Black Friday, Do they have to ruin everything.

[jimindenver]

Black Friday use be special. The paper would come Thanks giving and between cooking, eating and visiting we all looked at the ads and planned our shopping adventures the next day. Nothing was open on Thanks Giving, you just had to wait.

Now the Black Friday ads are "leaked" well before the holiday. Stores open on Thanks giving ruining the holiday for the employees and shoppers alike. At least the shoppers have a choice. The term Black Friday is now used through out the year to attract shoppers. It use to be Christmas in July, now it is Black Friday any time of the year.

Even the deals are diluted as there are fewer retailers in electronics to compete against each other. Some years the ads just don't justify getting up and braving the cold to get in line.

I would be looking for a new laptop this year if I didn't expect to be at home visiting a sick father. The door buster specials have always done well for me because I don't use them for intense work and lots of processing power usually takes lots of juice to run them. I replace them every five years or so and the current netbook was $100.

You can find most of the major ad scans at Fatwallet.com

 

[sephson]

I'll attempt to answer the question in the thread title without going into excruciating detail, but I think this one requires a fairly complex answer.

"Do they have to ruin everything?"

Here goes:

Yes!

:angel:

 

[GrantRobertson]

REI is closed Black Friday and is giving their employees paid time off to go do something outside.

 

[rgs80074]

you all also forgot to mention the one person(s) no one thinks about. the paper carriers.

most in the field refer to thanksgiving week as hell week. few get to really celebrate thanksgiving like they normally would.

for example I live in orlando for thanksgiving week contractors have this kind of schedule in addition to the regular paper delivery and when I say regular paper delivery i mean the local newspaper, wsj, new york post, new york times, ibd, and the usa papers.

now down here in central florida they have

starting monday night after 7pm a free paper called whats the deal they have to deliver, no so bad can be done at the beginning of the week

wed night after 7pm is where all the shit happens. many have already spent a few hours putting all the parts to the thanksgiving paper together, believe it or not papers are not put together already they come in sections thats one thing I can't believe most people don't realize.

well after spending prebagging time after 7pm and they have until noon thursday to deliver the following stuff

the regular newspaper and alternate publications listed above (not all publish on thanksgiving though)
then they have the spanish paper to deliver some area has lots of these taking contractor 1-3 hours to bag up and then another 2 or so hours to throw
then they have a free coupon paper here (sunday selects) which is the same as the el sentinels in some people have large amounts and time to deliver.

so contractors either spend all wed getting this stuff done or they spend all thursday doing this stuff. by the time they are done most don't feel like doing anything other than sleeping. some lucky contractors will be able to sleep afterwards and wake up late afternoon early evening and have thanksgiving elsewhere at family etc. then comes friday and its back to delivering newspapers.

then comes saturday and you have enough helping of the spanish and sunday selects again not to mention another sunday so by the time thanksgiving week is done people are exhausted, from the contractors to baggers, to stack out people and field managers etc. most don't even celebrate thanksgiving till the following week in a true sense. my house will celebrate with our thanksgiving dinner the following wed.

we all was really hoping this year with ads showing up online weeks in advanced and stores some of them doing teir black friday deals starting before the thanksgiving papers are even done being delivered they'd ease up but the papers higher ups only see numbers they don't care about the low level workers who have to sacrifice everything so the company can make a few more bucks.

when i first started with the paper it was not like this. it was just the thanksgiving paper they got the papers hours early (not so anymore we are lucky if it comes and hour early), they closed phone lines early so their phone people and everyone would be done by 9am but now that its basically run by Chicago who don't care whats going on in florida this kind of non concern has become the norm.

and speaking of newspaper contractors you also have to remember that most (i am sure there are some papers somewhere) have to work 7 days a week, 365 days a year with no days off, no sick days, etc

 

[jimindenver]

I worked at a grocery in my teens and remember putting the inserts into the Sunday and Thanks Giving papers. YOu woujld think that the same machines that create the paper would but I don't think the newspaper prints those ads. Back then there were no after Christmas sale ads so that day just sucked a bit less.

 

[SoulRaven]

I have a very simple way to fix this black Friday thing.........just forget about the holidays and go visit a nature area.

 

[LeeRevell]

The last thing I want to do is to fight huge crowds of college kids and soccermoms.  Leave them to their feeding frenzy.  

