Black Friday is today. It conjures many emotions in myself. Before I start, I just want to say I don't care if you attend black Friday or not. I'm not out to attack or criticize anybody for any of their choices. This is just how I feel.
Since I was little kid I've gone shopping on black Friday (now referred to as bf because I'm lazy and shit). However, when I first started this shopping really didn't take place until Friday. As the years have gone on, the shopping has gotten earlier and earlier. I've gone for two years in a row where the deals start at 8 instead of 12 or later on the actual day of bf.
At first, I didn't really care. I just thought whatever. I mean it did suck to leave my family earlier than planned but I really wanted to go out and shop. Then, the year before last my anxiety started to kick in. I lost my mom at one point in time and really started to freak out. I couldn't get ahold of her for some reason. I knew we were in the same store but I just couldn't control my anxiety. I blew it off and then went again with my Wife, Blake, and Momma. I mean who doesn't love shopping!
And then this year rolled around. My Momma works at not one, but two retail stores. One of them being Toys R Us. She had to go to work at 430 pm yesterday. On Thanksgiving. She has to leave her family so that people can buy stuff. We'll get to that in a second. Anyway...this really upset me. I understand that people can choose what jobs they get and she knew that she would work bf when she took the job. But ya know, she has to pay the bills somehow and this is one way she could do it. At this time, how could anybody turn down a job, when so many people are desperate for one?
This has really impacted me. It's made me sit back and think. And maybe it's my more mature way of thinking, maybe not, but I really don't understand why people feel the need to leave a day of being grateful and enjoying good food, family, and booze (ok, booze on my end). I don't really want to have to leave my family to go out and get things.
Because that's exactly what I've done. I've racked up credit card debt on just stuff. I've bought three things that I really appreciate within the past two years. My wonderful crockpot, our firepit, and my dad and I's seasons of True Blood. Everything else I've gotten is just because I thought I needed it because it was on sale. I still have movies I haven't opened, let alone watched, pajamas that I definitely don't need, a pair of slippers I had to have only to find out they weren't even on sale! I bought all of this stuff because I couldn't differentiate between my needs and my wants. Not once did I buy anything for Teagan, honestly because bitches be crazy about their toys.
This year, Target has a great sale on a camera I really want. I don't have the money for the camera. But part of me really wants to go get it. I want to go get more True Blood and more Sons on DVD. I want to go buy that $4 copy of Great Gatsby because it was an awesome movie - and Leo, duh. But I just remind myself that I don't need that stuff. Blake just bought me a new camera for our anniversary. No, it's not a DSLR, but it's a camera that works. I have my dad's HBOGo password, I can watch TrueBlood whenever I feel like it. And yeah, Sons is expensive but I do have Christmas and a birthday coming up. If I wanted it that bad I would ask for it. But it's not enough of a priority to put on my list.
So honestly, do I really need any of these things? No, I don't. And I wish I would have asked myself this before I ever went and bought it. Because I know that these poor people working on Thanksgiving don't want to be at work. They want to be home with their families. They want to be able to eat all the leftover even though their yoga pants are already stretched to capacity. They wanna get drunk with their friends and make memories they'll have forever - well what they'll remember of them the next day.
I'm not against the actual day of bf. I'm against black Thanksgiving. If I didn't work on Friday I would loooove to go shopping. Maybe I could actually find some things to gift as presents. Maybe I wouldn't. I'm all for shopping when you feel like it. But from now on, I'll try and not go on Thanksgiving night. I will wait until Midnight. I may even do a little shopping online on thanksgiving night. At least I'll still be with my family. I haven't decided yet.
I just want people to realize what we have going on. Most people go out on Thanksgiving because they just want more stuff. Remember, that that "stuff" will still be there later. It may not be as good of a sale as it was, but if you really want it that bad, you'll buy it. Let's not turn Thanksgiving into an extinct holiday. I don't want to look back on these years in 20 years and tell my grandchildren (please I hope not) that Black Thursday used to be a day called Thanksgiving where people got together with their loved ones and enjoyed great food. It's not always been a day where people trample each other for stuff. That's what Black Friday was for. Let's all stay home until Friday. Then buy all the stuff you want.
5 comments:
When I worked at Blockbuster, we were open 365 days a year. That means we were open on Christmas. That also meant someone had to work on Christmas. To make it "fair" they let us choose: You work Christmas or New Years. I know it's not the same as having to leave your family on Thanksgiving (which we also had to work) but choosing between being with family on Christmas or New Years kind of sucked.
The worst was when I got my wisdom teeth out on Dec 24th (it was literally the only day I could get them out) and I had to be at Blockbuster for 4am on Boxing Day. Drugged up, half asleep and in pain.
Basically, retail blows.
I agree... unless you HAVE to be open 24/7 (hospitals, police stations, etc) then you should be closed on Thanksgiving. I can see grocery stores being open for a few hours but even then it should be limited. There is no reason why Black Friday needs to creep in on Thanksgiving Thursday. WAIT YO' TURN MOTHAFUCKA!
The only thing I have to say to this is AMEN.
I refused to support it. I didn't go shopping until about 2:30am Friday morning.
I really do not understand why it has started on thursday now!! I am not a fan..just a few years ago nothing opened before like 5am which is early enough! why make people leave their families to work, so annoying!
I actually got into an argument the other day with some guy about this. I said I don't believe in people having to work so selfish people can beat the crap out of each other for a stupid toy that they really aren't even saving money on. He told me he was a better parent than I was because at least he wanted to his kids to have a good Christmas and was willing to do what it took to save money. I'm like, uh yea..whatever. People should be able to be at home. Not at work. It's such BS. My mom works retail too and it's so sad. She's fragile and has a hard time moving and she got trampled on over some stupid fight for a video game. When I saw some of the "sales" I was like are you kidding? One store had a fancy coffee maker. Said its normally $110 and on sale $100 on Black Friday... oohhhh let me go out right now to almost be killed for that. Sorry I'm ranting. I just feel it's really stupid to have this. I wish Black Friday would be abolished. The funny thing I can say though is I found a toy online for my daughter a week before the Black Friday sale. It was $29 normally $90. So I snagged it from the website. I saw they were pumping the ads and stores with the same toy and trying to say the Black Friday deal was on "sale" for $50. I'm like.. uhhh I just got a totally better deal on this a week before the so-called big sale. So yea, I don't see how a lot of this stuff people buy into.
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