Together on Tuesday - Black Friday Shopping (or Shame?)

Our topic this week: What do you think about Black Friday Shopping?  Love it or hate it?  Why? Are the deals worth the lines, crowds, waiting in the cold/dark early morning hours?

So, what do I think about Black Friday shopping?  In a word: SHAME!
Shame on people for acting like primal buffoons against their fellow man just to save a few bucks.  Shame on people for leaving home and family behind the evening/night of Thanksgiving to go and line up outside of a store.  Shame on people for being SO FREAKING GREEDY that they'll throw any resemblance of common courtesy out the window in order to get some crappy non-branded electronic gadget at some cut-rate price that still costs far more than its worth.  Shame on people for treating the poor retail store employees in such a horrible manner.  And certainly not least of all...shame on retailers for facilitating...no...enabling such behavior.

So...I guess you've figured out that I am vehemently anti-Black Friday.  To answer some questions that you are bound to wonder as you read this: no, I do not work in retail.  Yes, I HAVE worked in retail (which is how I originally met Katie over at Fun Home Things!  She's a hoot and made working retail WAY more fun than it really was).  I HAVE worked retail on both Thanksgiving and on Black Friday.  I know business, and I can spot a exploitive business model/practice in a matter of seconds.  I know how not to fall prey to those practices.  I am a Christian, and I celebrate Christmas.  For me the the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus and should be celebrated with a giving heart and mind.  I have an abundance of respect for all other religions.  I do not push Christmas on anyone; we should all be free to celebrate the holidays as we as individuals and families see fit. 

Those of you who defend the insanity that has become Black Friday shopping, this is what I say to you:
You are greedy.  There I said it.  Greedy.  I am sure that has stepped on some toes; but you know what?  As I am known for saying: we all need our toes stepped on once in a while.  Its what keeps us grounded; reminded that we are only human and no better than the next guy/gal. 

And for those of you who start shopping in stores that open on Thanksgiving evening/night? I especially chide you. How dare you. If it weren't for people like you who apparently can't live a single day without shopping, those retail workers would be home with their families.  Simply stated, if their revenue on Thanksgiving Day did not add up to Cost of being open + profit, stores wouldn't be open that day.  If you don't feel guilty about pulling these hard-working folks away from their families, then you should. Many of you tell yourselves, "if they had a problem working holidays, then they wouldn't work retail."  Hogwash. That is simply hogwash; and kudos to you for poorly reasoning your way out of having a heart for people who should be able to spend all of Thanksgiving with their families. Some of those people DO have to work retail. Maybe they don't want to, but in order to make ends meet in this tough economy, yes, they do have to. They cannot afford to lose their job by refusing to work Thanksgiving. Their families need food and shelter just the same as yours does. In the current job market, this may be the only job that person could get in order to accomplish taking care of their families. Ask yourself this: would YOU want to work on Thanksgiving? How would YOU feel having to work Thanksgiving? How would you feel if your husband/wife/son/daughter/mother/father/etc...had to work Thanksgiving in order to afford the holiday meal that your family is home having without you? I am sure you'd be angry about it. Yeah, it doesn't sound very nice, does it? It bites a little harder when it is put into terms that hit a little closer to home. 

Here are some ways I suggest you spend your time on Black Friday rather than contributing to this madness which, by design, is created for the sole purpose of lining the pockets of big name retailers:

• Stay home with your family; enjoy that time with them
• Volunteer - for heaven's sake, do something good for mankind instead!
• Read a book
• Watch a movie cuddled up with your favorite cuddle bug
• Put up your indoor holiday decorations...while in your PJs (or not...I just love bumming around in my PJs)!
• Sit around in your PJ's drinking coffee or hot cocoa
• Volunteer - go serve meals to the needy; they get lots of volunteers on Thanksgiving, but we never hear how many show back up to serve meals the next day!
• Do reasearch - pick a different culture to learn about.
• Blog! Hit up us ToT'ers if you need a topic idea; or, just use one of our past topics!
• Work on getting all those holiday cards addressed!  As days grow busier, you'll be glad you got that out of the way.
• Work on a photo calendar project for the upcoming new year; I do one every year, and I love it.
• Volunteer - visit some lonely senior citizens who don't have family to spend the holidays with.
• Pick a fun craft to do from Katie's blog: Fun Home Things (use link on right).  There are TONS of great, fun ideas there.  Not just for your little ones; plenty for us big (older....ugh...older) kids too!
• Read some of our ToT blog entries (links to all on the right sidebar)
• Cook something using an old family recipe that has been around for generations
• Volunteer...did I mention...you could volunteer?  The holidays are really about GIVING.  So spend nothing; but you'll still give in a big way!

