<p>I don’t like that any “retail” establishment, including theaters, are open. The dam has now burst and there will be no going back. I liked the feeling I was able to have as a child…quiet and calm and everyone safe at home together. Q u i e t. Shhhhhh.
Why do things have to be so frantic? I don’t get it.</p>
<p>Aren’t we talking about the day AFTER Thanksgiving? I’m certainly not in favor of shopping on Thanksgiving day. My son is now at Best Buy working again (it’s 7:40pm on Friday) after working all night (Thanksgiving night) from 11pm - 6 am.</p>
<p>We had a Black Friday sale at the charity thrift store I volunteer at…50% off the entire store until 2:00. You would have thought we were giving things away. We did 4 times the sales we usually do…and things were 1/2 price! </p>
<p>I got a sweater, jacket for my husband, a book, a cute sweater set for my DD, and a pair of new shoes. I spent about $20. That was IT for my Black Friday shopping!</p>
<p>We need some anthropologists here. Why do we shop for things we don’t need? Why do we feel that urge to run out and get a bargain? Is it some adaptive hangover from the hunter-gatherer days? Then why do I want to run away and hide when shopping gets crazy?</p>
<p>I’m thinking of the one and only time I tried to go to the 1/2 price day at a local thrift store. You couldn’t get into the parking lot! That was my cue to leave.</p>
<p>We got some good deals online today, but my youngest and I scored several items at Ross, which is ALWAYS a discount store. New heels for winter ball? Check. New conservative clothes for speech competitions? Check. Jackets for the low-income kids we’re buying for? Check. In and out, no lines, no waiting.</p>
<p>Ross IS an interesting place. IF you’re patient and good at combing the racks, there can be some amazing finds. Tuesdays, when folks 50 and over get 10% off and when there are after-Christmas returns are the main times I see long lines and testy shoppers and staff.</p>
<p>It’s very hit & miss for us, so we don’t go there too often for serious shopping. It is an interesting place to peruse if you are open to what you may find and will be OK if you don’t find anything.</p>
<p>My son went out with his buddy around midnight last night, just to see what was going on at the Walmart. He remarked that people were buying lots of video games all at once, more than a gamer would normally want at one time. We figured that the price led buyers to just heap titles into their carts, without really caring what someone on their gift list actually wanted. As someone who thinks of Thanksgiving Weekend as the most homey, peaceful weekend of the year, I really don’t care how much money I could save. Shopping stress is not my friend, and I have no one in my life that I have to impress with electronics.</p>
<p>I think the senior discount at “my” Ross is 55, which I hit next week. It’s my go-to store for things like sheets, towels, etc. and D with her size 10 gunboats finds brand name shoes that don’t cost a fortune and that she actually likes. The clothes seem to be more plentiful in the junior and kid sizes, which usually leaves me out.</p>
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4 PM? That’s ridiculous. </p>
<p>My job isn’t that bad. A&F tried makes the 18+ hours you spend in the store fun. They gave us pizza, snacks, energy drinks, everything. Can’t complain about that. What I will complain about is how customers are beyond crazy. </p>
<p>I had to leave early from my family on Thanksgiving. I wasn’t distraught. I didn’t cry because I knew I would see them again. I was dreading and prematurely annoyed of what I would encounter with customers who are obsessed with the company’s clothes. They charged the doors. They ran people over. They were bat crap crazy. </p>
<p>And when they don’t find a size or a style they’re looking for (and you can’t provide them what they want) watch out. You just might be cursed out when you walk away or, if they’re extremely testy in the wee hours of the morning, they’ll curse you out on the spot! </p>
<p>Just providing an employee viewpoint into the mix. Many times people focus on why we Americans want everything etc, etc, etc. I am adding: why Americans are so darn rude when they don’t get everything.</p>
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</p>
<p>Considering we’re about the only culture that does this, I’m gonna go with no… it’s nothing innate. </p>
<p>It has everything to do with the fact that we’re brainwashed from a young age with consumerism. It is very, very well-designed by those with lots and lots of money.</p>
<p>In past Thanksgivings, H & the kids have sometimes gone to CompUSA to get one or more electronic toys after midnight. The crowds were mellow and employees would often go through the line passing out pumpkin pie to keep folks congenial. This year, H and our family chose to just enjoy the party and then go home, as no one felt inclined to be around crowds. My younger sis, who hosted the Thanksgiving party was getting ready to go to BestBuy with her youngest S and her S who was a college SR was going there with his buddies. None of them had any idea what they wanted to purchase, but they thought it would be “fun,” and there would be bargains. Haven’t heard back what (if anything) was purchased–will ask when I see them tomorrow at another party.</p>
<p>S wanted to go to a few stores today–B&N, Lego, WalMart. He purchased a few select items from B&N, nothing at all from the other two stores. I bought some coffee for H from Macy’s and some shampoo and a dessert for S to give to the staff at his condo building. All very low key. Am planning to make it to Costco this weekend to buy gifts for a few folks IF we can fit it into the schedule, which will probably work out OK.</p>
<p>I don’t do much shopping any more, since my kids really prefer to buy what and when they want–sizing them is problematic for me anyway. We have bought them a few things but may end up returning them if they don’t like them. We will have to see.</p>
<p>Enjoyed some online bargains like free shipping and handling with 5 or 6 months of easy pay with QVC and HSN. Samsung tablets, also used Nomorerack online for some very discounted products. Daughter, her SO and I went for a drive after our Thanksgiving meal and were astonished at the very full parking lots at Best Buy, Kay-mart, the tremendous line outside Walmart waiting for the opening. This was about 9pm.</p>
