Black Friday Stories - Was Wal*Mart add a scam?

[jasenj1]

As for my experience with Walmart, I went to 3 stores in the Chicago area this morning and not only didn't they have them.....they never had them. I asked customer service at all 3 stores. That's a scam.....when something is advertised and no inventory ever existed at the stores.

Wow. If customer service admitted they never had them (if I really wanted one and cared) I'd complain as far up the food chain as necessary to get one. Advertising an item and not having it is illegal I'm pretty sure. It'd be interesting to know how many stores didn't have them. Maybe ProvoCraft screwed up the manufacturing or shipping.

FWIW, my wife went to Wal*Mart and Michael's this morning. By the time she got there, Wal*Mart had a few stray cartridges laying on top of a pallet of DVDs. She picked up Paper Dolls for $30. Michael's had the carts in two big bins she had to dig through to find what she wanted. She grabbed Winter Woodland for $35.

We plan to swing by Jo Ann's Saturday morning to see if we can get anything for $29.

- Jasen.

[lindamac]

My Walmart in Vegas had a big stack of Cricuts for $188 and only one was gone from the stack. I got the cartridge From my kitchen for $30.00. The craft section of the store was empty of people. Everyone was in the electronics department instead. Last year Office Depot didn't have a camera they had advertised and we found out that the stores only got 2 each. We were first ones in line and they were already gone so I wrote the main office a nasty letter saying how could they service 2 million people when the stores only got 2 cameras each. I said I would never shop there again and they sent me a gift card for $75.00 to make me happy. I spent it and still won't shop there. It does pay to complain.

[hope9811]

That's the pits! Our store had a whole stack of them and I got the winter wonderland cartridge for 30.00. I think the cartridges didn't sell as well there as a local scrapbook store had them 4 for 100.00 which made them only 25.00 a piece. My store had extras last year also so that they gave them the 4 hour sale price until they were gone a couple of days later. This year though, that was an amazing price and I don't know if they sold out or not. Sorry...I would have gotten you one and shipped it had I known....dang it!

[cydnew]

I went to 2 walmarts near me in UT and they did not have any of the machines. They had a few cartridges, but not many. I was there within an hour of opening, and they still had all the other doorbusters available - except boys snowboots, which they also didn't get - go figure!

[talanhart]

I was at a Wal-mart today at 4:20 in the morning and there was 4 people waiting for Cricuts. One guy was there at 3:00. We weren't allowed to take them until 5:00. Since I already have one, I waited until everybody grabbed one before I grabbed one of the 6 that were left. I did some other shopping and when I walked by the pallet again, there was only one left and a lady picked it up. There was only 4 carts left from the display by the time I left at 6:15.

[firstcut]

I went to WM at 9 pm tonight and there were 5 E's left. I got a black one for my SIL. There were a dozen or so carts left, too.
Not sure what happened in Chicago, but I'd complain, too. Also might watch ebay, too because surely some people were buying to resell.

[Taffy]

We got to WM at 3:45am and everyone was in the electronic area but didn't have anyone near the Cricut pallets. My sister said she'll wait there for me while i helped my mom find her stuff. 5 mins after i left my sister came by & said hte manager let her take one but she couldn't check out with it until 5am .. I walked by there around 6am and i saw this lady grabbing 4 of them. One of each color - i asked her, wow! you're going to be busy (jokingly) she said she was gonna sell them on ebay.

HOpe everyone got their Big BUgs.. When my guest leaves after this weekend, i'm going to play with my bug..

[Sweetness4713]

Our stores around here in Canada cover their butts.. I don't know if it's the same in the USA.. BUT .. what they do is have fine print at the back of their flyers that state may not be available at all stores or if in stock.. It's because the sales aren't only at one store but multiple stores so they never know when they are going to run out before the sale.. They did have some online available at 188.00 as I checked.. but I didn't know if they shipped to Canada so didn't want to chance it.. Our MIchaels has their cartridges at 60% off right now .. but they are 119 dollars each regular price... I can't believe how much they can knock an item down in price and then basically charge like 3 times the price on their items. Their shelves were full with these cartridges because there aren't many cricuteers where I live..

[jasenj1]

We hit Jo Ann's this morning. Ours only had about a dozen cartridges, and only about four different ones - Paper Doll Dress Up, Doodle Charms, and a couple of fonts; we weren't impressed and didn't bite. They did have Cricut accessories on sale 40% off. We picked up the toolkit for $14. And a set of acrylic blocks for stamps - when we get around to buying a deep cut blade and stamping material.

I think that's it for our Black Friday weekend shopping deals. We found a number of good deals online - like the Carousel for $25! - but didn't find any deals on the deep cut blades. Since the Expression was an early Christmas (birthday, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, etc.) present, and we since bought some accessories, SCAL, and two more carts, we ought to stop feeding our new Cricut addiction/hobby.

- Jasen.

[Sweetness4713]

LOL Jasen.. BUT will you be able to stop?? I think this hobby of mine is like a baddddd addiction.. My children are supposed to be buying me the cricut embosser for Christmas