I know that many folks have very strong and often negative feelings regarding the retail phenomenon known as “Black Friday”. If you are not familiar, this is the day after Thanksgiving, when many retail stores open early and entice shoppers with significant discounts and free giveaways. Now some feel that this particular event represents all that is wrong with our consumer driven society. While I agree that one can certainly find fault with our unceasing desire to horde more and more material things, whilst turning a blind eye to the suffering and need of our fellow man, my contention would be that this is a problem not just on Black Friday, but the other 364 days of the year as well. So to make the argument that going out the day after Thanksgiving to buy a laptop computer is bad, but going to the same store any other day of the year is ok, just doesn’t make that much sense. Nevertheless, I’m sure that wiser and more interested folks will work out the details of when and where it is permissible to exchange money for goods and services, without the condemnation of being the face of American greed.
But this post is about why I like “Black Friday”. So as one who experienced this annual occurrence, just last week, I will share a few reasons why I appreciate this retail anomaly.
Top Five Reasons Why I Like Black Friday:
5. A 3-way-tie. The fifth place spot is a hodgepodge of three things that I couldn’t cut out. They are being awake at 3am, getting 50 to 70 percent off, and hanging out with a pair of identical twin ladies in their mid-40’s that were proudly wearing reindeer antlers on their head that light up and play music. Basically, I love being up when so many others are sleeping, its just like you got the whole place to yourself. As for the savings, paying a lot less for something I’d be buying anyway always helps. The ladies with the affinity for their holiday head gear, well…I guess you hand to be there.
4. Watching the sheer carnage as people try to charge the doors, in front of those persons who had been waiting for hours in line. That’s just darn good entertainment. Oh the humanity!
3. Waiting in line and making new friends. When waiting in line for so long with other people you just end up chatting and sharing stories. One of the ladies in front of me, while waiting in line at Target, made a Starbucks run at 5am and surprised me with a cup of delicious hot chocolate. I was very appreciative and was able to return the favor around 5:30am, when they held my place in line and I ran to a nearby McDonalds to use the restroom. I returned with a bag of hash browns and we all enjoyed an early breakfast snack.
2. Hearing people waiting outside a Target store at 4:30am, in late November calling other shoppers crazy. (They were talking about folks that had been camping outside of a Best Buy since midnight.)
1. People Watching. The thing is if you are a student of human nature and/or enjoy sociology at any level, then you would find this entire experience to be well worth it. For me, I’d probably go even if I didn’t buy a single thing. It’s that much fun.
But this post is about why I like “Black Friday”. So as one who experienced this annual occurrence, just last week, I will share a few reasons why I appreciate this retail anomaly.
Top Five Reasons Why I Like Black Friday:
5. A 3-way-tie. The fifth place spot is a hodgepodge of three things that I couldn’t cut out. They are being awake at 3am, getting 50 to 70 percent off, and hanging out with a pair of identical twin ladies in their mid-40’s that were proudly wearing reindeer antlers on their head that light up and play music. Basically, I love being up when so many others are sleeping, its just like you got the whole place to yourself. As for the savings, paying a lot less for something I’d be buying anyway always helps. The ladies with the affinity for their holiday head gear, well…I guess you hand to be there.
4. Watching the sheer carnage as people try to charge the doors, in front of those persons who had been waiting for hours in line. That’s just darn good entertainment. Oh the humanity!
3. Waiting in line and making new friends. When waiting in line for so long with other people you just end up chatting and sharing stories. One of the ladies in front of me, while waiting in line at Target, made a Starbucks run at 5am and surprised me with a cup of delicious hot chocolate. I was very appreciative and was able to return the favor around 5:30am, when they held my place in line and I ran to a nearby McDonalds to use the restroom. I returned with a bag of hash browns and we all enjoyed an early breakfast snack.
2. Hearing people waiting outside a Target store at 4:30am, in late November calling other shoppers crazy. (They were talking about folks that had been camping outside of a Best Buy since midnight.)
1. People Watching. The thing is if you are a student of human nature and/or enjoy sociology at any level, then you would find this entire experience to be well worth it. For me, I’d probably go even if I didn’t buy a single thing. It’s that much fun.
.
.
Coming up in the next post: A few things I don't like about Black Friday...
5 comments:
OK. i have a post coming and then my second one will directly cite your material if ye grant me thy permission.
nicely put. i waited in line last year to buy a digital camera. it was pretty amazing to see how long the line had already grown when we got there at 5:00. and yes, i did call the people in front of me crazy (because they were).
we ended up getting a great deal on the last one in the store (until the next shipment, of course). that camera worked for about 10 months, until my wife dropped it at a restaurant. so this year, i was prepared to do it all over again, but my father-in-law got us one instead.
thanks for reading.
Oi, achei seu blog pelo google está bem interessante gostei desse post. Gostaria de falar sobre o CresceNet. O CresceNet é um provedor de internet discada que remunera seus usuários pelo tempo conectado. Exatamente isso que você leu, estão pagando para você conectar. O provedor paga 20 centavos por hora de conexão discada com ligação local para mais de 2100 cidades do Brasil. O CresceNet tem um acelerador de conexão, que deixa sua conexão até 10 vezes mais rápida. Quem utiliza banda larga pode lucrar também, basta se cadastrar no CresceNet e quando for dormir conectar por discada, é possível pagar a ADSL só com o dinheiro da discada. Nos horários de minuto único o gasto com telefone é mínimo e a remuneração do CresceNet generosa. Se você quiser linkar o Cresce.Net(www.provedorcrescenet.com) no seu blog eu ficaria agradecido, até mais e sucesso. If is possible add the CresceNet(www.provedorcrescenet.com) in your blogroll, I thank. Good bye friend.
I've never actually been shopping on black friday.
*gasp*
If it's anything like you described, it's probably something that every American should experience at least once in their lifetime...like going to Vegas or watching the ball drop in Times Square or eat pork rinds.
mark your calendar now, sarah. i think it's on a friday next year.
Post a Comment