<p>My Black Friday shopping shall be done…tomorrow. ;)</p>
<p>I’m hoping to hit up Ulta, some clothing stores, and some local shops, to get some Christmas shopping out of the way. </p>
<p>Our consumerist mentality has stripped away not one but one and a half days of my “shopping time”. I’ll be working until 1 AM if all is well in the store. </p>
<p>This is ridiculous. Sort of worried what nex year will be like. Will there be Black Friday sales on Thursday starting at 12 AM??</p>
<p>It makes no sense to me to curse or be mad at the poor store staff that are doing their best to appease the masses. There were staff at Macy’s who admitted to starting work at 4am this morning. That’s pretty unreasonable to me. </p>
<p>People in the line I was in were very polite to one another and the nice staff there. I’m getting to the point where I really don’t need much and don’t care if it’s the rock bottom price any more, especially if I’m only buying one or few of an item.</p>
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Probably. Then Wednesday. Then… I don’t know. </p>
<p>Black Friday is a thing of the past though.</p>
<p>Much rejoicing here in Michigan as the Lions won for the first thanksgiving day in 9 years. </p>
<p>Today I bought a new light fixture for my dining room from a local lighting store. I was the only customer in the store. Did my support your local business one day early. </p>
<p>Bought a present on line from Best Buy yesterday. Felt great.</p>
<p>NFL football on Thanksgiving is an old tradition, as are restaurants being open, and movie theaters are open most days, including holidays, it is a core part of their business (some people chose not to cook on thanksgiving or can’t, and people do enjoy going to movies and such)…</p>
<p>On the other hand stores being open on Thanksgiving, other than convenience stores, is relatively new, I think Walmart was one of the first to do it, and it is within the last 10 years that this has happened. My answer would be that I am bothered by being open on Thanksgiving is that I could argue that the NFL being on is entertainment for people gathered to eat, restaurants are providing a thanksgiving meal for the people to share, and and movie theaters may be for people who don’t have other plans, it is their entertainment. </p>
<p>Whereas shopping is nothing more to me than feeding into the darker side of things on Thanksgiving, instead of giving thanks it is having people work to be mobbed and cursed at by people in frenetic search of the great bargain instead of being something of a day of pleasure and being together. I know retailers are desperate to get people into the stores and shop, because they depend on this season, especially when the economy is bad, and they hope that getting people in with loss leaders will lead them to buy other things, but being open Thanksgiving day is pathetic, it is like saying that any second wasted is going to bankrupt them. The whole mentality of the season, the shop till you drop, people beating each other up over ‘hot bargains’, doesn’t make much sense to me at all, and I think it just is an example of the merchandising machine run amok and people falling for it. Though I will admit one fantasy for black friday, of taking a thermos of coffee, going to an upscale mall near where I live, and hang out in the parking lot and watch these women in incredible designer clothes, with the immaculately done nails, hair and makeup, heels and fur coat, driving high end luxury SUV’s, acting like two UFC combatants fighting over parking spots…having been there in years passed, it is surreal.</p>
<p>A number of years ago, I went out early on Black Friday. My son wanted a black wool pea coat and Penneys had a great sale…or so I thought. I got there when the store opened with the flyer in my hand. Guess what? There wasn’t ONE jacket in that style/price in the store at all. I was quite annoyed. I trekked over to Macy’s to see if they had anything. Nope.</p>
<p>Let’s just say…I was tired…and annoyed.</p>
<p>On my way home, I stopped at Kohls and American Eagle…both were having “early bird sales”. I bought an American Eagle pea coat at AE. And I bought a Ralph Lauren Pea coat at Kohls. $75 each (the RL one was normally $250, marked down to $150…and was on a 1/2 off rack).</p>
<p>I brought both home…with receipts and let DS pick the one he wanted. He chose the RL one.</p>
<p>That was my first and last Black Friday outing to the mall.</p>
<p>Now…talk to me about the day after Christmas!</p>
<p>I dunno–never enjoy seeing people misbehaving and especially hate fighting over parking spaces. Today, I waited patiently for a parking space at one mall and had S park at another mall in an unpopular location (near the store he wanted to shop at). The only time I had any problems was in the WalMart parking lot when I was waiting for a space and the parking attendant impatiently motioned for me to keep driving because the line of cars behind was backing up. Fortunately, had dropped S off and he determined he didn’t really want anything at that store, so proceeded forward and picked him up and left. Didn’t understand why that parking lot was so full; never did like it and was relieved to leave.</p>
<p>H just stayed home today, waiting for repairman to service our printer, which needed to have a major electronic part replaced in our house. We are all happy it works fine now. It is our main printer. H was glad we didn’t beg him to join our shopping, as none of us really LOVE shopping. D is a bit peaked from flying in on Wednesday, and has mostly been surfing on line and resting up. She has no interest in braving stores, as she has never been a shopper and finds the process utterly draining. She is SO grateful that so much can be purchased on-line with free delivery.</p>
<p>I am done with my shopping… online. I LOVE shopping, but I’m too old to deal with overcrowded parking lots, irate shoppers, crying babies, nothing-in-my-size-left racks! The UPS guy will probably have a cow delivering my online order of dishes up our steep drive. LOL.</p>
<p>
In addition to this being a tradition, the employees of these establishments don’t have to deal with customers who are especially rude and nasty on that particular day (e.g., see Niquii77 post).</p>