FORGET BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY

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TARGET STORES UP TO THEIR OLD TRICKS
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The Target Atlantic Avenue Store

We never go out on Black Friday or even shop on Cyber Monday. What a disappointment when we went all the way out to Brooklyn on Friday to the Target store on Atlantic Avenue for our first ever Black Friday sale. Target advertised a HD television at the best price that we have ever seen before. I think it was a 42 inch HD for $459.00. They advertised Blenders and Toasters for 3 bucks. They advertised high quality towels for a couple of bucks. Since we rarely leave Manhattan, I thought at these prices, maybe I should get out our passports and hop on a subway to Brooklyn. What a huge mistake. On a cold and windy day, I arrived at the Target store and the first thing I saw when we walked in was a bunch of sales people standing around with a stack of Televisions. I thought, great, let me grab a TV at their sales price. I asked for the advertised HD Television and the sales people looked at me like I was nuts. They said they were all out and tried to sell me a much smaller television at a higher price than the advertised big one. We were pissed. Since we had a fire at our Home-Times Square Gossip offices a few weeks ago, we had decided to just redecorate everything from top to bottom. Everything from towels to televisions, from blenders to toasters. We are doing it all. We looked at the salespeople and told them this was not right, that we came all the way from Times Square for their so-called sales. They just did not seem to care one bit. So as not to waste the trip, we decided to get the other sale items. Nothing. They had nothing. No three buck blender, no three buck toaster and no towels on sale. I grabbed some other salespeople walking around and they told me I should come back tomorrow. What a crock of crap. It was 12 noon on Black Friday. It was a two day sale. Out of everything. We ended up leaving with a box of frozen egg bagels and went back to the city. Besides, the Targets store was a mess with salespeople standing around talking when they should have been stocking the shelves and cleaning. Now it's Cyber Monday. I'm looking at all the ads. I can not believe how many stores are advertising products and when I click to buy, it says out of stock online. Are they kidding me? It's a online sale. Dell sends me a e-mail saying the hottest deals of the season for Cyber Monday. I found the same computer on Walmart's site for less. Forget Black Friday, forget Cyber Monday. It's all crap. If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. A smart shopper will compare prices online at several stores and wait for the right time to buy. This year it will be after Christmas, because I think these retailers are going to have a very hard season. Money is tight and the customer is getting smarter and looking for real deals. And while we are at it Target, your billboards in Times Square are a joke. You cover one building with your logo's and it does not have your stores name. Do you think our tourists know what your logo means? It took us a while to figure out it was Target. At least put your store name. You need to fire your ad agency!

One more note on Staples. They advertise their Cyber Monday. Buy twenty five bucks worth of Sharpies, get twenty five off. So in reality you should be getting the Sharpies for free, except for shipping. Website kept telling me coupon was not valid. I double checked and it said offer expires Nov. 30th. Another ripoff!