Abandon Consumerism, embrace family and friends and nature.  Try and make your holiday season Consumerism-Free:

[] Buy nothing, but give away items you currently own that you know others in your life would truly enjoy.  Better yet, make your gifts from non-commercial items—try and revive your creativity, if still possible.
[] Explain to your children how Consumerism is highly addictive and has ruined many otherwise healthy relationships and marriages.
[] Before-hand, tell those in your life while you will be refusing all newly purchased/processed products.
[] Keep your consumerist shopping habits limited to just 2 days per month, and limit your spending to less than 2% of your monthly disposable income.
[] When you do shop, *always* visit thrift stores first, and big-box stores least.  And, when you shop big-box, engage employees about unionization and exposing the unfair labor practices they might witness.

It’s not easy to help the Consumerist junkies in your life, especially when almost everyone is doing it.  But, a healthy, sustainable lifestyle can be yours:  just skip shopping whenever possible.

Love the addicts in your life.
But, make them stop their destructive lifestyle.
Holiday Seasons should be free seasons.

Good luck with that .rob.

Well, as for me, I need a second desktop computer and a new monitor (my current CRT monitor is starting to get the wavers on the screen), so I personally will be taking Best Buy up on their Black Friday offer of that 17” Flat Panel and the eMachines. The eMachines of course shall be restaged and turned into either A) a MythTV box or B) a cheap media file server.

As for what Rob said...I already belong to a union and I already am part of freecycle.org

On Fatwallet, there was a rumor about one of the doorbusters being a dual core laptop for under $500.  I’m hoping to pick up some TV shows on dvd for cheap.  I’ll probably snag an lcd if there’s one left.

The local bestbuy is going to sell Westinghouse 22” Widescreen Flat-Panel TFT-LCD Monitors for $200 (Retail $500)

Finally, something worthy (and cheap enough) to replace my Dell 21” CRT.

It’s weird to see this (I’m doing seasonal work in Shipping and Recieving at the moment).

I’m actually surprised by some of the things they carried. I found a copy of a collaboration between Sunn0))) and Boris the other day. Score.

Craigslist.com, far more inexpensive, tax-free, and it keeps the dollars away from BigBusiness.  So, so old-fashion.  In 30yrs the sheep will be seen for what they are.

Good luck with that, too.

;-]

“Why must we children work in the fields to help bring in the national-crop?  I remember when my parents used to have high-income retail jobs at the quicki-mart!  This nation has gone 3rd world!”
-the future awaits
-keep wasting income

You’re assuming I want to keep my dollars away from BigBusiness.

BigBusiness= lower prices, better selection and more convenience.

I got back from a Mexican Riviera cruise last a couple of weeks ago.  There were 2,200 gay men on a cruise ship, who’s pool deck had been converted into a top notch disco.  Top shelf DJs every night with a huge sound and lighting system.  Normally there is only one cruise director, we had three of them; the cruise director from Atlantis Events (who chartered the cruise), the normal ship’s cruise director (a straight woman on her first gay cruise), and the Royal Carribean chief cruise director (who is also gay).  It was a week long party.

When in Acapulco we went on a bus tour. The first stop was the El Mirador Acapulco Hotel, where we saw the cliff divers—I can now say that I saw them. 

The worst part was that the tour guide was very proud when he said that we were now entering the NEW Acapulco, the FUTURE of Mexico.  The 21st Century Acapulco features the world’s largest Wall*Mart (the tour guide was especially proud of that), KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, and many of the other chain stores that litter the landscape of the US.  I found it very sad that they were putting their future in crass consumerism.

I found it very sad that they were putting their future in crass consumerism.

I know.  Shame on the natives for wanting what we have.  Besides, it completely screws up that whole U.S. is evil thing too.

I would don’t begrudge them Wall*Mart, KFC, McDonalds, or Burger King, and there was no shortage of W*M, KFC, McD’s, or BK stores in Acapulco. Hell, I LOVE to see the US exporting goods and culture. 

I found it odd that the tour guide essentially said that the future of Acapulco was based upon US discount stores and fast food.

What do we have?

By and large, all i see are fat people surrounded by lots of plastic with every-decreasing attention spans, increasingly incapable of empathy or unemotional discourse.  The generations of today are mere shadows of our forefathers’ amitions and abilities.

Help me see the beauty in that kind of America.

