In defense of Black Friday

Recently I have excerpted articles by Peggy Noonan and Fred Reed. Noonan writes in that (former?) bastion of capitalism, the Wall Street Journal, lamenting the fact that Black Friday now begins for many large retailers at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Fred Reed laments the impact of advertisers on families and individuals.

As I look back on the events of the last two days, I would like to write something counter to their criticisms. I work in one of those big box stores. What I saw last night and today were many, many people who were very happy with the bargains they were able to obtain. Our store was well organized, customers were very orderly, and people were able to find great bargains.

Personally, I am in agreement with Fred Reed that advertisers have way too much impact on our society. Like I imagine Fred would do, I can and do turn off talk radio during the ads, rarely watch t.v., and avoid print newspapers. The newspapers are biased, and they sensationalize. If there were disorderly crowds in five Walmarts nationwide, what about the other one thousand Walmarts? Not newsworthy.

Peggy Noonan laments the fading away of religious and patriotic aspects of Thanksgiving. I have news for you, Peggy. as soon as the meal is eaten and the dishes washed, people have been watching football or movies on t.v., or playing video games for the last several years. Now mom and dad can actually do something fun and adventurous together, and save money on Christmas presents. It's a win-win. Retailers and their employees are better able to meet their financial obligations after this day and one-half of sales. Customers had a fun night, and are proud and happy with the bargains they obtained.

Peggy felt it was unfair that employees had to come in to work on Thanksgiving. She doesn't mention the bonuses and increases in wages paid during the two day sale. I don't need the sympathy of Peggy Noonan or any other bleeding heart liberal. What I need, and what I have, is a job!

Why did so many retailers move the beginning of Black Friday back to 6 p.m. on Thursday? Because the old system, requiring customers to get up at 4 a.m. to come in for the best bargains, was not convenient for either customers or employees. Under the scenario we saw this weekend, people could finish their meals and come out for some fun and adventure at the 6 or 8 p.m. sales. Shoppers who had saved money and planned their purchases by reading ads came away delighted at what they had purchased.

Blowing up Thanksgiving

Peggy Noonan remembers when Thanksgiving was

a national day of commonality, solidarity and respect.

Doesn't she realize Thanksgiving is the beginning of Black Friday? Yes, she does.

At least shoppers have a choice. They can decide whether or not they want to leave and go somewhere else. But the workers who are going to have to haul in to work the floor don't have a choice. They've been scheduled. They've got jobs they want to keep.

It's not right. The idea that Thanksgiving doesn't demand special honor marks another erosion of tradition, of ceremony, of a national sense. And this country doesn't really need more erosion in those areas, does it?

The rationale for the opening is that this year there are fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and since big retailers make a lot of their profits during that time something must be done. I suppose something should. But blowing up Thanksgiving isn't it.

Black Friday—that creepy sales bacchanal in which the lost, the lonely, the stupid and the compulsive line up before midnight Friday to crash through the doors, trampling children and frightening clerks along the way—is bad enough, enough of a blight on the holiday.

But Thanksgiving itself? It is the day the Pilgrims invented to thank God to live in such a place as this, the day Abe Lincoln formally put aside as a national time of gratitude for the sheer fact of our continuance. It's more important than anyone's bottom line. That's a hopelessly corny thing to say, isn't it? Too bad. It's true.

Oh, I hope people don't go. I hope it's a big flop.

Stay home, America.

Thanks to Gerard Vanderleun for the link to Peggy's column.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Black Friday

You thought tomorrow was Thanksgiving day? How did we get to this point? Let Fred Reed explain.

Who is going to buy all the junk? Used to be, “production” meant making stuff that people needed. You know: food, clothes, hovels, corn whiskey. There was more demand than supply. Then production in these things, agriculture for example, caught up and everybody had enough to eat. Consequently production went into things people didn´t so much need as want: refrigerators, telephones, Model Ts. Of course pretty soon they came to think that they needed the things they wanted, but never mind. Still, there was more demand than supply. For a while.

Then production again caught up with demand, chiefly through automation. Since people now had everything they needed or wanted, the economy needed to sell them things they didn´t want. There was now more supply than demand, so industry demanded more demand, and advertising stepped in to supply the demand for more demand, the demand for advertising supplying…(this sentence may be getting out of control, but you see what I mean).

The main product of the economy soon became advertising. Twenty minutes of every television hour hosannahed the virtues of indistinguishable shampoos and miraculous toilet paper. Ads turned radio insufferable. Billboards made the big roads hideous. Computers groaned under the weight of spam and pop-ups and buses carried ads on three sides. Buy, buy, buy.