BLACK FRIDAY
A cranky opinion for
“Cranky Opinion Saturday”
The following is the opinion of a
cranky old man. Opposing opinions are
welcome, they are wrong but still welcome…and please, no name calling, and that
means you, you big stupid head!
I almost get
the “Black Friday” thing. I know several
people who look forward to Black Friday.
It is a tradition, they shop together and it is a bonding
thing. Sure it seems ridiculous to
me. I do not understand waiting until
midnight after Thanksgiving and then storming the stores for bargains, but then
I don’t understand getting up at 4 am to play golf, shoot birds, or catch
fish. Lots of people do that stuff. As I get older I learn that just because I
don’t understand something it does not make it wrong…sometimes.
I have to
draw the line at opening up stores and shopping at 7 am Thanksgiving Day. It is wrong, and it is stupid. Why not push Black Friday back to Veteran’s
Day Monday? Why? Because that would be disrespectful of
course. Then why is it ok to disrespect
Thanksgiving?
Beyond
disrespecting a much loved holiday, and ruining dinner plans for zillions of
people, the Thanksgiving Day “Black Friday” sales are a joke. Yes, yes, you save hundreds of dollars on
electronics, leather goods and all kinds of stuff, but do you really?
I am sure
that a few TV’s and computers that haven’t been selling worth a hoot are
suddenly almost given away, but you are buying yesterday’s stuff that no one
really wants anymore. Maybe there are a
few really good deals that have the sole purpose of sucking you into the store,
but unless you are the first in line, the fastest, and the most aggressive
shopper in the store, you ain’t getting one.
Listen
people, a sale is when a store drops the price of something that no one wants
at the current price to a price that people might be willing to pay. Stores do not put things on sale to be nice;
they put them on sale to get rid of stuff that no one wants. If the stores don’t sell everything on Black
Friday, they will go back on sale later.
It happens every year.
I also think
that Black Friday sale stuff is a way for stores to get rid of defective
stuff. This stuff is given away for
presents. The people that find out the
stuff sucks probably don’t know where it came from or where to return it. What a great way to dump defective shit!
Three years
ago I received a Garmin GPS system for my car.
It was a $250 bargain that was purchased for $50. The giver purchased five of them and gave
them all as gifts. I thought this was a
really great gift.
I tried to
use my Garmin, but could not figure it out.
It never reacted to an instruction the same way twice. It gave weird directions and changed them mid
travel. I thought it was me. Mrs. C is really good with this kind of technology. Mrs. C. could not figure it out. We loaned the Garmin to a friend who was
taking a trip. Actually we told her she
could have it. It was returned with as I
recall a comment something along the lines of,
“Thank you so much, but this piece of
shit sucks!”
I tossed the
Garmin. It was beyond frustrating though
I first busted it “Gallagher” style with a sledge hammer, and that was
fun. I subsequently found out that the
other four gifts met a similar fate.
None were returned. In effect the
store got $250 instead of $0.00 for some defective crap. What a great bargain!
So all you
whack-a-doodles, get up early on the 28th.
Join the crowd. Risk getting trampled to death, demean yourself, ruin a
really great holiday, miss watching the Lions get slaughtered, be my
guest. You will save nothing, there will
be other better “sales” before Christmas, and you will possibly be buying crap.
Me?
I’m going to
be enjoying a terrific feast, enjoying the company of family and friends,
enjoying a post turkey coma nap, and perhaps even a glass of cognac and a
really good cigar. On Friday I will be
recovering from all the above, and then enjoying another feast of Thanksgiving
leftovers and some more football.
The preceding is the opinion of a
cranky old man, and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.
i feel bad for those workers in the stores who just wanted to be able to spend time with their family and good food. instead they're putting up with idiots rudely looking for deals.
ReplyDeleteGood one Joe. I will never shop on Thanksgiving and have never done the Black Friday thing. Smart shoppers know it's a scam.
ReplyDeleteAnd I buy stuff when I want it, sale or no. It's just the way I'm wired.
It's a shame your Garmin didn't work. our son gifted us one a few years ago and we use it often. Of course I-phones now have apps for GPS so these aren't as important as they once were but we don't have I-phones. You make a good point about stores getting rid of all their defective merchandise. I hope you're having a happy weekend.
ReplyDeleteAMEN!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you all the way on this. Where is it written that all the stores can't be closed for just one day? Really, couldn't we survive it? If not there is something terribly wrong... oh wait, there IS something terribly wrong... that obsessive group behavior called mass consumption - gotta get more, gotta have more. I won't be joining the lemmings in line on Thanksgiving or the day after, and it if were possible I'd avoid all shopping until January 2nd.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you get a really good cigar these days? I raise two of them to a return to the really good old holidays.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I've never shopped on Black Friday, and I DAMN sure won't shop on Thanksgiving Day. In fact, I'll pay a PREMIUM to NOT shop on Black Friday. If my favorite store is closed on X day, I'll just go back on y day and buy what I want.
ReplyDeleteWould a car dealer sell more cars if they were open on Sunday's? NO. They would sell the same number of cars, but just stretched out over 7 days instead of 6.
Let the poor workers enjoy time with their families. Jeez!
S
yeah, black friday is a crock. every time the wife has tried it whatever she bought ended up selling for less in the last weeks before Christmas. the only other reason would be to grab the hot toy before it goes out of stock. we're not trendy so that's seldom a worry.
ReplyDeleteI will be doing exactly what you'll be doing on Thanksgiving day!
ReplyDeleteWell, minus the cigar and the football thing.
I tried Black Friday one time, just to see what all the hubbub was about. I don't see the point in elbowing your way through a crowd when you know you are not going to be one of the five people that get the very special advertised bargain.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have Black Friday here, but it sounds god awful! Then again, I'm not exactly a shopper.
ReplyDeleteI shopped Black Friday once.
ReplyDeleteAMEN and thank you Cranky...I worked retail{many of them in management} the sales are not that great you can get the same crap in a few weeks for the same price. If you are a professional shopper you know this. More and more of these beautiful family traditions are being trampled to death by corporate greed it is sad. Getting up earl to go shopping on BF with a bunch of crazy ass people who end up getting int fights each year over some stupid ass xmas toy that is probably garbage anyways. Just does not sound like fun to me. I would rather be home bloated and hungover from turkey day hanging out with the family.
ReplyDelete