It's early on Black Friday and I am up due to an unbelievably early appliance delivery. Tiff and I have no interest in flocking to the stores today as the madness does not seem worth the savings and I have been the poor shmo wearing the name tags today too often to not see how tired they are from the relentless stream of ugly humanity in their faces. Sure it's their job, but increase the en masse they face and give them a higher than average demand perspective and that just makes for a tough day at work. We all have those.
I am still a bit mystified by this whole Black Friday thing. It seemed to me that it began a bit as a joke and now almost rivals Thanksgiving in anticipation and attention. Hell, some companies did not even wait till Friday (what, midnight was just too late??) and started opening shop yesterday evening. I get the deals are good and the timing is right, but it's a manufactured "event" and we all seem to just go along with it. Thanksgiving used to be a day where at the very least you did not have to work and may enjoy a good meal, depending on where you were going. Now the very folks that could count on that one day are being called in sooner and sooner so the folks that didn't have to work can get some big savings. Ah… bitterness…
I suppose it seems like a fair takeover though. Unless you put you textbook down in 5th grade and learned nothing else about the pilgrims and indians after this famous meal, you know the rest of that amiable relationship over a turkey did not pan out well. Greed and demand took over and the rest is generally unmentioned history. I suppose it makes sense we'd develop a shopping holiday to indulge in this disposition.
I, again, have no problem with the idea. The execution is what bugs me. If the stores open on Thanksgiving for Black "Friday," you don't have to go. If you are shopping to take care of you Christmas shopping and buy gifts for everyone, you don't have to wait a month to be nice to people. Lastly, if you don't like the way a business handles sales (carrot dangling) and crowds or even how they seem to treat their employees (as in what time they demand they be away from their families), don't shop there. I can rant. You can complain. Ultimately it is your dollars they will listen to. That right there is your vote.
Trust me, that vote means a lot more than telling an abused clerk/waiter/barista how tough it must be to work on a day like this.
I am still a bit mystified by this whole Black Friday thing. It seemed to me that it began a bit as a joke and now almost rivals Thanksgiving in anticipation and attention. Hell, some companies did not even wait till Friday (what, midnight was just too late??) and started opening shop yesterday evening. I get the deals are good and the timing is right, but it's a manufactured "event" and we all seem to just go along with it. Thanksgiving used to be a day where at the very least you did not have to work and may enjoy a good meal, depending on where you were going. Now the very folks that could count on that one day are being called in sooner and sooner so the folks that didn't have to work can get some big savings. Ah… bitterness…
I, again, have no problem with the idea. The execution is what bugs me. If the stores open on Thanksgiving for Black "Friday," you don't have to go. If you are shopping to take care of you Christmas shopping and buy gifts for everyone, you don't have to wait a month to be nice to people. Lastly, if you don't like the way a business handles sales (carrot dangling) and crowds or even how they seem to treat their employees (as in what time they demand they be away from their families), don't shop there. I can rant. You can complain. Ultimately it is your dollars they will listen to. That right there is your vote.
Trust me, that vote means a lot more than telling an abused clerk/waiter/barista how tough it must be to work on a day like this.
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