I’m sorry rob, but I just don’t feel like I have to live up to your expectations on what sort of American I could be. That’s one of the great things about living in a free society.

Wow. In England, black friday just means that it’s raining. Again.

Thanks for the info on Black Friday. I’ll be at the local Best Buy about 5AM. And crass commercialism is not all that’s it’s cracked up to be, but it’s SO decadent! You have to love that about it. 

These are the pleasures no one can get living in Russia or communist china.

Capitalism. It’s the only way to live the ostentatious life!

@ leguru,
i’ll be there at 5pm on thanxgivin, if u show up at 5am on BF, good luck on getting what u want....

@ the non-american
i didnt think our addiction to wasting money/ consumerism was your problem......, i reserve the right to spend my money however i want, whether it be electronics or philipino hookers, but im not gonna try to stop ya whining about it.

I’m digging the $380 laptop, but worried that I’ll be skipping Thanksgiving dinner in order to get it. They’ve been lined up for that God-forsaken PS3 for four days now, so if that’s a sign of anything, it’s gonna be bad on BF.

Oh, and rob:
Craigslist = scammers, misrepresented products, and, all-too-often, stolen electronics. I’ll gladly support consumerism instead of liars, scam artists, and thieves.

I would love to tell you of our experience my wife and I add with the Big Blue Box (Best Buy) in Green Bay Wisconsin.  Trust me if I would have know of your Web site I would have heeded the warnings and advice of others that have had just horrible experience with Best Buy.

Well here goes:

My wife and I decided to take some of our Tax Return to buy us a new Washer, and Dryer.  Well as usual we went to BB as we have done for in the last (9) years to buy all of our Big Price appliance items, as we have bought our (3) Desktop Computers, (2) Refrigerator, (1) Dishwasher, (2) TV’s (3) DVD Player’s, (2) VCR’s, (3) Surround Sound Systems…. etc…well you get the picture, close to $10,000.00 over those (9) years.

Things seem to go smoothly with the purchase of both of them till the arraigning of the FREE delivery that was with the package deal.  But the sales person worked out the glitches an made the delivery on Wed’s the 14th of February in the late afternoon.  I informed the sales person that we had some serious plans made, and could they arraign it before or after the 14th.  “No” was the reply that it was the only day they could make the delivery.  Well ok I said, “but let’s make sure it happens”.  No problem was the reply; a they would call us the night before to confirm the time in the afternoon. “Great”, I said, let’s do it.

The night of the 13th we waited till around 9pm for their call.  Nothing, no call.  So I called the store a talked to the sale person that sold us the Washer/Dryer, and asked when they would be delivered. I waited on hold for over 20 minutes.  Finally I called back and asked for the Manager on Duty.  Waited other 10 minutes till he came on the line.  I explained the situation to him; he stated he would check into this.  After other 10 minutes he game back on the line.  He stated that the Order for delivery was CANCELLED and that there was not going to be a delivery. Well my jaw dropped to the floor.  “What the Hell was going on”, I asked, I know we didn’t cancel the order for delivery.  I informed him of this and said this was not acceptable and that they would need to make the delivery as promised and that we would not be available for any other day.  And why the Hell had this had happen.  After waiting for other 15 minutes on the phone he finally came back on with “ it will be delivered tomorrow between 4pm an 6pm” OK I said great. As I was about to thank him he hung up, without an apology of any kind, or any explanation of what was going on?  Well this should have clued me into Best Buy’s customer service policy of SCREW’EM AN LOSES’EM.  Well as promise they did deliver the machines on time, but not with out some hassles there too.

Where comes the good part:

The following week my wife an I decided to buy a new laptop computer, and of course BB was having a Package Deal on a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista installed and also with Mini mouse, and carrying case.  This sounded great, and in our price arrange too.  So we went into the Store and as usual we had to hunt down someone in the computer department to help us with the purchase.  After finding a fresh Snot Nose Narcissistic Kid barely out of high school to help us, we decided to ask a few questions about the New Windows Vista system.  We wanted to know if this laptop would be able to communicate with the other (3) computers we have in our home running Windows XP?  And would it work with our Linksys Network Router System?  And will we be able to share files, and to use our Lexmark Printer with this new Windows Vista, and our Network?  “ Well of course it would…was his reply, with no problems.  “ Well with that, and the blind trust I put in people we bought the laptop, and the extended service plan.  And back home with our new toy.

