How Does Black Friday Change Us?

I realize this blog post is a little late, as Black Friday is already either in full swing or over with… but I had to say something. Something important.

You see, this is the first Black Friday in 12 years that I have not spent working. It’s given me time to reflect a bit.

Black Friday Madness

I’ve often questioned why Black Friday turns people from the happy, thankful people they are the day before (or in some places an hour before) into deal-seeking monsters who rip and tear at each other for a toaster oven. What is it precisely that makes an item that’s normally $40, but on sale for $25, so desirable that you feel the need to start a fist fight in order to save $15?

Can I pay you to entertain me with a fist fight for $15? Cause that’s exactly the value you’ve placed on yourself by acting like you are in order to have an item you otherwise wouldn’t normally buy.

I also have trouble figuring out how grown adults who raise their kids every day to be humble, caring individuals can backtrack so quickly to a primitive state. It seems to me that what you’re teaching your kids by dragging them along on a Black Friday shopping spree where you fight other grown men and women for a steamer or coffee maker is a bit contradictory to your claims of being a good parent.

Is Black Friday Necessary?

Is it? Is it really? It seems to me that placing the biggest sale of the year right after a holiday in which we’re supposed to be thankful for what we already have is defeating the purpose of Thanksgiving. Seriously, how can you look at yourself in the mirror and not be ashamed that you’ve pulled a Jekyll and Hyde style transformation?

No, not all Black Friday shoppers are bad people. In fact, the majority of them aren’t. There are plenty of decent shoppers that don’t frantically attack each other for an iPad Mini or whatever’s on sale. The people stampeding through the doors the second the store opens up sometimes drag sane shoppers along with them, so not even the early bird fanatics are all bad.

Despite the good seeds placed among the bad, Black Friday remains a dark event where people go partially insane for reasons that don’t quite make sense. It’s a mad, compulsory exercise to go out at midnight and stand in the freezing cold, risking injury from the rest of the herd, all to be one of the first to get a new TV when you just bought one seven months ago.

What Should Black Friday Shoppers Do?

Before you even have Thanksgiving, take time to discuss with family and friends what you plan to do on Black Friday. This may sound silly, but there’s actually a lot going on in people’s heads that make Black Friday shoppers less rational. I’m not saying people literally go insane, but they do lose the rationality they normally have when their fear of missing out on a great deal is triggered.

Talk with people you know and lay out a plan.

• What items do you specifically want?
• Do you really need it? Can you afford it?
• What specific time will you go shopping? How long?
• Is it worth braving the crowds to get? Can you purchase it another day?

In the end, the best thing you can do is just stay home and wait out the storm. Get the rest you need to recover from a busy holiday with family and friends. Black Friday just isn’t worth it; the savings you get aren’t worth the crumbling morals and greed that you’re purchasing.

Let it go.