16 replies to this topic

[atari52]

With Christmas just around the corner,I was wondering if,there was such a thing as Black Friday back in 1977? Was the Atari 2600 sold out in stores? Does anyone remember if they were hard to find? I believe they sold for $250.00!this seems like a lot of money back then.It would be 3 years before I would get one.I did get one for Christmas back in 1980.I would love to know if someone had some store fliers with the Atari system in the add.Something like what you would find in a Wal-mart add.

[fiddlepaddle]

atari52, on Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:51 PM, said:

With Christmas just around the corner,I was wondering if,there was such a thing as Black Friday back in 1977?

No, it used to be called "Thanksgiving weekend", and people used to stay home and visit with their families, watch TV, and get in arguments with each other.

Quote

Was the Atari 2600 sold out in stores? Does anyone remember if they were hard to find? I believe they sold for $250.00!

I remember stacks and stacks of pong and pong-like machines everywhere, but the VCS was not that easy to find (except at Sears), and yes, $250 was a lot; I remember it being about the same as tuition for a semester of college.

[aftermac]

http://en.wikipedia....riday_(shopping)#Origin_of_the_name_.22Black_Friday.22

[save2600]

Funny... never heard of the phrase "Black Friday" until maybe the late '90's-early 2000's and I literally grew up working/managing/slaving away in retail. Fiddlepaddle's recollection is spot on. Not that people didn't shop after Turkeyday, but that was only part of the story. I think most just wanted to get out and do something outside the house since they felt so 'claustrophobic' at home with their relatives. Some chose to drown themselves at a Bar instead of shopping. lol We did experience the phenomenon of that free Cabbage Patch give-a-way though, although wasn't as bad in Chicagoland as I guess it was elsewhere in the country.

But anyway about this black friday nonsense, I was aghast to see stores advertising they'd be open at 3am, 4am, 6am, etc. Again, I have a LOT of retail experience under my belt. Earliest we would ever open was 8am back in the day (Sears), but during the mid-late 2000's, their greed DID cause them to change their M.O. that way and it became earlier and earlier. Last I worked there, we'd open at 7am for "black friday". Total waste of time as a commissioned salesperson. No gross margin in those "door busters"(another worthless marketing phrase) obviously and the masses could barely ever stand to be up sold. And of course on the next day, MOST of the junk you did accidentally ring up would be returned because people discovered too late that they made a bad purchasing decision(despite warnings by the knowledgeable salesperson). And the few that took 1/2 hour to convince they should be buying something nicer would return their stuff because as they sat at home with their friends/family, relate their shopping experiences, etc... some frugal bastard would always convince them to return their nicer purchase for something cheaper, because: 'you don't need to spend that much'. Yeah, Johnny shortchange with little to no knowledge of electronics, all_of_the_sudden was a more trusted consumer advocate. Ugghh.. so glad to be out of retail. American shopping behavior today is more wishy-washy than ever and anyone that continues to support this worthless practice should be ashamed of themselves. Glad to see people spending money (that's not the point), but to be blindsided by such blatant marketing tactics is ridiculous to me. Retailers need your money throughout the year on decent products. Not all at once on products that's not even worth their time to stock. And no, the age old mindset of getting foot traffic in brick and mortar in the hopes of making a better sale is all but obsolete today. Plenty of mall walkers out there not spending a dime

Edited by save2600, Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:14 AM.

[Mirage]

Agree with save2600. We used to have an actual Thanksgiving weekend. Now, for most people, TG day is like a day to rest and charge up (eat) for the big shopping day.

Furthermore, most (not all) of the crap they have on sale on BF is total junk. Some companies are substituting decent/good models of TVs and other electronics with models that look identical, but have inferior parts, like a cheaper screen. Then they just add a number or letter to the model number and most people don't notice. So that $1000 TV that you're getting for $500? Nope, it's a POS "derivative" model in many cases. Just more marketing dishonesty like we should have all learned to expect by now. I did go just to Menard's on Friday morning, and sure, I got a couple good deals (an awesome ShopVac for a cheap price), but I'll sure never do it again. Not worth the hassle and shopping cart bumper car experience. What a load of consumerism crap.

[save2600]

Mirage1972, on Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:19 AM, said:

Not worth the hassle and shopping cart bumper car experience. What a load of consumerism crap.

Love those two sentences. lol And yeah, great observation about the $1k <> $500 TV. Pretty sad when you can draw parallels between the marketing tactics of consumer electronics to jewelry now

[Ransom]

Not really much for me to add. Black Friday is a crock, and these days a lot of the seemingly wonderful deals are actually almost bait-and-switch. But of course that's SOP for Wal-Mart and has been since Sam died. That's a whole other topic, tho.

