The people at Buds should have expected exactly the response they got. It was the response they wanted. And just like the brick and mortar versions of the Black Friday experience it turns out to be a nightmare. When Walmart sets up a situation where desperate people want to buy something nice for a family member or maybe even something they really need and they set it up so that only a few can get that deal they are asking for a riot and they get them. People die in those situations sometimes. It isn't "cool' to kill people even if the greed of those people is involved. Surely they know there are greedy people in the world. You wouldn't catch me anywhere near a store on Black Friday and I don't think it's "cool" to dangle that carrot in front of the masses then say "sorry, you didn't get there first" when someone doesn't get the deal. There are LAWS against this sort of thing. If you advertise a price you must actually sell at that price. This stuff of the lucky few getting a better deal is just asking for hard feelings all around and for a totally dangerous situation at the brick and mortar stores that are all trying to compete.
Are we all so greedy that we will risk life and limb for a bargain? Some people sure are. And any store that promotes that situation is asking for problems and that includes Buds, which BTW has a brick and mortar store or two also.
Retailers don't do this to give their customers a cool deal. They do it to get foot traffic or in the case of web sites eyeballs on the site. They hope to sell other things for regular prices when they do that stuff. How many bargain items did they have? Do they tell you that up front? 5? 10? 2? They aren't doing this stuff to give customers a break. They're doing it to make money. There's not one thing wrong with making money. But there is plenty wrong with bait and switch and this is the epitome of what bait and switch is about. "Yeah we sold out of all 5 of those special deal guns but we have these other ones that are cool and we'll be glad to sell you those." Bait. Switch. The laws are designed to prevent exactly that kind of behavior.
I'm sure they have their lawyers hard at work wording the terms of those sales in such a way that say limited quantities. But when they have more of an item but only sell a few of them at a reduced price that's bait and switch. It isn't enforced mainly because retailers pay more taxes than customers and they donate more to political campaigns. But the hue and cry about bait and switch tactics surrounding black Friday gets louder every year. Retailers already had to cut back on some of their tactics because people were killing each other to get that special deal.
It's a rotten system that needs to stop. I'm all for making money but those people are going to spend what they can afford and the cheesy tactics to get them to spend in your store cause more and more problems every year. It needs to stop. How many shoppers have to die to prove that point? And if it isn't fair for brick and mortar stores then it isn't fair for online retailers. I think Buds is actually a decent place to do business but they went too far here obviously. The government's hair splitting ways about interpreting laws have led to a lot of serious problems for this country (ahem immigration cough cough). The spirit of the bait and switch laws is being trampled on and there is a growing outcry about it. Just do a Google search for black Friday and bait and switch. You'll see. I'm not the only one that thinks this is a thinly disguised version of that old bugaboo, bait and switch. Technical mumbo jumbo leads to our laws being meaningless far too often. This needs to stop.
Are we all so greedy that we will risk life and limb for a bargain? Some people sure are. And any store that promotes that situation is asking for problems and that includes Buds, which BTW has a brick and mortar store or two also.
Retailers don't do this to give their customers a cool deal. They do it to get foot traffic or in the case of web sites eyeballs on the site. They hope to sell other things for regular prices when they do that stuff. How many bargain items did they have? Do they tell you that up front? 5? 10? 2? They aren't doing this stuff to give customers a break. They're doing it to make money. There's not one thing wrong with making money. But there is plenty wrong with bait and switch and this is the epitome of what bait and switch is about. "Yeah we sold out of all 5 of those special deal guns but we have these other ones that are cool and we'll be glad to sell you those." Bait. Switch. The laws are designed to prevent exactly that kind of behavior.
I'm sure they have their lawyers hard at work wording the terms of those sales in such a way that say limited quantities. But when they have more of an item but only sell a few of them at a reduced price that's bait and switch. It isn't enforced mainly because retailers pay more taxes than customers and they donate more to political campaigns. But the hue and cry about bait and switch tactics surrounding black Friday gets louder every year. Retailers already had to cut back on some of their tactics because people were killing each other to get that special deal.
It's a rotten system that needs to stop. I'm all for making money but those people are going to spend what they can afford and the cheesy tactics to get them to spend in your store cause more and more problems every year. It needs to stop. How many shoppers have to die to prove that point? And if it isn't fair for brick and mortar stores then it isn't fair for online retailers. I think Buds is actually a decent place to do business but they went too far here obviously. The government's hair splitting ways about interpreting laws have led to a lot of serious problems for this country (ahem immigration cough cough). The spirit of the bait and switch laws is being trampled on and there is a growing outcry about it. Just do a Google search for black Friday and bait and switch. You'll see. I'm not the only one that thinks this is a thinly disguised version of that old bugaboo, bait and switch. Technical mumbo jumbo leads to our laws being meaningless far too often. This needs to stop.