 

[B and C]

IMHO the savings are not worth the hassle to get up early (I am an early riser though) and go stand in a line for a few hours to maybe get a chance to save $20 on the limited special.  Did it years ago, but I haven't in at least the last 20 as I think the workers need the time off too, but is not my only reason.  Fault the shoppers.  If there is not a demand for it, it will be stopped.  I would much rather spend time with my family.  I did the paper route thing when I was 14 for a year, but it was only one paper, not multiples.  It was a morning news edition.  If the were two or more parts, I just stacked the parts as I rolled them, no stuffing.  Wet days I put a wax paper outer cover on before they were rolled using copper wire.  I think they are bagged now.  I haven't subscribed to a paper in the last 30+ years.

 

[sephson]

I don't worry too much about Black Friday. I have exactly two stops for my Black Friday shopping. I head to Comic Quest for my weekly dose of comic books, then I find someplace to eat lunch and read my comics.

 

[Rugster]

I don't worry too much about Black Friday. I have exactly two stops for my Black Friday shopping. I head to Comic Quest for my weekly dose of comic books, then I find someplace to eat lunch and read my comics.

I miss the weekly comic book store run I now play a table top game called Heroclix that is based heavily on comic book characters and sometimes I wiki some of the more obscure (to me) characters. Sometimes you read up on characters you'd wish you hadn't. Like Superboy Prime...he punched reality.

 

[Phantom Blooper]

The toilet paper rolls are getting smaller and the A-holes are getting bigger........

 

[ZoNiE]

Black Friday = Stay home and away from all the idiots who will camp overnight for a $150 Off brand TV set.

 

[GypsyDogs]

For me, lately, Black Friday has meant one thing.. Longer harder hours.
I work for FxG and load trucks- by hand. No, we are not allowed to use handtrucks, yes we load trucks that deliver to homes and businesses out of the same truck. Yes I can neatly stack those 100 coffee makers for you. Oh, this truck is getting 175 lb bundles of towels? Awesome. One of my trucks even covers the big retail mall hereabouts. ExtraAwesome.
This year, our long-hard-hours starts a week early (thank you e-shopping!) and we begin working 6 days a week, and start earlier when there is a higher volumes of packages. They predict that our volume will nearly double during the heavy parts of the season.

So when that package arrives in your hot little hands, take a moment and consider how many other hands have helped get it to you. Just sayin'

 

[mockturtle]

Never been to a Black Friday sale in my life. Hate shopping and hate crowds.

 

[compassrose]

Last year I had customers complaining because our store would be closed on Thanksgiving Day and they got really pissed when I told them the store would be closed for Christmas Day. I worked at Home Depot. Really?

This year, the head honchos have decided (in the past week) that Family Dollar will be open. My daughter will be working. Why? They don't have Thanksgiving sales. And she thought they would be closed this year. When she gets off from work, I will cook us a special Thanksgiving Day meal and we will watch a movie.

I try to avoid the stores as much as possible during the holidays.

 

[LeeRevell]

Big perk of having been a state employee.  Holidays are time OFF.  And we got two days off for Turkey Day.  Usually we'd be released early on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve too.
My sister is a medical professional.  She works just about all holidays and every other weekend.  And winter is their 'busy season'.......  

I detest crowds, so I spend a quiet holiday at home.

 

[Mark]

Never in my life have I shopped on Black Friday. Never have and never will. I'm going to buy a few nice, small things for the people I care about and that'll be it, I'm not going to spend more than $100 total.

 

[SoulRaven]

I don't shop on Black Friday or any of the holidays the stores are open. For those that have to work or that have family that work, I am sorry that our country has come to this where we have not a single day where families/friends are ALL allowed to be together. I remember the good ole' days when it was just a given that unless you were "essential" personnel like hospital, fire/police, you could count on being off to enjoy time alone or together with others. Life is short.

 

[MikeRuth]

I don't have the list handy but no less than a dozen names have decided to be closed Thanksgiving Day.

I think that some of these business's and more are realizing that this is tradition and should be closed to allow family and friends to celebrate.

When I hear about this I can't forget being a kid, sometime in the early 60's that on Thanksgiving, Xmas nothing was open, Just a gas station here or there near the interstate highways. Otherwise you waited till Friday or Saturday. I couldn't say for sure but I think even PD and FD had skeleton deployment.

 

[Wanderer]

Well for me I'm not that upset. Years ago, sitting down with Mom and us kids was a great occasion....But now? Mom passed away, the children have grown and are not speaking to each other (Well, me and older sis are, younger one told us to "F-- off")

I'll be working (Most hated retailer in USA) T-Day and thus earning 25% off my cart purchase come Dec 3-4th That way I can decide if I want to buy $600 worth of food and donate it all to a local charity (Or sister also) I won't miss the money for sure.

I have already bought all I really need, so there's little reason to spend it on self.