Survived Black Friday?

Now we can begin to shop like normal people and not soldiers in full blown combat.  A woman was so out of control yesterday, she had to be tasered by security.  I don’t know what possesses people of Black Friday…maybe black magic, or voodoo?  But, it’s a new day.  Those of us that shopped online yesterday, have no bruises and lots of gifts coming in the mail, right to our front door, in about a week or less. But, many of us still have more things to buy or check out.  There will be plenty of sales in the next month and they better be good if they want me to leave my house.  If I can get the same things online and delivered for free there is no way I am going to a store.

In previous years I discovered that Wednesdays are very slow days at the mall.  They often have pretty nice sales to lure people to the mall and there crowds are minimal, so you can shop to your heart’s content without worrying about landing in a hospital.  If you work and can’t go on a Wednesday, consider taking a day off.  You just might be able to get all your shopping done in one blow.  Ask a friend to play hooky with you and have lunch.  Make a day of it and don’t forget to get wrapping paper, you won’t want to go back out for that later.  

With the shopping out of the way, you can wrap your gifts and store them until it’s Christmas.  Now you can sit back and plan your holiday dinner menu or make travel plans if you are going away.  I like to do things ahead of time because it reduces so much of the stress and then I can also enjoy the holidays.  I stopped sending Christmas cards a while ago.  It used to be one of my favorite things to do for years, but as my mom said, “used to be’s ain’t what they used to be.”  Since the computer allows us to talk to virtually everyone, almost everyday, it doesn’t seem as necessary to send out cards. It doesn’t even make sense to send cards to people I never see or talk to either. Somehow it has lost it’s meaning for me.  

My younger daughter is still in school, her last year of college.  For the past seven years, with both girls in school, it’s been very hard to do any of the holiday preparations together because they were always busy with finals up until the week before Christmas.  Shopping and putting up the tree has to wait until they can breathe.  Last Wednesday, while I was cooking and baking for the holiday, my younger daughter looked at me and sighed.  She wanted to help me make the stuffing and desserts but she has two big exams on Monday and Tuesday and two papers to hand in.  They couldn’t even cut these kids a little slack for the holiday.  I told her next year she could help me with the whole dinner.  It was little consolation, as she sat on the couch with her face in a huge textbook, while all the smells of the cooking and baking filled the house.

Maybe next year we will start new traditions for the holidays.  Maybe the girls will have time to think about what they want for gifts.  It’ll be time for new cell phones, I think they call them “droids” but I won’t have to deal with it.  They can go pick them out themselves.  I’m sticking to my phone…the one that just makes calls and texts without a keyboard.  Some things never change and I’m one of them!

Black Friday Shopping, All Done…

I got up early this morning ready to get my Black Friday Shopping done.  I made a list of items I had to get for the girls. I have been internet browsing all week, looking for the best prices in the items I needed to get.  I do my homework.  I check everything twice. I am more than ready!

I tried to go to sleep early last night.  I figured I would need my rest.  Well the neighbors had other ideas.  They must have been eating and drinking all day and then decided to say their good byes outside.  Their LOUD goodbyes, which lasted a couple of hours, from 11 pm to 1 am.  Maybe they went back inside to get more to eat and drink before finally taking off.  Whatever!  They woke me up and kept me up.  My mind started wandering to Black Friday shopping and I was getting angst.

I finally fell asleep.  Thanks to my dog, who is programmed to bark every morning at 5:30 am, I was up early anyway.  I had my coffee and breakfast. Now it’s time for Black Friday Shopping! It was finally here!  I got on my laptop to check my cart on Amazon.  Everything was there and still in tact.  No prices had gone up overnight.  No prices had gone down either.  I shopped around a little more to see if I could or should add anything.  I checked my list.  It’s all good.  I click the place order button and away we go.  No shipping for most of the order, but so what, who cares.  As long as the order is in, that’s all I care about.  I should have everything by next week and I can wrap it up.

I avoided long lines and carrying shopping bags.  I avoided people! I wasn’t maced.  I didn’t have trouble parking in the lot.  I didn’t have to get annoyed when someone online had to return a few items and the cashier didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t get into a fight with anyone over merchandise we both wanted.  I didn’t even have to shower and get dressed.  I just turned on the computer and click, click all done.  Do I care if I got the best deals?  No, I do not.  I could never save enough money to make it worthwhile to go into any stores today.  Don’t get me wrong, I love bargains and deals, I really do.  But, this Black Friday madness is getting worse every year.  This year the pepper spray crowd has decided they are going to attack their shopping competitors to get the best deals. A woman injured 20 people this morning to get an X-Box 360!  They call this competitive shopping.  No thanks!  And I don’t need to be crushed to death in any stampede either.

So thank you Amazon for making my life easier, safer and happier.  

Black Thursday Anyone?

Yes, it’s gone from bad to worse.  It wasn’t enough to open the stores the Friday after Thanksgiving.  It wasn’t enough to open them practically in the middle of the night, at 4 a.m. either.  Now some stores want to open on Thanksgiving night at 10 p.m. or midnight.  What’s next?

There are several guilty stores trying to out sell everyone else with the earlier openings: Target, Best Buy and Macy’s are at the top of the list. Guiltiest of all is Walmart, who wants to open at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving, barely giving employees and shoppers a chance to celebrate and digest their big dinners, before scrambling off to their aisles for presents.  Stores keep trying to outdo one another, get the most sales, before consumers run out of money.  The hell with the holiday, with traditions, with families spending time and celebrating together…commercialism comes first.  Greed for profits has overcome everything we hold sacred.  Let’s sacrifice Thanksgiving for Christmas.  Wouldn’t you rather spend it fighting with strangers for merchandise or waiting on long lines?  Is saving a few dollars really worth it?

If holiday shoppers go along with these changes then it won’t be long before other stores feel compelled to join in.  In fact, the trend will be for stores to stay open all of Thanksgiving, and call it Black Thursday…after the shopping it’ll be a Blue Friday.  That’s it!  “Black and Blue Thursday and Friday” and just forget Thanksgiving altogether.   I know a few turkeys who will be relieved.  

This is pure craziness.  I made the mistake of going shopping on a Black Friday, not too long ago.  Biggest mistake I ever made.  The lines were horrendous and we didn’t find anything…nothing. My girls, who love to shop, looked like deer caught in the headlights.  They were afraid to move through the store.  My poor husband, who tolerates shopping for our sake, just stood there shaking his head.  I’m not sure how long we were there, but it had to be less than an hour.  None of us were cut out for it.  I personally would rather pay full price in an empty store than try to get a deal on Black Friday.  Shop early, shop online, but don’t bother hitting the stores.  I didn’t even see any bargains anyway.

I hope shoppers boycott stores opening this Thanksgiving.  We have to send a message that enough is enough.  How many more of our traditions can commercialism eat up?  It’s not getting any more of mine!  I am staying home and eating my traditional turkey dinner with my family, tell a few stories, laugh and take a nap.  If I have energy left over on Friday, I will go “online” not on line, and see if anything peaks my interest.