She was indignant. The woman sitting behind me at the Starbuck’s told her sister, “We can’t go there, that’s Black Friday, we’re shopping.” Then she calmly added, “What are you going to wear?” In her mind it was official; Black Friday was a national holiday to be revered like Labor or Veterans Day. The mutation of historical customs happens over time. As the woman behind me talked about the tactical assault on which stores they would hit first, her two young daughters were sitting nearby absorbing the tableau of mother, aunt and grandmother discussing Black Friday plans.
Shopping: A Cardio Workout?
The day after Thanksgiving, or even the evening of, should be considered a day of exercise. Malls and stores across the country open up to allow those of us who have been over stuffed with the goodness of the holiday meal time to walk about. A movement has started to curtail this therapeutic exercise time by promoting family values. Yes, there are those who want to stay home with their families instead of being the stewards of good cheer on Black Friday as retail clerks.
WATCH: Black Friday Sales on Thanksgiving Causes Employee Backlash (story continues below):
No respect for money
Not to be the arrogant wannabe economist that I am, but these people not only don’t understand how much money is funneled into the economy on Black Friday, but how many calories are burned. The physical act of actually moving from couch to car to mall might be the necessary expenditure of energy to prevent atrial fibrillation for many in America. Wildly discounted items that draw people to shop at 8pm openings are the counter balance to a Thanksgiving menu laden with animal fat, carbohydrates and sickeningly sweet desserts.
Super sizing Black Friday
There was a time when the Thanksgiving gatherings were a celebration of harvests when thin margins of agricultural success existed. Failure to harvest dollars from consumers is no less important to the survival to the modern day pioneers of mass merchandising. No longer can the little store on Main Street serve the bulging mass of suburban shoppers. From warehouse stores to churches, every aspect of American capitalistic culture and infrastructure has been super sized.
Store Clerks underrated in chemical process
For the brick and mortar stores, they can’t make sales when the doors are locked. Like chlorine disinfecting drinking water, the longer the “contact time” between the potential consumer and merchandise, the higher the probability of a purchase or killing the e. coli bacteria. Store employees are the catalyst for the the shopping transaction, except when you are shopping on-line.
I need my fix
With all the same Black Friday bargains on the retailer’s website, what is the pressure to open the store before the giblet gravy is even ready? No experience meets the addictive needs of shoppers than physically being in the store hunting for that illusive bargain. If ridiculously early store hour openings on Thanksgiving Day (Black Thursday) generate a crush of shoppers and free media exposure, big retailers will continue the old tradition of prostituting every holiday as an opportunity to sell.
Turkeys are bor-ring
As much I would like to see the boycott of Walmart’s Black Friday operational hours succeed, this is a rich fantasy on our part. America stands for the deterioration of customs and traditions that are not based on our consumer driven model of a nation. The shopping experience is more valued than the family experience. Bored suburban shoppers on Thanksgiving have confirmed this trend.
Sane-giving to replace thanksgiving
I won’t be shopping at Walmart or any other store on Black Friday. I will do my best to avoid the family experience as well. What America really needs is an authentic gathering of folks that eschew both the commercialization of our national holidays and the equally overrated family time with relatives that have signed a petition to have their state secede from the nation. That is a Black Friday event I would most certainly attend.
About Kevin Knauss
When I retired from IBM I went to work for Walmart in the home entertainment (electronics) department in a store in Arkansas, birthplace of the mega-giant main street killer, and later in Arizona. What most shoppers fail to realize is that Walmart’s Black-Friday bargains are cheap Chinese imports, many of which will probably work for less than a year before they become paper weights. Walmart accepts returns for 90 days after purchase, unless you exchange it for the exact same item. In the days following both Black Friday and 30 some days later after Christmas, a huge portion of those cheap imports come back to the store because they have something major wrong with them. On top of that, many of those items, if there is no visible damage, will end up back on the shelves.
Americans fuel this insanity by continuing to accept Walmart propaganda. Walmart is (or was) the biggest employer in the USA, but their treatment of employees is abysmal. Many of their workers are part time (as I was) or seasonal. They are forced to work on all holidays and Sundays (one of their big shopping days) and some even on Christmas when the store is closed. It usually opens again for the night shift after (beginning about 6:00 PM) Christmas day. Employees, except for management, are the lowest paid in any large corporation. Most making so little that they are forced to work two or more jobs, if they can find them. Sam Walton is long gone and has been replaced by Wall Street executives and Sam’s greedy wife and offspring with their billions (literally) who care nothing of the middle or working class people, as long as the profits keep coming in. Even their charity drives are a farce since the money comes mostly from employee donations, which Walmart then claims as a company.
I often wonder how many of the Christian right wingers attend their churches in the morning and then flood into Walmart not long after services end. Sunday, is one of the big shopping days every weekend and the rush begins around 11:30 AM. They seem to forget that the store’s employees must work, regardless of their religious belief. You, the Christian shopper (not to mention other faiths which are completely ignored) are the ONLY reason for this. To me, this tells me just how hypocritical these religious people are.
Of course, Walmart is not the only big-box store that has tried to make Black now Thursday into a national event larger than the holidays they are supposed to represent. This day may pump billions into the economy, but ask yourself, is it really worth it and is it really good for America? Do yourself and our country a favor, shop mom and pop (or, at least small business merchants) stores that cannot compete with Walmart, Best Buy, Target and other big-box merchants. Maybe, just maybe main street America might once again flourish. But, I am afraid that a vast majority of Americans buy into this, and other behemoth corporate assault against American workers, traditions and American small businesses.
Unless we start to importing shoppers with money, there will be fewer and fewer Americans that have the discretionary income to fuel Black Friday extravaganzas.
Excellent!! I read the first sentence as an “indigent woman”was sitting behind you in Starbucks, LOL. Sadly even some of those by US standards that are basically indigent will ignore all the ethical implications boycotting Black Friday mean, even though in the long run it would indirectly help them.
I honestly can’t understand how anyone in good conscience- ok let me not totally lie, I’m flat broke, I might shop online for a TV if I had it, BUT OTHER THAN THAT, how can anyone shop in person this weekend. I got more education about real life economics this election than I ever got in college and we fought so hard to pursue income equality, how can we just throw all that comradery away?
I can’t add much more, but thank you for this deliciously cynical insightful read. I will try to spread it and hope it falls on some ears that need to hear it!! Bravo!