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Comments: 115 +- News: Record-Breaking Black Friday For eBay's PayPal on Sunday November 29, @09:28AM
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adeelarshad82 writes "eBay's PayPal division reported that PayPal processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to last year. PayPal didn't release the total payment volume, but claimed that its Payflow Gateway system processes nearly a quarter of e-commerce, while its direct sales numbers reflect 12 percent of all e-commerce. In general, reports from a number of e-tailers and retailers indicated that consumers spent more on Black Friday than in 2008, when the United States was in the midst of a recession. However, it's still unclear whether shoppers bought more on Black Friday, when they could expect a discount on what usually is one of the busiest days in the holiday season, or whether the pattern will continue. In 2008, shoppers stopped buying in early December, a shock that the US economy felt well into 2009."
How did your Black Friday turn out? Did you wait in endless lines and contribute to the trampling deaths of fellow shoppers, sit at home and help take down your favorite online retailer's servers, or eschew the process altogether?
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Online things, and from non-us point of view (Score:5, Interesting)
We don't have "Black Friday" here, but I noticed Steam has also been having five-day-long every-day-new-games [steampowered.com] discount on games, usually ranging as 33-75% discount. Since they actually have good games there on sale, with a good percentage off, it's been leading me and many of my friends to buy the games that look interesting now. People have been buying those LucasArts and THQ Complete Packs and many single games (I bought Borderlands, City of Heroes and LucasArts pack last night) Since PayPal also processes purchases for Steam, some of the increase probably comes from it too - there are hundred thousands players buying those games now.
I didn't buy more because I didn't even know about the special day. But I bought when I saw the discounts. I'm a lazy guy so I wouldn't go fighting in stores anyway (and I hate all that crowd), but these discounts surely lead to some impulse buying on Steam. And it still continues for a few days, oh man.
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Indeed. I've become a pretty big Steam user/purchaser. I love the simplicity of it and how darn fast they download (getting up to 1Mb/s speeds at times). Even purchased things I wouldn't have purchased otherwise because they where only $2-$10 so I thought I'd try them out. My biggest disappointment has to be Dragon Age: Origins. Darn thing was on sale for like 25% off or 33% off or something and I just bought it a week or two ago and I only just started playing it. doh!
But yes, I picked up:
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Wow, I didn't know Osmos was on sale for $2. I picked up from the developer's site for $10 and I think it's a steal at double that price. Great game!
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping) [wikipedia.org]
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I'm in Canada and, as such, we don't have Black Friday either, so thanks for reminding me of this - managed to pick up Left 4 Dead and the THQ pack with 30 minutes remaining this morning. While the LucasArts pack was tempting as well, the THQ one was crammed full of amazing RTS games that I may have enjoyed from the ... ahem ... library in my younger days, along with a fairly new game (Red Faction: Guerilla) that sounded great but I never got around to trying. As for Left 4 Dead, that was kind of a no brain
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Sure we do, it's called boxing day.
It works with everything (Score:4, Funny)
Let me give you an example.
If a pizza place advertisers for weeks that on this exact day all the pizzas will be just $2, and there will be hookers, and there will be free beer, and there will be rock music, people will come in and buy. And they will come in as a big crowd. So big that if everyone orders a combination of sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, Capicola ham, julienne salami, Mozzarella cheese in BBQ sauce, there will not be enough for everyone. But the business will flower and they get great returns as so many people rush in.
This same thing happens everywhere, so why not online too?
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...on this exact day all the pizzas will be just $2, and there will be hookers, and there will be free beer, and there will be rock music...
In fact, forget the pizza and rock music. And the free beer.
Ahh, screw the whole thing!
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Thursday morning (Score:2)
I did all my online shopping Thursday morning... If not cooking, or while taking a break from the cooking, assuming the house is "decorated" enough, there is nothing else holiday related left to do.
Sorry, what? (Score:3, Insightful)
How did your Black Friday turn out?
What is a "Black Friday", why is it black, why is it a Friday, and why is it important?
