Next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is the nation’s favorite holiday. For over 150 years, it has been celebrated as a National holiday. Every year on the last Thursday of November, about 90% of America sits down and enjoys a big meal with their families. Being a constantly evolving country both technologically and economically, holidays and their traditions have changed throughout the years. We have found faster and easier ways to get things done, better ways to make money, and at more times than most, have gone completely out of tradition. With that, Thanksgiving has always been the holiday that we still hold to a tradition. It is one of only a few days out of the year to sit down with your family and be thankful for all that you have. However, most families don’t get too comfy after a long day of eating and lounging, but rather recover from their food comas early and get ready to enter into the jungle of pre-holiday sales, hour-long lines, and herds of shoppers flocking pretty much any place that sells things. This madness is otherwise known as Black Friday.
Black Friday is traditionally known to be the official “start” of the holiday season. It happens the day after Thanksgiving, and most, if not all, stores are running impressive sales to intrigue consumers to start their holiday shopping. This harmless excuse to get off the couch, walk off yesterday’s turkey and start looking for holiday gifts for loved ones has turned into a pretty scary sight to see. It not only starts the very night or sometimes even day of Thanksgiving, but also keeps employees from spending time with their families. And even worse, has gotten quite a few Americans injured and even killed from being trampled at store openings.
I, for one, set my doubts aside and actually pulled myself out of my turkey coma this Thanksgiving at midnight to the Deptford mall midnight opening. And may I say, unless you like squeezing past a thousand people in any store you go in, fighting for the last shirt in the size you need it in, having awkward encounters with people you don’t want to see, or spending the wee hours of the night running around a crowded mall, then I wouldn’t recommend wasting the time you could be sleeping out in the beginning hours of Black Friday.
Don’t get me wrong now, it wasn’t all that bad. I’m pretty sure I walked off every little thing I consumed on Thanksgiving. I did see a lot of my friends, and I got some pretty good deals. However, I’m sure the same deals would be there the next day, and the next. It wasn;t all that bad until you got around to the more popular stores. Going into Victoria’s Secret was pretty much like making your death wish, I have never encountered so many people so eager to buy $35 plain black leggings or sweatshirts that simply read “PINK” on them that were on sale for $50 instead of $65. $50. For a sweatshirt.
Well, there you have it folks, you either love it or you hate it. It was definitely an interesting experience, but I don’t think I’d do it again. At the end it’s one big competition on who can open the earliest, and honestly, I don’t see the point when there’s 25 more days left to shop. But hey, some people love losing a night’s sleep to get a good deal. But for everyone else, including myself, all I can say is thank God for whoever invented Cyber Monday.