Saturday, November 26, 2011
A Year of Blogging: November 25, 2011
The day after Thanksgiving is devoted to shoppers. It is called Black Friday. It is the biggest shopping day of the holiday season. When I worked in retail, it was the day I dreaded. I am not a morning person, but I always volunteered to work the earliest shift possible. The reason was I'd rather get it over with and leave the madness to someone else, than to come into the madness.
We were never Black Friday shoppers. My mom usually had most of her shopping done by Black Friday. Yet most years we found ourselves at the mall, because my Grandma didn't start her shopping until Black Friday. She always wanted to go to the Berkshire Mall, which was closest to Mom & Dad's, because you saved on sales tax. Berkshire Mall is in Massachusetts, and you didn't pay sales tax on clothing. You only paid 4% tax on everything else. In New York state, you paid 7% sales tax on everything. So many people just drove to Massachusetts to save a little extra. Grandma would drive to our house and then we took her to the mall. Her list was written in birth order, so for the grandchildren, my cousin Terri was the first one. Grandma could only work on one person at a time. She would look in numerous stores for the gift, running back and forth through the mall. When she had the first person crossed off, she could move on to the next. My mother always sent one of us girls with Grandma. We were to carry her packages and help her. By lunch time, she'd maybe have four presents bought, but we would have made 20 laps of the mall. After lunch, we switched. Whomever had been unfortunate enough to go with Grandma in the morning got the afternoon off by going with Mom.
I hate shopping on Black Friday. I don't enjoy the crowds and the chaos. If I don't have my shopping done by Black Friday, I buy the rest online. I won't go in a mall now til after Christmas. This year, I had all my shopping done by the first week in November. It was a nice feeling! I also think Black Friday is getting ridiculous. Stores opening earlier and earlier to get that almighty dollar. It is one of the things that really gets under my skin. Christmas isn't about getting great deals on presents. I think we've commercialized the season so much that as a society, we have lost sight of the real reason for the season.
Apparently, I'm not the only person who feels this way, as November 25 is also 'Buy Nothing Day'. It's a 24 hour moratorium on shopping to protest the commercialism of Christmas. I wish I could say I participated in Buy Nothing Day, but I ordered my Christmas cards online last night. Next year, I'll have to remember to truly buy nothing.
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We don't have Black Friday here, but it is comparable to December 8th which is a public holiday and usually stores are closed that day. In recent years shops have been opening their doors because of the Christmas season. I live near a big Mall and once I went there that day, just for the fun of it. I swear, upon opening there was not a single free parking space available (and the place is huge) - it was mayhem! You'd be surprised how creative some folks got when they tried to find something that might qualify for a good spot to park their cars.
ReplyDeleteI also worked retail back in the olden days and December was generally horrible. Folks came in, headed straight to the information counter (where yours truly was trying not to strangle customers who asked stupid questions) wanting this or that and getting totally unfriendly when they were told that "this and that" wouldn't be in store. As if it was my fault they didn't do their Christmas shopping earlier than, say, December 23rd.