Happy Black Friday! ...That IS why we don't have school right?

Shoppers waiting in line at  Target

Hello world, and happy Black Friday! Oh, what's that? We don't get vacations for Black Friday? It's actually for Thanksgiving? What's Thanksgiving?

This seems like the kind of mentality people have at this time of year. Maybe I'm exaggerating it a bit, but isn't it ironic (don't you think?) that we spend one day being thankful, and then the next day, or even that night, we go wait in line to buy more stuff. It's just... I don't know, it doesn't seem right to me.

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Once upon a time, I waited in line at Toys R Us in order to get my iPod touch. I had been saving up my money, and my parents agreed to pay for half of it. So my mom and I drove out to Whitehall (where all of the big stores are) and waited in line in the cold for a number of hours. I got my iPod, thankfully, but that was enough for me.

That was the last time I went Black Friday shopping. I'm not saying it was a horrible experience, but I came to the conclusion that I had better things to do than stand in a line, in the cold, with a bunch of obnoxious people. Sleeping, for example.

So can we take a moment to appreciate the irony of American culture?

Okay. Done. I know this has been brought up a gazillion times, but seriously, it is just ironic that we spend Thursday being thankful and then we rush out the next day to buy more stuff. Actually, it seems like a lot of chain stores like Wal-Mart and Kohls are opening Thursday evening. I think that's taking it a little bit too far. It's like consumerism is taking over a day for spending time with family.

Kohls, Wal-Mart, Target, and Macy's
opening times.

And then there are the employees who have to work at the stores. It was bad enough that they had to be working a cash register at five in the morning, but now some of them have to be at work on Thursday evening. Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day spent with family and friends and eating lots of turkey. Now it seems like it's become a day to spend a bazillion dollars on more things.





Don't get me wrong, those deals out there are pretty irresistible. But if you need something so desperately that you must get it on Black Friday, why don't you order it online? Same deals, less stress, and less waiting in line in the cold. Sure, you'll probably have to wait for the package to come, but that seems like a small price to pay to stay where it's nice and warm. I wonder if one day, there won't be any more in-store Black Friday sales, but they'll all be online. I think it would be an improvement, at least.

And this is a little random, but I just thought of something else. I was watching The Hunger Games with my family the other day, and near the beginning Gale says to Katniss, "What if everyone just stopped watching?" I don't know why I thought of that now, but it got me thinking. What if everyone just stopped shopping on Black Friday? I know it would never happen in a gazillion years, but it's something interesting to think about at least.