Happy Thanksgiving!!

Some people feel the need to go shopping on Black Friday, not me of course because I wasn’t born yesterday. Even if I was inclined to ever set foot in a store without a specific need, I know that the day after Thanksgiving is a retail scam. This isn’t new. Back in the 1970’s, when I worked retail, I quickly learned that the best deals don’t come until later. At the old Hecht Company we used to mark-up prior to Thanksgiving and mark-down for Black Friday to a level barely 10 percent below regular price. By a week before Christmas, another 25-30 percent was dropped and on Boxing Day you could get over half off. Today, as an example, Best Buy will price a particular television for about $100, which sounds amazing, except for the fact that there will only be a few available and the television is one that they don’t offer any other time because admittedly they have higher standards. The Black Friday tv is worth about $99, but if you wake up at oh-dark-thirty you might be able to get it for $100.  That is of course, if you are one of the first fifty waiting in line and rushing the back of the store when they open.

Besides the fact that the prices aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be, you have to deal with enormous crowds. No thank you. I’m not really fond of the typical crowds in a store in August, so why would I torture myself the day after my Thanksgiving feast?

This brings me to what is the biggest fiasco of them all. Stores open on Thanksgiving. WHAT??? As I get older this sounds even more blasphemous. Time with family should be sacred. When I’m with loved ones, eating and drinking and having fun, relaxing and running my mouth, the last thing I want to do is pack up early to head out shopping. Frankly, if someone I cared about suddenly jumped up and said they were going to call it an afternoon and leave our group to catch some special deal in a store, I’d be offended.  Don’t let retailers, (who are on their last legs anyway in this day and age), steal one minute of time from you and your family. I guarantee you that on your death bed you won’t be sorry that you missed saving $10 off of that shirt. 

Happy Thanksgiving!