Rethinking Black

 Black Friday.  I always used to think that was a very weird name for the biggest shopping day of the year.  I know it refers to the theoretical day when many retailing businesses enter the four short weeks when they earn most of their entire year's profits, but it still sounds so morbid.  There once was a time when I eagerly anticipated this shopping day.  While the men watched after-Turkey-dinner football, the women would be at the kitchen table plotting out our Friday shopping route.  That was back in the day when Black Friday offered the absolute best deals of the season, after which prices would be at their highest until Christmas Eve.

Lots of things have conspired to take away the magic of Black Friday and make this crazy shopping day much less appealing.  I spent 5 years in the corporate buying offices of a large company.  That will take away your enthusiasm for Black Friday.  Instead, it starts the highly angst ridden days of praying that your business plan works and you end up a hero instead of a bum at the end of the Christmas season.

For the past 5 years years or more, it seems that retailers have gotten more anxious and nervous, and began offering ridiculous deals all throughout the Christmas shopping season.  I mean why drag yourself out of bed when you can get almost the same deal two weeks later when the corporate bigwigs start to panic and demand greater sales volume?  So it just didn't make sense to me to shop in the Black Friday mayhem.

On-line shopping became more appealing.  Nothing like sitting in my jammies with a hot cup of tea and let my fingers do the walking, and my credit card do the shopping.  Besides, I love it when the UPS truck stops in front of my house with packages to open and re-discover what I purchased.

The biggest determent to Black Friday is that we sort of stopped giving gifts because we sort of don't need anything.  Not that we don't want anything, but we no longer wrap Christmas up in a pretty, bow-covered box.  It has become more about the gift that was given to us 2,000 years ago that still remains fresh and vibrant and meaningful, long after the last sale has ended.