What are your feelings about Black Friday? - YouLookFab Forum

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What are your feelings about Black Friday?

thimblelina

(website)

Veteran

I won't be coy... I hate it! I don't participate. In fact, I try to not even buy groceries that day... Hahaha! And this year I really resent that American Eagle is summoning my college age daughter from the thanksgiving table to work a 6 pm - 2 am Black Friday shift that begins Thursday. But she's not resentful, and is excited to be making time and a half and since she'll be down the street at our downtown mall her little sister wants to know why we can't walk down after dinner & check this freak show out. So I guess I'm a curmudgeon. But I still hate it.

Shopping

55 replies

Latest reply was from janni

Laurinda

Veteran

I'm with you. I love US Thanksgiving, a holiday for everyone to give thanks, and hate seeing it morph into buy buy BUY!!! frenzy.

If only more of us would just say no.

ETA: Nay to Black Friday shopping.

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

Ditto what you ladies have said. I am not planning to do any shopping on Thanksgiving or Friday - unless it is because we have run out of butter for the mashed potatoes or something

jennifer

Veteran

I don't think a mere time and a half is worth it for working a major family holiday. Thanksgiving day, Christmas and Easter should be off ( exceptions for emergency workers and medical / pharmacy and maybe a gas station after all if its over the river and thru the woods to run out of gas before getting to grandmothers house .... Not quite the same ring to it.) I have worked a thanksgiving before when I was in grocery bakery dept. I made the rolls that year for the family. The store closed at something like 12:30 and my dept by 11am so people could get the last oops I forgot the__________. That worked out well and I was ok with it . But just shopping ? Holidays are about more than stuff.

thimblelina

(website)

Veteran

Yes! Must have butter! (One christmas about 15 years ago -- when much less was open -- we had guests from Pitt visiting the Bay Area. The plan was we would all have Xmas dinner with my husband's family. I was asked to bring two lemon meringue pies. Well, stomach flu hit his family hard & we were moored with our poor travelers in the north bay with only a few potatoes, some green veg from the fridge and two frikken pies! Good times! Luckily there was plenty of beer & wine...)

Anonymous

As a Canadian, I admit to looking at it in horror, to be honest. Of course we see the news reports showing people rampaging through Walmart and seriously injuring each other .....but the whole concept leaves me cold. Our version of it is Boxing Day, which can get stupid too - and I absolutely REFUSE to participate in retail that day.

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

I think time and a half is worth it for someone who can use the money. In my early 20's, I wasn't always happy to work holidays (hospital admission, and The Happiest Place On Earth, etc)., but I was always happy when I got that paycheck!

But overall, I think this is a terrible trend, and the degrading of a holiday I always considered family time.

jackiec

Veteran

Well, it's funny that now in Canada we are jumping all over the Black Friday bandwagon, and we had our thanksgiving over a month ago! It's crazy how hard they market it now. So I have no emotional involvement. However, I do do quite a bit of online shopping on the Friday if the deals are good. Even walking through the mall last night it was eerily quiet, like the calm before the storm. I didn't even browse because I know everything will be on bigger sale on Friday. Having said that, Boxing Day has always been our big shopping day, and I've never participated in that. I'd rather sit on the couch and digest (or SKI!!!!).....

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

If you are shopping online this weekend, be vigilant about your credit cards and bank accounts. My parents got hacked last year in that big Target mess. So did the BF.

I was going to put this on the Link Love thread, but then I saw that Inge is taking this week off because of the Thanksgiving holiday, so it won't post until December 4th.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....12148.html

Anonymous

I used to love it when I was younger. Today I hate it. I hate the frantic merchandizing. And after reading LBD's article on cyber Monday, I won't be participating in that either.

Anonymous

I avoid it like the plague. Ugh!

Anonymous

I used to go out shopping the day after Thanksgiving with my Mom and sisters before it was a "thing". Now, I tend to hunker down and stay in the safety of my home. Plenty of deals can be had online, even before Cyber Monday (last year we bought a dishwasher online on Black Friday). In fact, the last couple of weeks, every junk-mail flyer I've received have been offering "Black Friday Now" prices. Yes, that gets people shopping earlier (I started to notice BIG crowds as early as Veteran's Day weekend), but if it spreads out the madness a little and takes all the pressure off that one day, I think it's a good thing.

