Ruining Black Friday

I view this as enhancing the first weekend of the holiday season. No crazy hustle and bustle in crowded parking lots and long checkout lines. I will concentrate on making my home a warm and welcoming environment decorated with a few boughs of berries and greenery. And hopefully some delicious aromas will emanate from my overflowing containers of baked goodies.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are nonsense anyway. All those things will be on sale at the same price closer to Christmas. Every year it's in the papers and on the news that it's all just to get people to spend more earlier and give their sales figures a jump start and every year people fall for it. And no one can ruin my holiday by opening their store if I don't participate. This is still the busiest time of year for travel so I think the traditional family get together is alive and well.

I'm okay with it all. If I don't want to participate, I am at liberty to not do so. I think we must remember that folks are still economically in slumps and need to get some value for the dollars they do have so the sales and promotionals help. Being a family is very expensive today.

Actually, I think spreading out the any deals is a good idea. People can shop when they want to and not go crazy for just a day or two. Hopefully, what people buy will make more sense and those who want hours to spend with family can do that, too.

There's no way anyone can ruin my day by failing to sufficiently encourage me to get up at 4am.

Stuff can sell out pretty fast online too. I think it's always nice to get up and go out to breakfast.

Some people think we all have families we want to spend time with for extended periods. Some folks don't want to and some don't have families. Then there is the response that those without the "appropriate cheer" should volunteer. If you want to, great.

I never bought into that Black Friday foolishness because there never were any amazing deals to be had. I always found that the best Christmas deals at b&m stores are 2 or 3 days before Christmas when the stores are practically giving stuff away. And no shopping day would ever be a family tradition for me. Never...ever. Actually one of the reasons I never went shopping on Black Friday is because I cherished the family tradition of spending the Thanksgiving weekend with my girls. The holiday itself was so busy that it was always nice to just sleep late, relax, eat leftovers and spend quality time with my girls. I do the majority of my shopping online and while most of the stores I shop with tradtionally have huge sales on Cyber Monday, I'm not sure that will be the case this coming Monday. I've been receiving "pre Black Friday and "pre Cyber Monday" discounts, big discounts. So, I didn't wait. I was sitting on my couch with a cup of coffee and a bran muffin on the table, shopping at 5am this morning.