I did have to go to the grocery store and Target on BF -- just because that's our normal shopping day. I didn't notice any great increase in crowds -- it was like a normal Saturday (albeit on a Friday). Of course, I was there in the early afternoon. I wasn't crazy enough to go to Gurnee Mills mall for the "door busters" but I did read that police had to arrest several people who were there for the midnight shopping. Such desperation to buy stuff that's going to end up in the landfill in a few years anyway.

[save2600]

Ransom, on Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:30 AM, said:

I wasn't crazy enough to go to Gurnee Mills mall for the "door busters" but I did read that police had to arrest several people who were there for the midnight shopping. Such desperation to buy stuff that's going to end up in the landfill in a few years anyway.

Exactly. But what was the deal with the police arresting people at midnight? I'd imagine the natives were getting restless and anxious over a silly cell phone purchase? lol Have to get that latest razor for a penny, nevermind the overpriced 2 year contract...

[ProperRogue]

Here's a scan of the 1977 Sears Christmas Catalog (not mine) , and the first few pages are filled with nothing but gaming goodness! Also , be sure to check out the other catalog scans by clicking on the collections link.

[Atariman]

ProperRogue, on Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:41 AM, said:

Here's a scan of the 1977 Sears Christmas Catalog (not mine) , and the first few pages are filled with nothing but gaming goodness! Also , be sure to check out the other catalog scans by clicking on the collections link.

Interesting. While looking at that catalog, I noticed the Tank standalone console - did it really come with the CX40 controllers like it shows in the picture?

[Kenny_McCormic]

They do appear to be hardwired CX-40s, i would have to assume they are 1977 CX-40s with the sprung internals.

[cardadvantage]

LoL I have to agree with the majority, black friday is a big BS consumerist tactic to make people waste there money on sub par crap and getyo uin the door to waste more money at there store. But hey that wish book link was good fun That brought back some good childhood memories of looking at that giant catalog year after year. Thank for that

[seanhq]

As a kid, Thanksgiving was a big deal. We would all pile into the car and head over to my grandparents house and have quality family time, good food, conversation, relaxing, but that also included grandpa breaking out the Atari 2600 and playing a few rounds of Combat. Those were the days.

I only went out for one thing on Black Friday. I went to Old Navy at 1:00 am to wait for a 3:00 am opening (in the cold rain) to get a free copy of Lego Rockband ($49.99 value). The deal was spend $20 (or more) and get the game for free, so I purchased a $20 gift card for my wife There was a huge line of people and they only had 50 wristbands. I was like 15-20 back, so I lucked out. I then proceeded home to sleep and then wake up a few hours later to eat lots of turkey leftovers. Later in the day I didn't even play the game, I ended up playing some Frogs & Flies on my 2600

Edited by seanhq, Tue Dec 1, 2009 2:16 AM.

[tetrode kink]

Yeah, I remember when Thanksgiving was food and family, not just a time to wind up your springs for the shopping frenzy. The other fun part was that when Thursday was over, you still had three days off from school!

Note: To connect the dots (and keep this Atari-related), I was still in school when the VCS came out!

-tet

[tremoloman2006]

I agree most of the "day after Thanksgiving sales" (I refuse to call it Black Friday) are a load of crap. I got excited to see laptops for sale for $199. Then I read the fine print "Only 5 available per store". What a load of BS. I talked to a friend of mine from a retailer and he said a lot of times employees put those kind of deals aside and give them to realitves or friends when they come into the store. I don't EVER shop on that day anymroe.

[telengard]

atari52, on Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:51 PM, said:

With Christmas just around the corner,I was wondering if,there was such a thing as Black Friday back in 1977? Was the Atari 2600 sold out in stores? Does anyone remember if they were hard to find? I believe they sold for $250.00!this seems like a lot of money back then.It would be 3 years before I would get one.I did get one for Christmas back in 1980.I would love to know if someone had some store fliers with the Atari system in the add.Something like what you would find in a Wal-mart add.

I can't speak for 1977, but the Christmas (1981 maybe?) I got my Atari supposedly they were pretty hard to find since Asteroids and Missile Command had all been released (I got Asteroids, my cousins got Missile Command and Space Invaders). My mother (many years later) said she had a difficult time getting one.

Best xmas gift I ever got.

~telengard

[Skylark68]

Black Friday is a big joke. My wife even decided it wasn't worth it this year, and she has been doing the whole BF thing for a few years now. I think she is even ordering things online now for the most part.

I didn't get an Atari until the 4 switchers were in production (early '80s), but I remember how hard it was to find E.T. one Christmas.... haha

Edited by Skylark68, Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:59 AM.