I am sorry to see Black Friday creeping into Thanksgiving Day though. I do my best never to shop for groceries on holidays out of principle. if I forget something, I try to borrow from a neighbor, like in the olden days, lol! It builds that community camaraderie. I worked my share of holidays when I was young, but I think the culture is changing and materialism is winning out over building family togetherness. For that, I am sad.

Elly

Veteran

Eh . . . I'm not big on holidays because they stress me out, but as it gets harder and harder to travel to see my family (particularly my grandparents, which are a 6 hour drive and don't make the drive themselves as often) I do sometimes wish the the SO could come, as he loves "my old people" as he calls them (being in their 80s, they take no offense). Alas, he is in emergency services and works every major holiday without fail.

The plus side is I get 2 holiday gatherings . . . . I go visit my family and then go to his parents' for the dinner they host when he is off.

As for black friday, we don't really have that here (I mean, Walmart) or if you want to drive 1-3 hours to the closest malls that do it. I can't take the chaos-- in fact, I now do all my Christmas shopping online. Two magazine subscriptions left to order and I'm officially done!

P.S. -- one side of my family has a lot of medical personnel and emergency services and they always have their holidays on an easier to get off day, so they are still together. Then the members that have the actual day off tag along to other family or friends' celebrations. I know families with a lot of retail employees do similar. There is nothing truly special about the actual DATE of Thanksgiving or Christmas, it is just when the most people have it off to celebrate.

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

If I didn't work in retail, you wouldn't find me in a mall or shopping center on Black Friday. I don't even like to shop on weekends, because it's more crowded. I save my serious shopping for weekdays, since I have the luxury of being able to do so. I do like sales, but I think the things that are on crazy discount on Black Friday tend to be the latest electronics and gadgets and hyped toys that I'm not in the market for anyway.

I will be working the day after Thanksgiving, as usual, though. Fortunately, the store I work at is open regular hours. We do have a sale going on, and there will be great deals. But nothing to get trampled over at the door.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I stay as far away as possible from stores on Black Friday. I really don't like how focused the entire holiday season has become on buying and spending. I barely buy gifts anymore. We're focusing on spending time together and traveling a bit instead.

chadya

Veteran

I like to go out on Friday but pick one mall and get there early and go home early.
The opening at 6pm Thursday night I don't like,who wants to go shopping after eating all that food, or in my case served all that food to your family.

ITA when I was younger it not used to be a "thing" there was early opening on Friday and big sales but nothing like this.

And it isn't even December grouchy face

Classically Casual

Veteran

I agree with everyone's sentiments completely. I'm hoping to go on a nice day hike Friday, far away from the frenzy.

I signed a Change.org petition regarding Macy's employees not working Thanksgiving, but guess it didn't have any effect.

abc

Veteran

I avoid crowds and shopping in them in general. If I was in the USA and in the market for anything I would try to buy online vs in the store. Where I live they're trying to imitate it but it is nowhere near the level of USA. Nor is consumption and attitudes here which is a nice place to raise kids. I digress anyway I hate to see retailers open on thanksgiving day just for more revenue.

MsMary

Veteran

I don't participate, but that's because I can afford not to. There was a really interesting article in my local paper the other day about how those of lesser means depend on Black Friday sales to buy Christmas gifts for their families: http://www.latimes.com/busines.....story.html.

But yeah, I think it's awful that it's bled over into Thanksgiving itself.

shiny

Veteran

I love shopping but I hate crowded malls, long lines at the register/fitting room, circling the parking lot trying to find a spot.... so I make it a practice to stay out of the malls between Thanksgiving and a week after Christmas. In fact, for years I strived to get all my xmas shopping done before Thanksgiving just so I could avoid the mall. I'm behind on that this year -- only halfway done. I will be going to the mall this afternoon for a bit and then hitting the cyber sales next week.

I would rather pay full price than go to the mall at this time of year. I would rather pay higher prices + shipping for cyber purchases, knowing that employees at places like Amazon weren't treated poorly and underpaid.

My daughter is also working Black Friday this year. She got her first mall job a couple of months ago. She's excited to be working this season and over her holiday break.

viva

Veteran

Well, I will be the spanner although I an probably not a typical BF shopper. After an always raucous Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law and I so look forward to sneaking out of the house in the pre dawn hours of Friday. We spend about six hours together shopping, looking, and enjoying private time and a leisurely diner breakfast. We have been doing it since our kids were in grade school and now they are grown and I woikdnt give it up for the world. We love the fun of it, and if a store is too crazy we just leave. But it starts off the holiday and it is precious time for us. we buy less and less each year - I don't even have a list this year as Christmas will be tiny - but I cannot wait for my getaway with her while the rest of the family sleeps.

