Black Friday has overshadowed Thanksgiving
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Halloween has passed, the weather’s getting colder, the drinks are getting warmer and our stress levels are becoming higher as we prepare for the holidays and the end of the fall semester.
Thanksgiving falls on November 22 this year, a time to eat more than we usually do, to count our blessings, and spend time with family.
Immediately after is Black Friday, where stores all over the country give insanely good deals for a limited time so as to provide consumers with the right gift for those they love. According to Business Insider, this is the day when stores are “in the black” or “profitable that day.”
While it may seem more important to get the latest iPhone than to spend time with family, we should be grateful for what we have, and be far less focused on the material goods we want this holiday season.
Business Insider states that when it began on Sept. 24, 1969, Black Friday earned its name when the price of gold was raised higher by two investors, which caused a crash, making the stock market drop 20 percent in one day.
Today, it’s known to bring in a ton of eager shoppers in order to get just the right price for that brand-new product they saw on TV, in the newspaper, or online. Advertisers use this occasion to try and market their products to us in just the right way so as to convince us that their items are worthy of our purchase.
Sometimes, crowd flow can be difficult or even unmanageable, to the point of bodily harm. Store owners and retail workers are taking time out of their Thanksgiving holiday, and time away from their families, to work twice as hard to serve our needs.
What is interesting to me is that one day is meant to be spent being thankful for everything in our lives and the next day we go out and focus on material items and getting the best deals possible. In recent years, sales have started in the middle of the Thanksgiving Day – for example, according to Newsweek, JCPenney is opening at 2 p.m. and Target plans to open at 5 p.m. on Thursday to give people earlier access to the deals they so desire.
Not to mention that with the evolution of technology, we now also have Cyber Monday – a day for online shopping discounts – as a source for deals. Additionally, Giving Tuesday was started back in 2012 and is a platform fueled by a social media across the U.S and focuses on giving back to the nation – taking people back into the midnight of giving.
If you do decide to participate in Black Friday deals this year, it’s necessary to remember to be safe and considerate of others. Remember that while that holidays can be an exciting time for new products, we also need to keep in mind that this time of year is really about, and that is being thankful for what we have and spending time with the people we care about.
