After being inundated for the last week of “Black Friday”
advertisements, I was convinced that it was the retailer’s greed driving the
start of the “BUY-FEST” to start earlier and earlier on the Friday, until they
started opening their doors this year on the US Thanksgiving itself, driving
the meaning behind the holiday further into the background until it becomes the
meal to max out the waistband before maxing out the credit cards.
A re-think was in order when it dawned on me that the retailers were only responding to the consumer need to take a year’s pay and blow it in 24 hours. It has been well documented over the years that consumers will line up on Thanksgiving to be the first through the doors whenever they open, so it makes sense for the retailers to open the doors rather than have their cash-ready consumer standing outside all night. The concept of “Black Friday” to American consumers is no less a conditional response than Pavlov’s dogs, salivating at the mere thought of achieving their goal of the perfect {fill in the blank} at a discount of {pick a number between 25% and 95%}. I pity the poor Americans who worship consumerism as their golden idol and spend without considering the social and financial consequences of their actions. It will not be long before Thanksgiving will only exist in name, and even the meaning may change to “Give Thanks that the stores never close”.
So much for family, and the opportunity to slow down for ONE day per year for
families to collectively think about how wealthy we are in all of North America
when compared to the other 95% of the world’s population.