Fwiw, I am firmly in the in-shopping-oin-shopping-on-tin-shopping-on-thanksgiving camp.

MsMary

Veteran

Uh, Shiny, you might want to look a little more closely at the whole "Amazon working conditions" thing: https://www.google.com/search?.....;rls=org.m

I was pretty horrified by these stories.

Sal

Veteran

Boxing Day is the big day here, I rarely join in. It is summer, we are on holiday, we normally do something low key with friends or family.

Aziraphale

Veteran

Thimbelina, I'm not going to mince words. I think Black Friday is gross. It's emblematic of the aspects of Western culture that I'm embarrassed about -- namely, the excesses of a capitalist economy. I feel like we're headed in a 'more more more/cheaper cheaper cheaper' direction.

I completely recognize the need for affordably priced items for lower income families. I'm troubled by the increasing income gap at both ends of the economic spectrum, and the shrinking middle class. But I feel like people are so entranced by new stuff -- so excited by the prospect of getting a 'bargain' -- that we accumulate WAY more than we need, and in doing so we encourage the production of cheap goods (made by disadvantaged people in poorer countries) that are likely to break or wear out. And if they do? No problem -- we'll just buy a new one! And the old one can go in the landfill.

Good grief.

thimblelina

(website)

Veteran

Yes Az I have to agree. Income disparity -- access to healthcare, to higher ed, to dignified retirement -- is developing into a Grand Canyon-like chasm between haves & have nots. 100 cheap playstations to the first unlucky bastards in line at 1:00 am is just the roman's bread & circuses all over again. Cynically I'd rather see this frenzy on Election Day when the real 'specials' could be had on campaign finance, banking and student loan reform. (And I spent the first 18 years of my life below the federal poverty line with a single teenage mum working multiple jobs and caring for my schizophrenic grandmother. So don't be thinking hard times have never lurked around my cabin door before!)

Aziraphale

Veteran

Thimbelina, I think we are on the same page! (I don't care if I'm a curmudgeon)

Suja

Veteran

In all honesty, I used to love Black Friday and the post-holiday sales. I used to have packages coming all the time and would use this as the time to build my winter wardrobe.

This year, I am going to limit myself to one pre-planned online purchase that I have already tried on in store and just want to get a better deal on. After that, my goal is no buying for myself between now and January. I just don't want to be part of the holiday frenzy. I watched a video on how UPS trains its drivers using an obstacle course to get packages to people on time. It looked like a military training exercise. Sheesh.

Susie

Veteran

I did take off on Friday but I won't be shopping. Instead, I've scheduled a long massage for that afternoon, while DH puts up the outside decorations.

And most of my shopping is done anyway.

Years ago when I was a SAHM, I worked part time in fine jewelry of a department store. I LOVED working Black Friday because I worked on commission and always sold a ton on that day.

Gaylene

Veteran

Is there room on your bench for me, Aziraphale and Thumbelina? Both of you have exactly summed up my thoughts.

shiny

Veteran

Yes, MsMary - the conditions at Amazon were exposed a few years back and it's not limited to the holiday season either. Ever since, I've tried to avoid shopping there (just like I haven't been into a Wal-Mart in 20 years). But it gets more and more impossible. Most notable example, my hubby and I both have some (OTC) pharmaceutical products our doctors want us to use, which we cannot find anywhere but on Amazon. There are a lot of products that have simply disappeared from local B&M stores and can only be found anymore on Amazon. I find it distressing.

What's more, I suspect that Amazon is not the only one; you'll notice that a lot of online retailers are actually using Amazon to warehouse and fulfill their orders. So it's difficult these days to know who you're really supporting when you place an online order.

I get especially frustrated because more and more petite clothes are offered "online only." Shoes are similar... it's harder and harder to shop for shoes in B&M stores. Near my house (i.e., not requiring a special trip downtown) I have exactly ONE place to buy shoes and that's bloomingdale's. There used to be more but the online trend recently helped closed down an entire shopping center. As much as I appreciate Zappo's, I worry about the impact of shipping on the environment, and they've pretty much decimated the local options, along with the help of places like DSW (and maybe it's me but I dislike the shoes there).

/end grumble

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