Black Friday Week!

So here we are, Black Friday week....  Wait....  What’s that you say?  Thanksgiving?  No one cares about that in ‘Murica anymore, heck, we have stores that open up now straight through that day.

For the longest time, I’ve been saying how Christmas is getting bigger and longer every year.  I’ve joked that it won’t be long until we see Santa out Trick or Treating.  On Rachel Ray, a child dressed up as a Christmas tree this year for Halloween.  We had Christmas decorations in the stores as early as September, and we’ve all see the internet Meme’s.



It all comes down to a certain mentality.  In another blog I plan to go into it in detail, but there is a mentality in this country that there are ‘unmissable deals.’  Sales that actually save you money.  No ‘sale’ saves you money, because you are still spending money, no matter how little.  Don’t let the “Money You’ve Saved” detract you from the point that you spent more than that to buy it, and the stores still made money on it.

It would be nice to see some of the boycotts actually work, but they won’t.  Drawing people in is something retail giants do very well.  There are things people think they need, and so they’ll offer it with the term ‘discount’ and people will eat it up.

Eat it up, instead of Turkey, people have migrated.  This holiday is no longer about a family gathering, its about the joy of what was Black Friday, which is now a multiday event.  Sure, its supply and demand at work, but its truly amazing how easily people in this country push aside things that seemed to be so important not so long ago....

Another thing is how these stores doing this, have practically ruined the fun of Black Friday.  Just a handful of years ago, you used to have to have a roadmap, a plan of attack.  Certain stores opened at certain times on the day, and you wanted to make sure you were early in line for the right ones.  It was a truly fun experience, no matter how cold and miserable you were....

But now....  With stores opening the day before, there’s no need for camping gear, or even my Kindle to pass the time.  There’s no need to rush, because the ‘door busters’ will have already long gone by the time we get there.  Its either that, or we’ll be done by midnight on the day of Thanksgiving....

That’s right, we’ve already looked at our list, and...there is no need to pull an all nighter this time....  Every single store is opening before midnight on Thanksgiving, including the entire mall.  So...yeah, this year, there will be no Black Friday....

But with the loss of Black Friday, what will happen next?  I honestly think, that soon, whether it be this year or the next few, stores will figure out that its not cost effective to keep their stores open 24 hours a day during that time.  Sure, they will space out the deals, make people want to keep coming back, but paying employees over that span...when they’ll have lulls over the weekend, will be detrimental.  Either way...I’m sad to see what its all threatens to become, though I long to get the holiday with my family back....