It’s been about a month now since my last post, and even then really it was just a couple pics of a sign I came across while at the Pumpkin patch out in Tennessee for Halloween. For the record I ignored their warning about people of exceptional size and bounced my ass all over that contraption. There’s a lot of cardio involved there if you don’t believe me just give it a try for yourself.
I’ve had a lot to say the past month I just haven’t been in the sharing mood. It has nothing to do with this time of year either in fact quite the contrary. I usually like this time of year, the period from around Thanksgiving thru to the new year. Like it, not love it! I enjoy it very much, but I never get in the “Christmas spirit” as some do. I’ve been called a Grinch because I choose to enjoy the holidays in a way which deviates from what most people come to expect. I don’t get excited about hanging Christmas lights outside in fact I consider them a waste of time and money. They’re a health (if you fall and break something while trying to put them up) and fire hazard too. I like having a Christmas tree and getting it decorated and that’s about the only place I want my Christmas lights to be. So what if the neighbors can’t see how much I love Christmas? My Christmas isn’t about putting on a show for them. In general I’m not what most people expect and I’ve always been ok with that. Why should the holidays be any different? Who came up with those expectations anyway? What drives the preconception that the holidays have to be celebrated in a particular spectacular fashion?
This year has been a difficult one, but still this Thanksgiving I had a lot to be thankful for. One of the things I’m most thankful for is that I’m not one of those people who easily gets caught up in the Black Friday hype. The holidays of course are all about marketing, and especially this year when the economy is in the toilet and people are more desperate for a great deal to spend what little money they may have for the holidays this year, the marketing machine was in full effect once again. You want to know where our expectations for the seasons originated well there you go. Everything about the holidays are designed to drive the money machine, to make us spend more than we need to or sometimes have. Even I almost got swindled by it this year.
For instance, when they first came out I wanted a Blackberry Playbook so badly, but once the reviews were in and I thought enough about what it had to offer and what I really wanted out of a tablet I wanted it less and less. From a technical specifications stand point it’s one impressive device. But for the price and what it offers, or rather what it doesn’t, it makes no good sense. So when I saw that they had dropped the prices by $300 for Black Friday sales I almost fell for it. But even at $299 now for the lowest priced offering it still lacks access to good apps and native email support (you have to tether it to a Blackberry for email which so completely ridiculous imho). Sure these are planned as part of a software update early next year. Assuming the upgrade comes out in a timely fashion if at all, and that it actually works well, in the meantime I’d be stuck with a $300 paperweight.
I hate Black Friday! I hate it because it brings out the worst in people, the part of them we all know exists but prefer to never see. Several years ago I found myself out shopping on Black Friday, and it was not a conscious decision. Since then I’ve made it a conscious decision to not go out shopping at all. I remember it was a beautiful day for the time of year and I was home bored most of the morning but headed out that afternoon to find a DVD player to gift someone for Christmas. I made the mistake while I was at the store of browsing: you know, looking at stuff you don’t necessarily plan to buy. As I was browsing I saw something fairly interesting and was about to reach for it to have a closer look. The truth is I don’t even remember what the item was probably because I wasn’t nearly that interested in the first place. What I do remember is that as I reached for it I got shoulder blocked football style by and an old lady determined to have it instead. She then gave me this “you’re supposed to move” look. So I smiled and stepped aside, and she grabbed it and took off without even so much as a thank you.
Yes, people take their Black Friday shopping seriously, but not I. People do, but not nearly as seriously as the retailers. Every year they hype up this dreadful day more and more, and despite the number of consumers who do dumb things for a shot at those bargains, the many who will ultimately find themselves injured, robbed, or worse killed because of it, they do it bigger and bigger each year. After all, people have a whole year to forget about those unfortunate few, and at the end of the day the dollar is worth a lot more than a few casualties along the way. Don’t believe me? Have you seen the news lately? Black Friday sales in the billions, retailers doing far better this year than they did last. A lot of people had already decided they weren’t spending much this holiday because the economy is so terrible and so many are still without work. Yet somehow they managed to convince those people that there’s at least one deal out there they simply can’t pass on. I know because I almost got caught up in the web too.
This was never for the consumers to begin with. People are more easily manipulated when there’s chaos and mass hysteria so things will likely stay the same or get worse each year. And the deals being offered in many cases are not even to begin with. Here’s an analogy most everyone can relate to. This is the same thing that has happened with the gas prices. The prices were driven so high for a time that now we are thankful to pay less than $4/gallon and some of us no longer recall anymore that we used to pay about $1.50/gallon not that long ago. Many retailers do the same thing this time of year. I watched the prices for a few items I’ve been interested in go up over the past few months leading up to Black Friday, when these same items were offered up as specials at a huge discount, in some cases still more expensive that I had seen them for in the past. Some items are seasonal and simply cost more at different times of year, or are affected by demand or a number of other factors. The point is I don’t have to stand in line outside a local electronics retailer for 12 hours to get a good price on a big screen TV. I can probably get the same TV for about the same price early next year when the new model is released. Until then I’m content to spend the time instead with family and friends, a few of the things I’m most thankful for this year.
