'Tis the Season...of Shopping?
Call me old fashioned, but, to me, this whole Black Friday shopping thing is madness.
I know, I know, some of the 'best' deals occur on BF, but any marketer will tell you that the inventory for the fabulous deals isn't as large as one might think. The idea of Black Friday is to get the consumer in the door and upsell them on 'other' items (sometimes similar, sometimes not).
image c/o ConsumeristI spent the night with my family and after eating our Thanksgiving bounty and getting excited for my new little baby having time to play with her cousins, we were inundated with ad after ad, enticing us to get up at 3 am and wait in a line for some random item.
There are definitely some things I can use, including a new TV that I've been shopping for. But if the love of little kiddies is based on whether or not their aunts, parents and other relatives get them the robotic hamster this year, where has the whole notion of 'Tis the Season' gone?
I like what Nordstrom recently did - making a point to NOT decorate their stores until AFTER Thanksgiving.
Gals' Guide
Reader Comments (1)
I couldn't agree more. I think the whole idea of stores opening at ridicoulous hours after Thanksgiving is ludicrous! Some are even open on Thanksgiving, such as Kmart, which is why I do not ever shop there. Some open at midnight, some open at yes, 3 am. I thought hoidays were about spending time with family and friends. It seems to me that our nation has become so about instant gratification that reason and common sense have flown out the window. Last year someone was killed in a stampede of people trying to get a deal at Walmart. When people are dying because of "black friday"-that should be a red flag that something is wrong with that idea. There is always plently of time to shop, and if you do your research you can find great deals on everything, without having to cut short your holiday or that of the people who work in retail. They have families too, and should be able to spend time with them, and not cut it short because they have to be at work at 2am to satisfy silly people who show up at those ridicoulous hours. That's just my 2 cents!