Right this second, I can do my grocery shopping, pay my bills, buy ridiculously expensive shoes I have nowhere to wear and order a pizza for dinner, all without having to get up from my computer. It’s amazing, no?
Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day of the year, but with the glory that is the Internet, is waiting in line at 4 in the morning to snag a killer deal on a toy your kid will play with for 5.3 seconds even necessary?
Over 77 million people are expected to hit the stores this Black Friday. In the down economy (I’m so sick of typing that phrase) many people are looking for a deal to save some dough. Unfortunately, this year, stores aren’t offering sales the magnitude of last year. More and more stores are also offering online Black Friday deals to take advantage of online shoppers not brave enough to face the crowds.
Last year, no one was spending money, so stores were left with tons of overstock. To get rid of they, slashed most of their inventory by 50%, 60% and some even 80%. This year, they wizened up and bought less, which means the sales aren’t going to be as hot.
For many, it’s the tradition of it that makes Black Friday shopping worthwhile. Sure, we can barely make it it out of bed at 7:30 a.m. every morning to get to work, but be up and ready to shop at 4:00 a.m. on your day off? You’ll wake up even a few minutes earlier than that for a quick stop at Starbucks.
I, for one, am not into crowds. I don’t like strangers touching me, and as my friends say I get “over stimulated” which always makes me think of a puppy in a room full of balloons, but really, I just get anxious and want in and out.
My only big ticket present this year is a Zune for boyfriend, who knows I am getting it for him already, and who I’m pretty sure takes no interest in my career so he wouldn’t have read that even if he didn’t know. My parents and I never do presents, and my sister and her kids are going to Disney World, so I’m going to toss them a few Visa cards, and hope they don’t spend it on those ridiculous mouse ears.
Will I try and find a deal on Friday for the Zune? You bet. Will I be waiting in line at midnight to take down every person in front of me like a soccer player with something to prove? No. I’ll be doing it from the comfort of my own home, with my laptop in my lap and slippers on my feet. I might find a deal not available in stores, or I might miss a deal, but I’d rather gamble than have the certainty of spending money on gas, breakfast, impulse buys, bail and hospital bills- plus, wasting my day off.
Are you hitting the stores on Black Friday?
Comments
No comments.