Well we got it home and started to set it up, and everything was going as smooth as silk till we tried to set up the Network to share files/folders with the other computers, and the printer.  Now I am not illiterate when it comes to computers, nor am I an expert, but I knew something was a miss, and something was not right. Well it was late and we decided to wait till the morning to finish the setup.

The following day was the Worst Frkin Nightmare I have had in 35 years (showing my age of 55) of dealing with any big business, and of course the worst day I ever had with Best Buy.

I kept trying to make the Laptop communicate with the Network, and my other (3) computers.  I would keep getting a Microsoft Windows Error of “not finding a Network”.  After spending an hour on their web site I could find nothing, so I called them.  I spent over 45 minutes waiting; finally I spoke to someone about the problem (because I thought since it was a Windows Error the would be able to help) no such luck.  They said I would need to contact Toshiba about this since this was an OEM (original equipment manufacture) problem, and not theirs.  “Great” Called Toshiba, nothing, this were their service person informs me that the new Windows Vista program will not work with the network, router, a printer if my other (3) computers are running Windows XP.  “HOLY COW POOP”.  This was Frkin Peachy.  Toshiba suggested to call Best Buy to see what they can do for me, buy asking someone there if they could help set up the network to communicate with the other computers.  Sounded like sense.  So I did.

So I called the Big Blue Box (BB) and spoke to same manager I had dealt with on the delivery problem.  Wow that was the most stupid mistake I ever made.  This manager was the biggest “DICK” I ever spoke to.  I calmly explained the problem to him, an how I was led to believe that there would be no problem with this Laptop running Windows Vista to work with my computers, network, and printer.  He told me point blank told me that his sales person would have “never would have told me such a thing”.  God I was outraged, not only was He calling me a Lair but also it was quite clear that this worthless manager was not going to help me at all.  I asked to speak to his Boss, (the store manager) SHE was not there.  Then I asked how to get in contact with his District manager…. guess what…that’s right, he refused to give me that info also stating he did not know how, an even if he did he would not give me that info, because all customer concerns, and problems are handled at the store level, and that this problem did not warrant any further attention.  What a worthless piece of human waste.  I asked what was the name of his store manager, at first he was very hesent, and then he gave me her name.

Well for the next (4) days I spent calling the Best Buy customer service line, (what a gdamn joke this is), calling their Corp Office, calling their District office, trying to get someone to listen and care about my problem.  Again No-one gave a Royal flying Rats Ass about what was going on.  Only to inform me that all the customer relation problems needs are handle at the Store Level.  “My God, don’t they understand that here in lies the problem the Store Management and the rotten little peckerhead that sold me the Laptop. “NO>>>HELL NO”.  So after nearly going to the Hospital because on my Blood Pressure I decided to give it up.  Knowing that Best Buy had SCREWED ME IN THE ASS AN NEVER USED ANY TYPE OF LUB TO EASE THE PAIN.  Then out of the Blue the lousy Store Manager called an gave me the lamest apology I ever heard but still would not help me with my problem only offering to send out the GEEK Squad to make my Laptop work with my other computers, an network.  But of course this would cost me other $200.00 for their service.  God what kind of sick joke these folks live under, what kind of CON-Game they are playing on the costumer, what kind of people believe they would have me come back an waste my money in their store after this kind of Bull Sh___t.

God I pray, and beg anyone reading this not to buy your need’s at Best Buy, they will Lie, Cheat, an screw you up the behind so hard, that you will see stars.  If any one reading this and still believes they will get good service from BB, all you will get is a Stroke.

BEST BUY GO TO HELL YOU ROTTEN MOTHERF___KERS.

Best Buy always seems to have their Black Friday ads out early and then their site crashes on Black Friday when you need it. Your best bet is camping outside the store for great deals.

You’re doing it wrong.  You don’t buy from the website on Friday, you buy on Thanksgiving.  If you want to stand in line, you do that on the night before Thanksgiving, and camp for a day and a half.  None of their doorbusters were worth sitting on the sidewalk all Thanksgiving day.  Everything else I got online the day before.

Come to think of it, you don’t camp out for the deals, you do it to be on tv for 3 seconds when they run the annual story on the BB campers.

Ragman, that was comment spam (now deleted) so that’s why the comment seemed so stupid.

Damn, and I fell for it.