Black Friday ... Seriously?

By Erin Quinn

I'm not one to do the Black Friday thing.

It's not that I don't love a good bargain, because I absolutely do. What I hate is rising before the sun, racing to Point A for the bargain that is only available for 2 hours and then trying to get to Point B for the same purpose and so on and so on. But the thing is, the line at Point A--because we all know there will be a line and that everyone else in the Black Friday World will be in it too--usually holds you hostage until your sale at Point B is either over or everything in a size that humans can actually wear is sold out.

But this year my 15 year old daughter really, really, REALLY wanted to go.

So with my two daughters, I began to map our journey. I flat-out refused to go anywhere near WalMart. I mean, come on, people DIE there on Black Friday. I did agree to Old Navy though and sure 'nuff, we found bargains. By 6:30 we had shopped like crazed sales monsters and were on our way to the Dick's Sporting Goods, then onto the mall where were able to finally get a Starbucks, take a breath and power on. By 9:30 we'd had 4 1/2 hours of it and we were stick-a-fork-in-me-I'm-done done.

All in all, it was a fun day with my girls but the whole venture made me think about how the Holiday season has devolved. I'm not talking about the religious factor, but the whole ball and wax. How did Black Friday become such a huge ordeal. Who's bright idea was it to start opening at 8am, then 7...6....5...4...3--midnight????? Seriously? And why? Why when almost everything that could be bought at the store could also be purchased online?

So where did Black Friday start and why do we support it? Apparently it's not such a new tradition and can be dated back to the 1960s, originating on the east coast. According to BlackFriday.com the "black" in the term came from stores moving their ledgers from red to black--as in ink on the books. Ironically, the term used for the biggest shopping day was first coined in the late 1800s after a Stock Market catastrophe. It went on to become associated with retail not only because of the red and black ink, but because of the horrific traffic as people rushed out after turkey day to buy, buy, buy. Historically, the official gift buying season was held to a hard and fast line on the Friday after Thanksgiving. No Christmas until Thanksgiving ends. Period.

However--and I found this so interesting--that changed when Franklin Roosevelt actually changed the date of Thanksgiving in order to accommodate the retailers with a bonus week. (Can you even imagine something like that happening today???) Due to poor planning and the late announcement of this holiday switch-a-rooney, Americans rebelled and continued to celebrate on the traditional date--calling Franklin's new Thanksgiving "Franksgiving"(mentalfloss.com). However, a few years later the new Thanksgiving--4th Friday of November--"took" and has stuck since then.

What's funny--at least IMHO--is that all the shuffle-ball-change of Thanksgiving to accommodate the retailers was done out of a sense of politeness for the holiday. No stealing the turkey's thunder by trampling it with the gift buying. But look at the way things are now. How often do we see Christmas decorations in September? Christmas trees on display next to Halloween costumes? The unwritten rule which motivated Franklin Roosevelt to move a holiday doesn't even exist in the unwritten rule book anymore.

Anyway, I feel like I should have a survival t-shirt--I lived through Black Friday. Will I go again next year...well, only if I'm begged by a daughter. It was fun in a got-up-too-early-and-spent-too-much-money-on-my-wonderful-kids kind of way. But I'm thinking....maybe I can get Obama to move Black Friday to a Monday and see if we can get some extra holidays out of it.....

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Stay safe and remember what's important as the holiday season rolls in.

Erin Quinn
http://www.erinquinn.info/
Haunting Warrior, May 2010