Re:Sorry, what? (Score:5, Funny)
It's actually called African American Friday these days...
Parent
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Damn, always wanted to hit +5, Troll. Oh well.
OK, for those not in the know. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Black Friday" is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday in November. It is "Black" because retailers throughout the country count on the Christmas shopping season for the majority of their yearly profits. In other words, it is the day beginning the season when they hope to bring themselves "into the Black" (on an accounting sheet "Red" ink is used to indicate money owed, "Black" ink to indicate money made). If a retailer is "in the Red" they owe their suppliers more than they've taken in. If they are "in the Black" they have made a profit.
As far as why it is important? IT ISN'T. Not anymore. Whether or not retailers have a "good year" is now irrellevant to the U.S. economy. I've been carefully watching what is for sale in stores and almost none of it is manufactured in the U.S. So buying a bunch of stuff made in other countries (especially using further consumer debt) will do absolutely ZERO to improve the U.S. economy. Everyone should refuse to buy anything this year except for necesseties. If you want to give gifts for the spirit of the season, buy only locally made goods and services. Here are some suggestions:
ANY of the above are 100% guaranteed to be better for the U.S. economy. If everyone did one of the above, the economy would be 100% back on its feet in no time flat.
Parent
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You could also "hire" an "editor" to "clean up" your superfluous use of "quotation marks".
Re:OK, for those not in the know. (Score:5, Informative)
Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday in November.
No, it's not. It's the 4th Thursday in November. Usually that is the last, but occasionally there are 5 Thursdays (like there was in 2007). Thanksgiving will always fall in the range of Nov 22nd to 28th.
Parent
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Actually, that's only been the case since 1942. Before then, it was the last Thursday of the month. The reason it was changed was that retailers wanted a longer holiday shopping season, so FDR changed Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of the month, thinking a longer shopping season would help the economy (really!). After a couple of years with much protesting (and no real boost to holiday sales), it was changed to the fourth Thursday of the month as a compromise.
Interestingly, not all the states went al
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The only one bluffing is you, because your proposal is a fantasy. Just pay your debts, please.
If the US gets to the point where it seriously considers defaulting on all those t-bills, everything will already be so fucked up that the rest of the world will already be in too bad of a shape to do anything about it.
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The pen is mightier than the sword.
Yes, just words!
Dude, he was British. And he was born 30 years after the American Revolution.
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If you are a citizen of the US, then you have a share of the national debt [brillig.com] hanging over your head.
The political propaganda used to obscure this fact does not change it.
Americans cannot continue to live this way forever.
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It would be in the long term interest of all involved parties for U.S. to slowly pay off its debt by gradually re-balancing its economy to manufacture more and to buy less chinese junk.
Do you honestly think that will happen? I certainly don't. US politicians have no interest in increasing taxes and decreasing spending because that doesn't get them votes. US citizens have no interest in buying less Chinese junk because their self-identity comes from being consumers, and because the vast majority of them have lived most of their lives in personal debt and they have less and less ability to get out of debt.
The resolution to this situation is going to have to be painful, because no interes
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While these are all very good ideas, you're way overselling your case by saying that Black Friday is irrelevant to the US economy. The US economy does not solely consist of manufacturing. We've lost a lot of manufacturing over the years, and that has hurt us.
Nevertheless, you're forgetting about the people working the retail floor in some capacity, management at the store level (and above), support staff for management, warehouse workers, their management (and support staff), shippers (like truck drivers),
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Wiki [wikipedia.org]
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Re:OK, for those not in the know. (Score:4, Informative)
I've been trying to get my extended family to stop buying ITEMS as gifts for years.
Services, or better yet, EXPERIENCES, are something most people will remember for a lifetime. Often, people cannot even remember WHO gave them an item for Christmas.
The really nice thing about services/experiences, as a gift, is that you usually know who is benefiting from the purchase. Buy someone a round of golf at the local course? The guys working there at the course benefit. Buy someone a trip to Catalina Island for the weekend? The people that live there benefit. It keeps the money in OUR economy (unless you're buying someone a trip to Uruguay...but, hey, Urugauyans need money too. At least you know it is going to them and not some anonymous corporate shareholder).
