November 27, 2009, - 4:09 pm
Did You Take Part in Diverse Complexion Friday?
In case you didn’t hear, today is (or was–since most of the deals expired hours ago) “Black Friday.” Since I don’t want to unfairly denigrate an entire race with this term (based solely on the business term, “in the black,” where most retailers pray today puts them for the year–yes, it has nothing to do with race), I propose we call it “Diverse Complexion Friday.” In the interest of multi-culturalism, understanding, and tolerance to the max, we must include everyone when referring to bargains and getting things on the cheap. (Attention those who take me seriously on this–a/k/a liberals, this is a joke. I’m mocking . . . the politically correct and race merchants like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson). Cue the past outrages over the word “niggardly,” which means something you might be if you participate in Diverse Complexion Friday, looking for a bargain . . . and which has no root in or connection to any racial word or epithet.
So, did you take part in the Diverse Complexion Friday shopping frenzy, today? Why or why not? If yes, was it worth getting up very early, braving crowds (and in some parts of the country, cold), as well as long lines? Did you get any very good bargains that made it all worth it?
Normally, I loathe shopping and avoid it at all cost (or, rather, all saving.) I avoid shopping like the plague if I can. But Black Friday is a different story. Every year, I tell myself I will no longer do it. And this year, I meant it, shut off my alarm, and planned to sleep in, then head for the gym, this morning. But then, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep, was too bored to stay home. So, out I went. I spent barely anything, but got a few cool things and particularly good bargains. I pretty much have the basic things I want and way more than I need. I really don’t need new stuff, so I really shouldn’t have been out there. Still, what I got was worth it. I just didn’t need it. Any of it. Not this year.
I hate crowds, and refuse to wait in lines. Nor do I run into these stores like a crazy person, as you see on some of these videos. The word, “doorbuster,” disturbs me because I’m not the type to bust any doors. I am the type who might get trampled under the people who would bust the doors, though–as tragically happened in the trampling killing of a a temporary Walmart employee on last year’s Black Friday. And I’d rather pay regular price than waste time in a line in the middle of the night, or even the morning, to save a few dollars. Life is short, and time is money. Those sayings might be trite, but boy are they true. Those people who wait out in the cold all Thanksgiving and then all night at Best (Islamic) Buy (“Happy Eid Al-Adha,” Infidel suckers) to get one of the two bargain laptops per store are morons. I won’t wait in line for one minute. I passed by one local Detroit-area chain (no, not Best Islamic Buy), at which I wanted to buy a “doorbuster” bargain-priced camera, but saw the long line. I also saw how they let only a few of these suckers in the store at a time. Not for me. Buh-bye. Drove away.
But there are other people who use this day of bargains and intense shopping as a family ritual and a time to get together with relatives (while watching your credit card bill rise to astronomic levels). It’s not a bad thing. And it helps America’s economy. Forget Obama stimulus packages. Americans spending in America is the best and most effective stimulus package there is. Our economy depends on Americans spending, too–not just saving. We’ve had a problem finding the right balance between the two. But the spending keeps many Americans employed by retailers or contractors and vendors, and not just in piddling minimum wage clerk and shelving jobs.
But also keep in mind that the Diverse Complexion Friday spending also helps those in China and sundry other foreign lands, who now occupy lost American jobs in the textile and manufacturing industries. In that sense, we’re buying ourselves out of a country, since we want cheap goods, so we pay for goods produced by people paid next to nothing in foreign lands, which reinforces that those jobs should be sent to foreign lands, which makes those former American employees have less money–or none at all–to spend on our economy buying things like Diverse Complexion Friday bargains, and full-price items on every other day of the year. All of which means more people will get laid off and they too will have less to spend. A vicious cycle that Black Friday type phenomena–the demand for super low cost goods and great bargains, which usually are functions of jobs having been sucked away from America and transferred elsewhere–help reinforce. We simply cannot survive forever as a country as a consumer nation that doesn’t produce or make anything concrete, or at least is producing less and less on U.S. soil.
Also, as I’ve noted in the past, some of the cheapo Black Friday clothing is constructed in places like terror-host state Syria (Target) and the extremist Palestinian Muslim villages of Jordan (Target, Walmart, Kmart). I always look at the tags and try to stay away from “Made in Pakistan,” “Made in Jordan,” etc. Those relatively (relative to Pakistan) lucrative clothing jobs in Pakistan didn’t stop the Mumbai attacks from happening, either.
The thing that gets me is that stores are now opening sooner and sooner. Old Navy opened at 3:00 a.m. Other stores were open at Midnight. And Michaels, the craft and hobby retail chain had special sales at 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving. K-Mart and Meijer (based in Michigan and mostly in the Midwest) were hosting sales all day on Thanksgiving. It’s like they want to erase Thanksgiving with these sales cannibalizing the time you’d spend with family and friends on the national holiday. For some people who view their relations to relatives as mere coincidences and even accidents of birth, that might be a godsend. For others, like me, it’s getting tiresome.
So, yeah, I partook, and I’m part of the problem. It’s a sickness. Like most other Americans, I’d have been better off if I’d slept in and skipped it all. And, yes, I think I remember the day when that was basically the only option, and stores didn’t open before 7:00 a.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Those were the days. These are the bargains.
Tags: Black Friday, Diverse Complexion Friday
Debbie, it sounds like you need AA for shopping. 😉
W: Nah. Normally, I loathe shopping and avoid it as much as possible. Meant to add that. It’s just the Black Friday day in which I sometimes partake. DS
Worry01 on November 27, 2009 at 8:05 pm