A clock appeared in my yahoo feed yesterday; second-by-second it ticked down. You’d think it was some sort of doomsday clock or countdown to catastrophe.
None of that. It was the ‘Black Friday’ watch; it left the impression it was the Final Countdown. Just 8 days to go (8 days 13 hours 59 minutes and 48 seconds to be exact. 47. 46. 45.).
You get the picture.
Once upon a time, Black Friday was a fun-filled activity to help overstuffed shoppers work off the calories from the previous day’s merriment. We used to participate – when it wasn’t a frenzy – but even then, the highlight of the morning was a warm, tasty Chick-fil-A breakfast.
Then, it changed. I wrote a couple years ago about how and why we decided we were going to sit out the festivities after it jumped the tracks.
And yet, in the interim, the event has continued to grow. Last night, I noticed a tv spot for a local purveyor of mattresses. The commercial depicts Santa trying to get the item down the chimney but a couple friendly delivery guys from the company tell him “We got this…” as they bring the new bed through the front door.
Meanwhile, I also saw advertisements for Best Buy, Lowe’s, GMC and Ford touting their Black Friday sales and my yahoo in-box was stuffed – like a Thanksgiving turkey – full of all the tremendous deals you could find from Amazon to Zales.
And then there’s Cyber Monday…and don’t get me started on the topic of stores open for business on Thanksgiving Day. A number of businesses have posted their hours for the 27th. That is a topic for a different blog post on a different day.
Please don’t think of me as a ‘hater.’ I’m all for free enterprise and the supply/demand curve. If shoppers want the stores to be open, retailers respond in kind. And I tip my cap to all the eager bargain hunters and creative entrepreneurs.
When the pendulum swings back the other way, and it is no longer profitable to be open for business on Thanksgiving, they won’t.
Maybe it won’t be a pendulum, per se, but rather a virtual digital clock.
In the meantime, I will continue to chuckle as the doomsday clock counts down. And I will read, with a certain detached interest, the Black Friday ads and hear tales of the Great Bargain Hunt of 2014. I might even consider jumping into the Cyber Monday fray (if I can think of anything I need).
For now, I’m just focused on Thanksgiving, a lovely meal, and an opportunity to give Thanks for a bounty of blessings.
JG
Originally posted 11/19/2014
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