Every year, when this topic of Black Friday shopping comes up, I become the cranky step-sister of Scrooge and The Grinch. It is as inevitable as my children rejecting the candied yams on Thanksgiving Day.

I’m probably in a small minority, but I avoid all things Black Friday.

Not that I don’t appreciate the concept, I do. Who doesn’t love the thrill of a good bargain? I’m the gal who buys gifts all year long, taking advantage of after-season sales and coupons.
Yet I cannot get myself worked into a Black Friday Frenzy.

This is not a knee-jerk response to memories from my years in retail. Sure, I can still hear customers jeering at each other while pulling out every single belt off the rack, upturning neat stacks of sweaters searching for the right size, and snapping at me when the sale price didn’t ring up correctly on my register.

I guess it’s possible I’m only reacting to the years spent working at a Customer Service Booth in our local mall, selling gift certificates to fed up shoppers who had lost out on “the perfect gift” being sold at a deep discount for that day only.

Then again, perhaps I am. Working retail during the holidays, particularly the blackest of all retail days, is not for the weak of spirit.

Perhaps, it’s nothing to do with my work history at all.  Call me cranky and old fashioned, but I’m not a fan of the way Black Friday takes Thanksgiving, a holiday that is about food and fellowship and gratitude, then turns it on its head.

Besides, I can remember when shopping on the day after Thanksgiving wasn’t a thing at all. Did you realize this now ubiquitous tradition of Black Friday Sales only started on a national scale in the late eighties? November used to be mostly about gratitude.

This year I starting see ads for Black Friday sales before Veterans Day. Seriously?!

Yeah, don’t even get me started on the all too common trend of Thanksgiving Night “shop early” for Black Friday sales… That’s a nope. I just cooked all day. I’m not going anywhere but my couch.
I’ll get up on Saturday and suss out good deals at my local retailers. Support small business instead of big retail chains. Anything I can’t find local, I’ll look for on the interwebs on Monday. But Friday? Friday I’ll spent wrangling my little Rebels and leftovers. That’s more than enough frenzy for me.

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3 Responses

  1. You’re not the only one. I totally ignore Black Friday! I have already signed up for a birdwatching hike on Friday morning! I am definitely looking forward to that. On Saturday, I will do a little shopping at a local farmers market. Both events will be more interesting, more photogenic, and worthy of blogging than the shopping feeding frenzy at some mall! Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend.

  2. All I can say about Black Friday is thank God for the internet. I’ve never shopped in store on Black Friday, never will.