Love it or hate it, Black Friday brings 'em out
A look at the Walmart Black Friday crowd.
On Thanksgiving night — or Gray Thursday, if you want to call it that — crowds of shoppers gathered inside of Walmart awaiting the proverbial 6 p.m. starting bell that allowed them to buy discounted items such as TVs, iPads, video games, vacuums and even Tupperware.
Yes, Tupperware. But to be fair, at less than $7 for 30 items, any 1950s housewife will tell you it was a steal of a deal. And any 2013 gamer will say you're crazy if you're not in line for $30 copies of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto V.
Love it or hate it, Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales sure do have a way of bringing out customers.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 30, 2013 Categories MonkeTags Black Friday, Business, Columns, Dickinson, ShoppingLeave a comment on Love it or hate it, Black Friday brings 'em out
Shoppers Holiday: Dickinson store owners, managers prepare for Thanksgiving, Black Friday rush
Sara Spradley puts a tool set on a rack at Newby's Ace Hardware on Wednesday in preparation for the store's early morning opening on Friday.
Lenny Johnson calls the sound similar to a "stampede of horses."
The co-owner of Starboard, an apparel store in the Prairie Hills Mall, has been a part of three Black Friday doorbuster sales pushes. Each one has been more interesting than the last, he said, as the mall doors open and customers flood in — some of them running — toward stores looking for deals.
"It is absolutely the craziest thing you will ever see," Johnson said. "You can literally hear the feet."
Dickinson's population has practically doubled in the past five years and many who work in retail businesses said sales have improved during that span.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 27, 2013 Categories MonkeTags Black Friday, Business, Dickinson, Features, holidays, News, Shopping, thanksgivingLeave a comment on Shoppers Holiday: Dickinson store owners, managers prepare for Thanksgiving, Black Friday rush
Page layout changes designed to help quality, content
As you have read through today's newspaper, you have undoubtedly notice that our page arrangement has changed.
Obituaries, Lifestyles, North Dakota and Markets are all now on different pages than you are used to seeing. For the most part, the content is the same. It's just in a different place.
We have made these changes for a number of reasons.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 27, 2013 Categories MonkeTags Columns, newspaper, the dickinson pressLeave a comment on Page layout changes designed to help quality, content
No-Shave November itchy, but rewarding
What absolute gross looks like in the heart of winter.
When our publisher, Harvey Brock, asked me if I'd ever heard of No-Shave November and Movember, I laughed and told him of course I had as I consider myself at least somewhat tuned into trends.
Then he asked if I'd ever tried it.
As a guy who had never gone past the so-called "sexy stubble" stage of facial hair, I told him I never had. It's partially because I always had a job where keeping a clean look was necessary and also because I never felt I could actually grow enough hair on my face for it to look decent.
Maybe I wasn't so trendy after all.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 23, 2013 Categories MonkeTags beards, charity, Columns, Dickinson, donations, no-shave november, the dickinson pressLeave a comment on No-Shave November itchy, but rewarding
Former players reflect on 'legendary' Biesiot
Press Photo by Royal McGregor In this Sept. 1, 2012 photo, Dickinson State head football coach Hank Biesiot, left, speaks with players during a Frontier Conference game against Rocky Mountain. After 38 years as the head coach of the Blue Hawks, Biesiot resigned on Thursday.
To them, he's a "legendary" coach, a man who helped teach the meaning of humility and camaraderie, or someone who simply gave them a chance when no one else would.
To all of them, however, he's coach Hank Biesiot.
"They just don't make 'em like him anymore," said Randy Gordon, a longtime head football coach for Dickinson Trinity and a member of the first Dickinson State team Biesiot coached in 1976.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 22, 2013 Categories MonkeTags Blue Hawks, college football, Columns, dickinson state university, dsu blue hawks, football, hank biesiot, SportsLeave a comment on Former players reflect on 'legendary' Biesiot
Giving gifts that will be appreciated
We stood in the Kmart toy department for about 30 minutes, looking for gift ideas. The shopping took time because there were certain toys we knew we couldn't buy.
We didn't want any that required batteries, they couldn't have any liquid or slime inside, nor could there be a chance the toy would easily break. The toys also couldn't have any kind of military or violence aspect to it — so superhero action figures, which I naturally gravitated toward, were out of the conversation.
Then again, we assured ourselves, the kids receiving these toys aren't going to be as picky as the kids we know might be. Many of them would be happy just to receive a toy. Heck, just receiving a pack of crayons could be one the happiest moments of their young lives.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 21, 2013 Categories MonkeTags charity, Christmas, Columns, donations, giving, operation christmas childLeave a comment on Giving gifts that will be appreciated
10-loss season means change
Dickinson State head coach Hank Biesiot stands on the sidelines during the season finale and the final Frontier Conference game at Carroll College on Saturday at the Biesiot Activities Center.
We're a generation or more removed from the last time the Dickinson State football team had a season this bad.
Before Saturday, the Blue Hawks had never lost 10 games in a season.
It marked only the second time since World War II that a DSU football team has finished a season with one win. When the Blue Hawks were still the Savages in 1966 under head coach Orlo Sundree, they went 1-7. Sundree would only last one more season and DSU would go through two other coaches before promoting Hank Biesiot to the head position in 1976.
More than three decades of success followed. Few team records still stand that weren't set in the Biesiot coaching era.
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Author Dustin MonkePosted on November 17, 2013 Categories MonkeTags Blue Hawks, college football, Columns, dickinson state university, dsu blue hawks, football, hank biesiot, SportsLeave a comment on 10-loss season means change