Black Friday: When thankfulness disappears

Thanksgiving is a time of year to step back and look at everything great in life and what to be thankful for. However, this feeling disappears once the clock strikes midnight and everyone starts lining up for the Black Friday sales. This feeling drifts even further away when someone decides to get violent over a red cashmere sweater; “It’s mine!” screams one greedy lady as she throws a punch at the other greedy woman.

    Did either of these ladies need another sweater in her closet? Probably not, but it’s the thrill of the chase, as I’ve been told, of the feeling of getting something usually so expensive for so cheap! As my mother asks, “Is it really a deal if you didn’t need it in the first place?” I have never attended a Black Friday sale until this year. As I stood in line to get some cute jewelry, I noticed other women standing up straighter and bee lining for what they wanted as the doors were unlocked.

    These businesses have the idea that these sales will boost the economy, but it’s a one-night sale; how much boosting could possibly be done in that time? If retailers would consistently offer low prices, that would be better for the economy in the long run because people would constantly shop. Black Friday is just a carnival of capitalism in which retailers lower their prices to reel customers in. This is often the highest sales day for most businesses throughout the year. The name Black Friday refers to moving ‘into the black,” or retailers becoming profitable for the year on that specific day.

    Black Friday is such a ridiculous notion to me. Why would you want to go wait in those lines for all those hours just to have people push and shove you and yell at you for taking the last toaster? Black Friday is no longer just a big sale after the holidays; it has become a holiday in itself. Retail workers are being torn away from their families right after their Thanksgiving meals, while some families don’t even congregate as families anymore because they want to be the first in line.

Instead of creating everlasting memories with friends, family and children, people are now buying televisions for 50 percent off. I’m sure there are people out there who feel just like me, but, let’s face it, this “holiday” wouldn’t be such a big deal if people weren’t feeding into it. I’d like to give all of you bargain shoppers some insight for next year’s sales: instead of looking for the cheapest items you can find, why not spend that time with your family? After all, are you going to remember that television in a couple of years when it breaks? I know I’d rather have memories of my little niece on her first Thanksgiving ever, laughing at family around her. That’s what holidays are about.