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Friday, November 26, 2010

everything I hate about the holidays...






The day after thanksgiving has a few simple traditions for me. I generally sleep at my parents house, I have pumpkin pie for breakfast, I watch movies and if family is over we play games. I avoid one thing like the plague, stores. This year, I enjoyed a little bit of online shopping but that is as far as I go. I genuinely loathe everything about 'black friday' shopping.

It's not the waking up early or waiting in the cold and rain, because I've done that kind of thing for movies or Disneyland rides. I think the video above sums up a huge part of what I loathe; the clawing and trampling to save. Apparently our semblance of civilization can be bought for a mere $30. We come off of a holiday filled with moments of thankful reflection and within a few hours we are out in the cold waiting to charge into the Kohls to grab clothes.

While discussing this with some friends, one mentioned that the economy has an influence on this pursuit  of early morning bargains. That may be true, but let's think about this. The stores put deals on Black Friday for excess merchandise that they want to put on sale, generally it's stuff that people don't really want and so it's being sold at a discount. People in the early morning rush, take a look at the item and make an impulse purchase because they are sleep deprived and have already invested so much time and effort, that they don't want to go home empty handed. The stores aren't celebrating a holiday today, they're doing this for profit. The consumers that line up early in the morning are simply cows headed to the slaughter.

So, if you are exhausted today because it's your day off but you chose to wake up early in search for deals, you may want to rethink your traditions for next year.

That's what I think, what are your thoughts?

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