning from Florida where Best Buy was doing business as usual. Our spy went to the store at 4am and found no crowds or pushing. In a considerably sadder situation, a worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart was crushed and a woman miscarried. Holy crap, right?
That said, tell us what you saw today in your travels. Email us at tips@cg or drop a note in comments. I’ll go first: Today is my son’s birthday party and we found the little party supply store down the street to be completely empty. We were able to buy our balloons unscathed.
The longer we’ve had the Debaufre Aircraft-8 the more I’m convinced that these guys have finally gotten things right. For about the same price as a higher-end quartz you can get an ETA or Unitas mechanical watch with some nice styling. I’m still not happy with the B&R and Rolex knock offs on there, but it’s fairly common practice to create “homages” when you’re trying to build brand awareness.
Debaufre is selling their unique CSAR watch with Unitas hand-wind movement for $420. This is one of their most unique styles and I can recommend them for men and, interestingly enough, women: my wife wears the Aircraft-8 daily now.
Get thee to the Applery – or MacMall, MacConnection, or, better yet, Amazon – for some great deals on MacBooks, MB Pros, and iMacs. The Mac Pro, for example, is going for $284 off list at Amazon, making it about $2,500.
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Turns out you actually DON’T really have to sit in the cold hoping to get a magic ticket so you can buy Best Buy’s Friday doorbusters because a bunch of stuff that’s available in the stores is also available on Best Buy’s website. Most notably, you can get a 52-inch Samsung 1080p LCD TV with professional installation for $1,499, a 50-inch Panasonic 720p plasma TV for $899, and the Magellan Roadmate 1212 GPS for $79.
Actually showing up at your local store will still get you some good exclusives, though, like an HP notebook with free printer for $349, a Toshiba Satellite notebook for $379, a Dynex 32-inch LCD HDTV for $399, and, most importantly, Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey on Wii for $9.99. The stores open at 5 AM, the online stuff is available now.
Best Buy Friday Doorbuster Specials [BestBuy.com]
If you’re either still awake on Thursday night or have just woken up early Friday morning and you’re getting set to head out to hunt for some video game deals, you might be able to get most of your purchases taken care of from the comfort, warmth, and non-threatening glow of your home computer.
Starting at 3 AM Eastern, Amazon.com will be showing just about every retailer how it’s done when it comes to Black Friday sales.
Here’s a list of what’ll be available:
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Black Friday can be a tiring, stressful, and overwhelming ordeal. Here’s a list of which stores have the best deals on some of the top items for the holiday shopping season, along with our picks for Best All-Around Store, Biggest Disappointment, Biggest No-Show Product, Most Ubiquitous Bundle, and Most Confusing Ad.
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Well, this is a great deal… if you were in the market for a gaming notebook, which I suspect not too many people are. Which is probably why Alienware is pushing them like they’re HD-DVD players in January of ‘08.
Still, a solid gaming machine is a good machine in most every aspect, so if you’re looking for something quick, well-equipeed, and likely heavy, they start at about $1400 — $1200 with the extra savings. There’s also free shipping until the end of December, so hop to it.
Lady and gentlemen (get it, one lady?) I give you Walmart’s Black Friday ad, home of the $128 Blu-ray player and the $798 50-inch plasma TV. Notable deals include:
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Apparently there will be at least two Staples ads for Black Friday this year – each being specific to a certain region or regions of the country. You’ll probably know which ad circular you’re dealing with by this upcoming Sunday but until then, here are some good deals from both of the available leaked Staples circulars so far. Keep in mind that some of these deals might not apply to you depending upon where you live.
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In the ultimate test to see whether or not Blu-ray is ready for mainstream adoption, Wal-Mart will be selling a Magnavox player for $128. If it creates stampedes like Wal-Mart’s $29 DVD player from 2003, we’ll know Blu-ray is here to stay. If people casually mosey over to the electronics department, glance at the tag, and head elsewhere, we’ll know that the high-definition downloading initiative is in full swing.
Micro Center has apparently decided to beat the Black Friday rush by offering up some pretty enticing deals this coming weekend. There’s a small catch, of course: you’ll need to get your hands on a special coupon this Saturday. These coupons “will be distributed to customers in the line prior to store opening, or in the order of entering the store until gone” and must be redeemed by 2:00 PM on Saturday.
Stores will open at 10:00 on Saturday and, again, you’ll have to get there in time to grab a coupon. If you have a Micro Center near you and are willing and able to follow all the rules, there are some pretty outstanding savings to be had, such as:
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Wow, Kmart will be open from 7AM to 9PM on Thanksgiving Day, which should leave just enough time for employees to make the traditional super late-night Thanksgiving dinner with their families. The store’s ads are spread out across four circulars, so here are some of the better deals from each:
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We’re admittedly a little late on the uptake for this one but in case you missed it, here are some good deals from Radio Shack’s leaked Black Friday ad:
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Office Max looks to be a good stop to add to your list, as the store will have some pretty aggressive deals on various products, including:
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Costco will have a three-day in-store sale from November 28-30 along with online-only deals from now until December 15th. These in-store deals look okay, but not great:
- SmartParts 10.4-inch digital picture frame for $99
- Olympus FE-370 8-megapixel digital camera with 1GB SD card and case for $119
- $100 to $300 off of various LCD TVs
- Magellan RoadMate 1212 GPS for $99
- iHome iH27 iPod speaker dock for $49
- SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB for $59
Here’s the full list of items and here are the scans of the ads.
Target’s Black Friday ad got leaked over the weekend and in true CrunchGear form, here it is on Monday. Notable deals inside include:
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So Photoshop was our nemesis this holiday season: the bundle in the “leaked” Sam’s Club ad is not $224 for a Wii and a bunch of games it’s $425. Not great but not bad, either. Considering the Wii itself will cost $249, less than $200 more for two games, three Wiimotes, and three Nunchucks isn’t bad.
BlackFriday.info just posted Circuit City’s Black Friday ad. Hopefully the company will live to see next year’s ad, too. Some notable good deals:
- SanDisk 1GB MP3 Player Express for $16.99
- HP Pavilion laptop for $399
- Good deals on video games
- DVDs from $3.99
- $100 off select Garmin GPS units
- $99 Tom Tom GPS
- Blu-ray discs from $8.99
- SmartParts 5.6-inch digital photo frame for $41.99
