It seems like there’s an important holiday coming up this week. If you watched any television you can’t miss the commercials for Black Friday. Car dealerships around me are having Black Friday sales for 10 days. That doesn’t even make sense.
I’ve noticed that many of the retailers are starting their Black Friday deals the Thursday before. And why not? It’s not like we have anything better to do that day. And we all know that if you want to participate in the deals you have to be present when the deals start.
So my “guide” to Black Friday is simple this… skip it. Is it really worth camping out for hours in the cold for a chance at saving $50 or $100? For me it isn’t. Is it worth getting trampled in the mad rush to grab a deal? Again no. Last year a family near me got in a car accident and two people died. The sleep-deprived driver fell asleep on the way home from Black Friday.
We are losing Thanksgiving. We may have already lost it.
It’s not just Black Friday killing Thanksgiving. As I write this, two days before Thanksgiving, I’m watching Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Why, my 1 year old seems to enjoy it? Days ago, some of the local radio stations changed their format to 24-7 Christmas music. My neighbor was putting up his Christmas decorations this afternoon.
Why on Earth would we do anything trivialize one of the best holidays of the year? Are we in that much of a rush for the holiday season that we need to skip over parades with amazing floats, turkey, stuffing, gravy, and copious amounts of football? I don’t know about you, but I want to spend that time with family. I want to take some time and actually give thanks for all the wonderful things I have. I don’t want to spend that time thinking about how I have to get in line to get the latest tablet.
If you’ve read all this and are still going to participate in Black Friday, I can’t stop you. So I might as well you give you the one deal that I would take advantage of if I was going to participate. Wal-Mart has a one-hour in-stock guarantee on 20 items. The best bargain I can see is the 60″ Vizio LED Smart HDTV that has very good reviews at Amazon. At $688, it’s a much better deal than the nearly $1000 that Amazon is charging today. Most importantly, you are guaranteed to get it. Some might be enticed by the iPad Mini with the $100 Wal-Mart gift card for $299, but I’m not. It looks like last year’s model, and the gift card brings it in the price range of this year’s Nexus 7, which is faster with much better screen resolution. (I probably should have said that, because I’d like to spend my Friday looking into how to sell shares of Apple I bought awhile back for big gains.) The 32″ television for $98 looks like a steal for a bedroom or dormroom, even though it is 720P. At that price, I’m okay with the television thinking it’s 2006.
You might find better deals elsewhere, but I prefer not to gamble when Wal-Mart is giving me a guarantee. I want to vote with my wallet to support this type of promotion, even if the retailer itself is one that is infringing on Thanksgiving.
We stayed home and shopped online. No way I’m going to wake up early and get in line to purchase something. I’d rather spend time with the kiddos.