Black Friday shoppers, is the deal really worth the hassle?

I hate crowds. I panic when an area is too crowded. I will suffer through Black Friday sales if I think I can score in a major way, but this year the ads just didn’t get my attention, so I passed.

I’ll go if there’s something I really want or need and there’s a good deal. Then I go to that store, get that one thing, and go home and go back to bed.

This year, nothing really blowing my skirt up. Eff it.

Since I shop about 11 hours a year, the concept is unimaginable. What new and short-lived gadget deserves what is practically self-immolation?

If you factor in the costs of repairing your health and psyche, are you really getting bargains?

I’m sure there are always some great deals out there, but I don’t like fighting the crowds and the angry, aggressive people. To me, dealing with people like that takes away from my holiday cheer.

A friend just sent me a YouTube video of people rioting in a Walmart over some product. I have to ask myself… do Americans even like Thanksgiving? The dinner itself seems to be an exhausting (sometimes even hostile) hassle, and then there’s this bizarre shopping thing – but somehow this is the most important American holiday? The entire event seems like a nightmare to me.

“The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by empty beliefs extends to infinity”
—Epicurus

Statistically, the deal isn’t even worth the deal. Most people end up purchasing things they wouldn’t buy on any other day merely because they are being offered as a loss leader. Then they go on to buy all sorts of other things at full price once they’re in the store (that being the point of a loss leader). Black Friday is really nothing more than an opportunity to be both greedy and wasteful at the same time. Some people even go for the trifecta by throwing in a little violence for good measure. And to think: all you have to give up for this opportunity is an enjoyable day with family and friends. What a bargain!

I have never done Black Friday shopping, so my apologies for answering in the wrong perspective. However, I was asking myself today whether Black Friday was overrated or not. It seems like a perfect marketing scam to feed on materialistic consumers. It makes it worse that retail is now destroying Thanksgiving, yet another holiday. I don’t like the overall thought of using Christmas “the holidays” as a merchandizing extravaganza. As fake as it may be, I do like the sensation and ambiance that you get in a store during the Christmas season, though.

This morning I was telling my boyfriend, a good way to off a bunch of worthless people would be to have all the walmarts and what not that open at 4 am on Black Friday with a bunch of idiots camped outside, if they just opened their doors and all those people stepped into a giant hole or some type of void and were just gone, that would be really excellent. What a stupid fucking day.

Black Friday: Because only in America are people willing to trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.

I think it’s stupid. No sale is worth dealing with all those people. I can’t stand people as it is – that would just be too much for me to handle.

Black Friday is a waste of time, money and energy. It brings out the worst in people, and all over $2 toasters. They say there are better deals just before and after the holidays and when the actual season hits.

It used to be a lot of fun, especially when the stores were offering free stuff to the first 100 or 500 or such. My husband used to see how many stores he could hit up for the free stuff.

Now the sales are attended by people who are often out of control, and the prices aren’t even that much better than any regular sale price.

That said, my grandson’s girlfriend picked up a 40 ” TV for $200 this morning.

I went shopping Wednesday, not for gifts, but for a pair of jeans I needed. I was amazed how few people were in the mall. All the sales are up already on Wednesday. I will never understand Black Friday desperation. I get that it is a day off, and maybe there is not much else to do? My parents and I did go to Goodwill today if you count that, today is Black Friday, my dad wanted to go book shopping there. I have shopped once or twice on Black Friday, but it is never some mad rush early in the morning. I have worked many many Black Fridays in the stores during my retail career.

I actually did end up going shopping Friday evening. Most of the Black Friday sale items were still on the shelves. Not the only thing I wanted (half off a pack of five Hot Wheels cars. My kid is a Hot Wheels fanatic.) but there was literally a stack of Nintendo Wiis five feet high.

Congratulations, Big Box stores. You failed to close on Thanksgiving, and thus took all the craze out of Black Friday. Way to suck the fun out of it all and ruin your own profits in the meanwhile.