So tell me please, when is Black Friday?
I know it used to be the day after Thanksgiving, when people got in line outside Walmart and waited all night for the store to open at 6 a.m. for Christmas shopping bargains. There were as many is 1,500 people in line for the five big-screen TV sets on sale at fantastic prices.
America the Beautiful.
We used to be the land/home of the brave/free, but some years back we surrendered and just became the free market/consumer society. I think we reached the apex/nadir (you choose) in 2009 when consumers crowding their way into a Walmart in Valley Stream, NY, at 5 a.m. actually trampled any employee to death.
Poor bastard should have exercised his Second Amendment rights, eh, Donald?
I think the biggest deal I saw in 2009 was 50-inch plasma screen HD television sets for $798.
Like I said, five of them.
In my journalism days, I interviewed people who waited in line 15, 20, even 30 hours to get things they could never come close to affording otherwise. And let me tell you, those lines kept getting longer every year and it’s not because the deals were getting better.
Yes, there was something in the air in those early-morning lines, and contrary to what you might think, it wasn’t greed.
It was desperation.
We really ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
Oh, I’m not talking about the people who can only manage Christmas for their loved ones by degrading themselves and waiting in live for days. I have great sympathy for them.
I’m talking about those of us who make a big deal out of a slightly better TV … or smartphone … or all sorts of other things.
I’m talking about a guy who had a 42-inch high definition TV in his home office and decided in 2017 that he needed to step up to a 55-inch ultra high definition curved screen TV, a creen less than six feet away from where he watches it.
Guess who.
I started buying DVDs in 1999 because they really were a step up in quality from VHS tapes, but moving up to Blu-Ray tapes some years later and then to UltraHD Blu-Ray tapes really didn’t improve the quality all that much.
My 55-inch TV will be the limit for the rest of my life, even though I can gaze longingly at 75-inch screens for less than I spent five years ago. And although I was pretty much addicted to moving on up to the new iPhone each time one comes out, I decided to stay with my 13 when the newer model came out this year.
Still, when I woke up this morning, I was aware that I needed to pick up a few things at the grocery store, and our nearest, cheapest store is Walmart.
Uh oh, I thought.
But when I drove to Walmart, I was surprised to see it wasn’t crowded at all. In fact, maybe even a little less so than an average Friday morning.
Then I remembered three things.
First, stores have been scaling back the whole Black Friday thing. I mean, when people start dying …
Second, the economy isn’t all that great this year.
Third and maybe most significant, online shopping gets better every year. In fact, within the last week or so, we bought all the gifts for our grandchildren online. We have received them all are packaging them to send.
It has actually become sort of necessary. For at least four of the six kids, there aren’t any stores around here that stock the gifts we wanted.
So Black Friday may be dying.
I’d like to say good riddance, but I remember going Christmas shopping in stores and it was often sort of fun.
With shopping online growing and growing, I think the day is coming when we never leave the house.