First of all, I would like to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. I hope most of you were able to stuff your faces with stuffing and indulge your inner glutton--it truly is the American way. In this entry of the Old Fart series, I take a look at my past experiences with Black Friday and how it has drastically changed over the years.
For those of you who may not know, the day after Thanksgiving is designated as Black Friday. I'm not exactly sure why it's called Black Friday, but according to Wikipedia (yes, such a reputable source of information), the term has been tracked to be coined since the 1960s; describing the period in which retailers would go from being in the red (a net loss -) to being in the black (a net gain +). Largely known as the busiest shopping day of the year, stores lure in shoppers with ridiculously marked down goods and other various promos. For those in the know, Black Friday has become a culture for bargain hunters and holiday shoppers alike, hoping to save BIG $$ on their purchases. Some may also call it an early Christmas simply because they would rather keep the stuff they buy instead of gifting it off. I am definitely guilty of treating myself to too much stuff before on Black Friday.
I remember when I was growing up, the day didn't necessarily matter to me. It was simply that extra day off of school; an opportunity to sleep in and let that Thanksgiving turkey and its accompanying food from the night before settle right in my lower intestine. I was aware that there were some special sales going on since it was that week when there would be two rounds of sales advertisements in our newspaper; but there wasn't anything that stood out that made me realize how significant the day would be to me later on.
What really triggered my interest in Black Friday and shopping as a whole was the entire hype for the Tickle-Me-Elmo toy from awhile back. It was the very first of the 'Tickle-Me' series of Sesame Street toys. I suppose no one had ever seen a toy like that before. My family was looking to buy one for my baby brother at the time. Back then, it was THE toy to have. You just couldn't get anything else for your child that Christmas that would be comparable to it. Although my brother was only a few months old, we exhausted ourselves looking for it that holiday season. In the end, we got him a Tickle-Me Big Bird--highly inferior to the grand poobah Tickle-Me Elmo. My brother at that age could barely distinguish formula from breast milk let along why Big Bird sucked compared to Elmo.
No wonder people were so crazy about Elmo. He's just too damned cute...too..much..cute
Ever since that crazy hyped-up holiday season, I have been enamored with Black Friday and shopping in general. Every weekend on Sunday would be kind of a mini holiday for me because I would get an opportunity to check the weekly sales ads. Sure, it doesn't seem very exciting, but it was the only other colorful piece of media that would keep me amused other than TV--and the occasional Dr. Seuss book.
"Oh hell no I'm not eating those green eggs and ham!" One of my favorite books of all time.
Anyways, once I began to get an income either through an allowance or through part-time work, I started to really pay attention to sales on Black Friday. It would be the opportunity to cash in on those early-bird specials that only the highly-motivated and borderline crazy bargain hunters have been raving for months. I would always be anticipating that extra bundle of sales ads distributed on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I would circle the things I wanted most and then made lists out to prioritize which store I would go to first, second, and whatever stores later in the day if need be--call it the shopping route of champions (uggh that sounded really lame, but bear with me). I didn't really partake in an actual Black Friday-early-morning stakeout until high school when I had a car. My parents never really saw the fun in waiting in line outside of Best Buy at 3am in sometimes blistering cold weather to get some cheap DVDs or a TV that they really didn't need. It really was a holiday for the passionate bargain shopper. I felt like I was a part of some exclusive club of shoppers who were given the privilege to buy stuff at ridiculous markdown prices.
Some of my favorite memories from Black Friday include my first early-morning stakeout outside of an ABC Warehouse (a local electronics wholesale retailer), and getting a really super cheap all-in-one HP inkjet printer, getting a cheap Microsoft wireless mouse from CompUSA, and picking up a few bargain video games from Circuit City. It was a grand time for the crazy bargain hunter in me.
This year I definitely noticed some changes with Black Friday. Something didn't feel right about it. In light of things such as the Internet, shopping has become easier for people since they don't have to make the trek outside to the stores to get what they want; they can simply buy it online simply with a few clicks and have it shipped to their house in a matter of a few days. Improvements with logistical infrastructure has revolutionized the way we shop nowadays, and I certainly don't like it too much. Even a simple search on google for Black Friday or an occasional visit to your favorite retailers' website will often bring up the upcoming Black Friday ad scans days, even weeks in advance for you to outline and plan your shopping terror. The exclusive club of shoppers that I previously thought I was a part of was gone now that most people can find an excellent deal on an item simply by sitting on their ass the entire day refreshing/snooping the pages on slickdeals.net or bfads.net. Unfortunately, I came to the conclusion that if I were to find an excellent bargain this year, it wasn't going to be in stores.
What happened to the entire experience of Black Friday? Are there still people out there camping at 11pm outside of Best Buy? Are there still groups of people selling hand warmers to those freezing their butts off for not bundling up? Where are those kids who are standing in line in place of their parents while they stay warm inside the car? Are there still cheaply xeroxed 'vouchers' for the people who are in line first to grab their item of choice? Are those same people with those vouchers selling them to the people later in line simply to make a quick profit? Where's that crazed man with a map of the store planning his route through the store to pick up everything he wanted? Is that crazed man hiding his items in some discrete place so he can buy it later? Do I still need to fill out and mail those painstaking and demanding rebate forms to actually get my bargain deal? These were some of the questions I had this year while sitting at home on my ass refreshing online retailer pages.
Don't get me wrong, this Black Friday I ended up sitting on my ass checking out video game deals on CheapassGamer and constantly refreshed the 'Game Deals' page on Amazon to catch the next Lightning Deal. There were simply more deals to be had online than at the in-store retailers. For the most part I didn't have to worry about sales tax and shipping was more often times than not free since I was buying mostly from Buy.com or Amazon. The issue of getting my items in a timely matter didn't factor in since I'm perfectly okay with getting stuff later; after all, Christmas isn't around for another few weeks.
One of the few items I pounced on was the PS3 bundle (with KillZone 2 and InFamous) I've been way long overdue for one.
In retrospect, the way things were done on Black Fridays past were more inefficient, less convenient, and probably didn't offer the best prices for consumers; yet I still yearn for those days when I would join in with the people camping outside in line to get their cheap big screen TV and whatnot. Even in the last few years, the entire hype of Black Friday and the official beginning of the holiday shopping season has fabricated a whole new shopping holiday: Cyber Monday. Don't even let me get started on Cyber Monday. Oi.
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