Giving someone an experience...well, it is the gift that keeps giving regardless of time or place. You simply think about it to continue enjoying it.
My usual gift to the family is a lavish, one-of-a-kind Christmas dinner (I used to be a chef). Last year it was a cream-based bouillabaisse made with green-lip mussels, soft-shelled crab, sweet scallops, jumbo prawns, fresh Copper River Salmon and served with the best San Francisco sourdough bread I could get my hands on (not that crap from the supermarket...I prowl the city looking for the real stuff).
Sure, it was an object, but it was the experience of eating it with each other that my family remembers. And I know it isn't sitting, forgotten, in the back of the closet (at least I sure hope not!).
Parent
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You've been trolled. The guy clearly dislikes obama and was trying to parody his supporters.
Brick and mortar? nope... online? yep! (Score:5, Interesting)
I went to ZERO stores. I spent all my money online. I got deals from newegg that worst buy and the others could not touch even after shipping. Plus I did not have to stand in line for hours to get a chance as a cupon to buy a item, or elbow idiots in the face to stop crushing my wife. 4 years ago was the LAST time we went to a store on Black friday. She suffered 2 broken ribs and I had to physically assault 10 people to protect her from more harm.
I'm never going into a store for a black friday thing ever again, I can get better deals, save more, and do it in comfort away from the mobs of morons that lose all social ettiquette like not crushing people for some stupid shiny.
Re:Brick and mortar? nope... online? yep! (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree. I was up early and on a whim went to the local Walmart to check out this "Black Friday" phenomenon. It was a ridiculous mess of rude people and massive lines. I got a coffee and went home, and calculated that most of the deals at Newegg are exactly the same and sometimes cheaper, minus the long lines and degrading experience. In any case, it'd be worth it to spend some extra money to AVOID Black Friday crowds.
It was a fascinating experience but I won't do it again.
Parent
Re:Brick and mortar? nope... online? yep! (Score:5, Funny)
I was up early and on a whim went to the local Walmart to check out this "Black Friday" phenomenon. It was a ridiculous mess of rude people and massive lines.
But it's like that at Walmart every day.
Parent
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I got deals from newegg that worst buy and the others could not touch even after shipping.
Even after return shipping when you receive the product and find it defective? There's a Best Buy a block away from where I get groceries, so I can return something next time I'm out grocery shopping without having to pay UPS beaucoup bucks.
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There are a lot of retailers that will soak the cost of a return shipment item. I know several that include the shipping label with the package should you decide to use it.
I know some that will just soak any cost to keep you a customer.
While you can't find every super open ended policy published it is still entirely possible to review the written return policy prior to purchasing.
Better than being with the lemmings ... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Record-Breaking Fraud? (Score:2)
Actively Eschew (Score:5, Funny)
UNamerican (Score:2)
Why Me... (Score:5, Interesting)
PayPal processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to last year.
I didn't buy anything this black friday, not even online. But I can certainly see how paypal's volume would be up - so many credit card issuer's are screwing themselves by jacking up the fees now that it makes more sense to use paypal to transfer directly from your checking account than it does to use a credit card.
The fee that pushed me over the edge are these new "foreign transaction fees" - not "foreign currency exchange fees" but simply "foreign transaction fees" - almost all the major banks are charging a couple of percent for any transaction even vaguely outside the local borders. I bought two things on ebay via paypal but with my credit card - the transactions were back to back on my statement and one of them had a ~$1 extra tacked on for this "foreign transaction fee" because the seller was in canada - even though the statement showed identical entries for the merchant field (paypal, there address in california and their phone number in california). Even though the auction and payment was in US dollars and through paypal - Bank of America slammed me with this ridiculous fee on one charge but not the other. The next week I purchased an online game subscription in us dollars, but apparently the parent company is in germany so wham another 50 cent fee out of nowhere.
