The outrage has started already. Every year as Thanksgiving draws closer and talks of Black Friday deals begin, so does the criticism of Black Friday. Consumerism, selfish, greedy, blah blah blah. Same thing every year.
The thing is I don’t think Black Friday is awful – and in fact for the past several years, I’ve gone out the Friday after Thanksgiving to shop with my mom. It’s almost tradition.
I’m not gonna camp outside Best Buy for five days. Nor am I going to wake up at 3 a.m. to go ANYWHERE. But, you know, if I wake up at a decent time and venture out to the mall, well… I don’t mind the crowds. And I kind of enjoy the people watching. I never go with the NEED to buy anything, but if there happens to be a decent deal that I don’t have to trample anyone in order to get, well, who doesn’t like a deal? Often times, I come home after a few hours out with maybe one or two purchases crossed off my shopping list and a few interesting stories.
I’ve actually never encountered the kind of gruesome crowd that makes people cringe when they think of shopping on Black Friday. That could be because I’m not “busting any doors”, but what I’ve always found is that people are light hearted, helpful and chatty – all good things because the lines are a the worst part of it all.
With the plan to do a more low key holiday this year, I wouldn’t mind if I found some great deal on Friday – but frankly, I haven’t decided if I’ll even venture out. My daughters will be with their dad, so it’s not like there’s much else going on demanding my attention other than being a greedy selfish consumerist pig.
Besides, Pumpkin wants a Barbie Potty Training dog and so help me, if I can get away with not paying full price for that I’d sure like to.
That’s the kind of Black Friday stuff I don’t mind. The door busters at midnight on Thanksgiving, I do not like (in fact, I just finished a post about it on my blog). We’ve discovered that Black Friday afternoon is actually a great time to go grocery shopping as NO one is on that side of Walmart (the only real store within 50 miles of my house).