The term Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year (in the U.S.) was given its name by retailers because the day after Thanksgiving is the day that their profits take them out of the red and into the coveted black. That being said, it appears that Thanksgiving is no longer a day to give thanks for the things that we have or a day to spend time with family, it’s a reminder to people (in the United States and Canada) that Black Friday is approaching and it’s time to make out our shopping list coordinating it with the sales in the newspaper circulars and online websites such as GottaDeal. Hundreds of buses holding thousands of Canadians cross our borders to take advantage of the sales. There was a traffic jam to one of our outlet malls that exceeded 10 miles. There were riots and people getting shot over these sales. What’s happening to our culture? Retailers are no longer opening their doors at 6am or 7am on Friday morning, but at 5am. Some retailers such as CompUSA opened at 9pm Thanksgiving to give us cattle a head start to part with our hard earned money and take advantage of the sales.
I was driving home from the Thanksgiving dinner we had at my sisters house around 7:30pm this past Thursday. We happened to have passed a Best Buy store that already had people lining up for the early bird specials. Now I know that some people have their dinners early on Thanksgiving and some people don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but still standing in the cold for 10 and 11 hours to get a hold of a laptop for $300, nuts. I really shouldn’t blame these consumers because they may not be able to afford it any other time, I should blame the retailers. It just seems that there is only one day out of the 365 that retailers aren’t bending us over as hard and giving it to us.
Now there's a new tern called Cyber Monday. This is the day that people return back to work from Thanksgiving and shop on-line at the office instead of actually working. Yep, it keeps on getting better. I wonder how much money these companies are losing because of the lack of productivity.
I’m not innocent. I knew of someone who was going to stand out in line so I gave them my order.
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7 comments:
I just heard the term cyber monday this morning on the radio. That's how I do most of my shopping - online - no standing in lines for me!
So that answers your question - I didn't go out on Fri nor do I ever plan on it either; I'm not one for crowds, nor standing in lines for hours - I don't get the novelty of it!
nope... no line waiting for me!! people are so rude its not worth it to me! i would rather spend the extra buck and wait
Forget Black Friday, sign me up for Cyber Monday!!
Personally I blame those involved in selling advertising space.
My holiday was great, lots of family time, and no stores. I guess it's up to the individual how tey send their holiday, with family, or shoppers.
Michelle - I've become more of a web shopper myself. The first place I usually go for something is either ebay or Amazon.
Amy F - I hear ya. I did stand in line once when I was a bit younger. Never again. You can still get good deals after Black Friday anyway.
TIC - CM will eventually be bigger than BF. Give it a few more years. When it happens servers will crash all over the world.
Kim - I blame Scotland. More specifically I blame the people who have philosophy degrees and Southern English accent who live in Scotland;)
Just Shu - Well put.
When I was younger, shops weren't allowed to be open on the weekends after 12 noon on Saturday. Progress???
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