Retailers who enable, host, and otherwise create the insanity that has become Black Friday shopping, this is what I (scathingly) say to you:
You are nothing less than negligent in the way that you have crafted yourself a business model around exploiting the general public's willingness to compete/injure/trample/harass/and yes, pepper spray each other over the slim opportunity to score some superstar deal.  You know you are guilty - do not bother denying it.  You advertise some great deals - a handful of which are shockingly spectacular.  Then, you only stock 4 or 5 of these items at said shockingly spectacular price at each store location.  You KNOW full well...as a matter of fact...you bank on our ability not to resist trying to 'get in on it while the gettin' is cheap'.  By now, you fully know that you will have hundreds and hundreds of customers show up each and every store trying to get their hands on one of these highly coveted deals.  Of course people are going to act crazy and fight.  You know this, don't act like you don't.  Your plan is to give them hope that they'll score one of these superstar deals, but by pure numbers, the vast vast majority of them won't but while you've gotten them in the store, you know full well they'll go for the secondary deals (some they think are still great/good deals).   Firstly, I will call out Walmart for this.  You are the most notorious for inciting Black Friday madness.  You seem to set the bar lower and lower every year.  I thought maybe you'd back off once people started getting injured, trampled, pepper sprayed, even killed at your stores during Black Friday shopping.  I'm not sure why I thought that (misguided optimism, most likely), but you haven't backed off.  As a matter of fact, each year you continue to incite more and more bad behavior.  Quite frankly, Walmart, I am disappointed that the rumblings of the possibility that your employees would stike on Black Friday did not come to fruition.  That would have been a much-needed reality check for your management to have to deal with the crazy ass customers of Black Friday in lieu of the associates you normally toss out to the Black Friday crowd with little or no regard for their well-being.  I am disappointed, but not surprised.  I am sure that you had deployed corporate-level boots-on-the ground to each of your stores to squash any talk of this.  Because, well, that's what you do to protect yourself against the cost of improving employee treatment.  Isn't it?  But not so fast Target, Best Buy, and all you other major retailers - don't you snicker too soon over my calling out Walmart.  You are just as guilty.  You just nimbly follow suit behind Walmart and pattern your own practices after theirs.  You also facilitate your own bit of madness on Black Friday. 

Over the years, you have bastardized the holiday season.  Not just Christmas, but all holiday observences that involve gift-giving this time of year.  You have diluted the true meaning of these holidays and celebrations for many.  You are teaching adults and children alike that the holidays are about things.  About spending, spending, spending.  Buying, buying, buying - and subsequently about getting, getting getting.  It isn't about stuff.  Its about giving, love, family, friends, and togetherness.  And one more thing: STOP PUTTING OUT CHRISTMAS STUFF SO EARLY THAT IT IS STILL A MILLION DEGREES OUT IN THE MID-SUMMER HEAT WHEN YOUR EMPLOYEES (EMBARASSINGLY, I'M SURE) ARE STOCKING THE SHELVES WITH THIS STUFF. 

Are the deals worth any of it?
NO.  Correction...make that HELL NO!  I would not pry myself away from my cozy warm bed for a free crappy 'no-name' flat screen TV/computer/DVD Player/etc...let alone go out, stand in the cold, freeze my ass off, subject myself to my phobia of people getting all up in my personal space, and then having to crowd surf my way through the store to buy something.  It just won't happen.  Never has.  Never will.  That is all (as Danielle from My Peaches and Cream would say!).  There is nothing I (nor anyone in my family) needs so badly that this would happen.  It is stuff people.  Just stuff.  Not even life-saving, critically needed stuff.  Just mundane stuff that will inevitibly clutter up your house and eventually annoy you.

Regardless of how you feel about Black Friday shopping, the reality is this: a very small number of you will get the best deals.  The odds are against you; you probably won't score one of those afore mentioned superstar deals.  I don't know the numerical statistics, but I would boldly guess that you may have better odds walking into a casino and putting your dollars on the line there instead.  On the secondary items you may get some decent deals; but was it worth it?  Really worth it?  It has been proven that over the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, most items end up on sale for less than they were on Black Friday.  Further, on things like electronics...you typically aren't getting the product of a well-established brand.  I am NOT saying it is all about brand names, but there are reputable players in the consumer electronics industry and then there are the less than reputable players.  Yes, you are all loaded with stories about a brand name product that failed for you; I am aware.  It happens.  But in general, certain manufacturers are more into overall quality than others.  You may get something like a Blu-ray player or laptop ridiculously cheap, but will it still be working in a year or so?  If you have to replace a cheaply made item, in the end...you've not only saved nothing...you've actually spent more.