When you can't tell at the point of sale what the total cost will be, then that is a huge incentive to move to a different method of payment where the costs are known up front. Dumbass Bank of America has lost the revenue from ~$1000 worth of monthly online purchases but they nailed me for just under $2 in abusrdist fees, hope it was worth it!
(And when I called to register a complaint, the dumbass service representative spent 15 minutes trying to convince me that the government has made these new fees mandatory and that it wasn't BoA's fault (which is utter bullshit, confirmed on sites like the consumerist and bankrate), when all I wanted him to do was write down that I was unhappy about the fees because there was no way to know up front if the fee would apply or not)
Re:Why Me... (Score:4, Interesting)
Banks have received government bailout money (coming ultimately from taxpayers) and have engaged in a huge program of bumping rates and fees recently to squeeze money from cardholders. It's a total farce.
I've fallen behind on my credit card payments since I've lost my job, and I plan to go through bankruptcy since I have few assets and my credit is already ruined. I originally thought I could pay the debt back, but now I'm filled with a desire to punish the banks. How else can I hurt them except by defaulting on my debt?
Parent
Re:Why Me... (Score:4, Insightful)
How else can I hurt them except by defaulting on my debt?
Not much you can do except maximize the amount you default on.
I've been thinking that if someone really wanted to put the screws to the banks they could take on a massive amount of debt as they neared end of life - really max out all available credit, transfer the cash and any other property to friends and family and then die with absolutely no assets left in their estate.
Parent
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I feel you man. I went out of business myself last year due to the economy and fell behind on my debt. (I was in too much debt to begin with; a hard lesson learned.) After this fiasco my once excellent credit was trashed. I ended up getting a good job and paying most of that back. Some of my creditors were easy to work with. For example, the local banks were very understanding and helpful. I made sure they got paid back in full as promised.
But as for the two credit card companies who were always a pain in t
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Paypal has foreign transaction fees [paypal.com] too. $0.30 + nearly 4%. I found out about this the hard way because I sold a high-value item to someone that had a Florida address, but whose Paypal account was apparently linked to a foreign bank. As a result, I paid about $30 extra in Paypal fees on a hand-made item that only had about $100 in pre-fee profit as it was. (And if you're wondering, the buyer was legit: not a scam.)
As a buyer, you never see these fees (and the seller is prohibited from adding them only to in
What A Horrible Name (Score:2)
It's the time of year to celebrate many different things religious or religion-derived. So true to form the marketoids come up with a name that not only ignores the origin of the celebrations but also ignores itself, instead focusing entirely on the only thing the marketoids can perceive, making money.
Every time I see the words I cringe. How do you answer "How did your Black Friday turn out?" Well, let's see. I went to a leadership seminar hosted by Charles Manson then had lunch with Jeffery Dahmer. After
my newegg experience was lousy (Score:2)
normally NE is the best. I do LOTS of business with them. more than I want to admit.
but let me say this upfront: the concept of 'doorbuster' does not, imo, apply to online stores.
that said, I got up an hour before 6am (pst) to be online and ready to order the netbook of my dreams.
I had my pc setup properly and all that. at 6am I keep refreshing until the new sale price appeared. added 1 (I'm not greedy; and I'll not go into THAT rant right now..) to my cart and tried to check out. it put me into a logi
Re:trampling deaths?? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html [nytimes.com]
He was exaggerating about this year I think (not seen any trampling to death news reports), but it happened last year on Black Friday.
Parent
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And how is this different from any other country? 50% of people are BELOW AVERAGE on ANY measure you care to choose.
Even assuming it's a 1-dimensional measure, that's not true in general. It's true in many cases since symmetric distributions are common, although it can happen with non-symmetric distributions, but there are plenty of cases where it's not. If 95% of people love TV, giving it an approval rating of 90%, and 5% of people hate it, rating it 0%, then the average rating is 85.5% but only 5% of people are below that average. Alternatively, how about number of toes? The average is very close to 10 and there's no w
Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)