Black Friday Experience

I visted an Apple store in the San Franciso area on Black Friday, noting that they were using the portable, hand-held computers for check-out, but had not resorted to coverting a display table to POS duties as they did last year. The store was crowded, but also well-staffed, and the check-out line never got too long. There were staffers handing out the holiday gift guide at the door, and telling visitors of the "one-day sale" (on selected merchandise!). There seemed to be more than the usual number of couples pushing strollers, and more people actually asking about systems, rather than just browsing. The usual crowd of teen Photo Booth users was absent, and so were the people who come in just to check their e-mail. Overall, the operation seemed to be operating on all cylinders. On the other hand, my visit in the early afternoon didn't demonstrate that merchandise was flying off the shelves. I only saw two laptops and one system come out of the door in about 90 minutes. And those gift guides...well, some ended up in a nearby trash bin outside the store. Does it say something that there's also an empty box of wine and Starbucks cups in the trash bin?