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Out of Control - Black Friday vs. The Spirit of the Season

Anyone that wants to remove the spirit of Christmas from their life forever may want to work a few weeks in a retail store during the season. I venture to guess that most people could not survive a Black Friday without having a mood changing event.

Black Friday sounds ominous, as if the demons of darkness set perched on the threshold of reality waiting for the bearer of the golden key to unleash the minions upon the unsuspecting world. In reality the term has more to do with black ink on the bottom-line as most retailing companies depend heavily upon the holiday season to boost sales and keep businesses that were marginally viable through the other 10 months, profitable for the entire year.

For those of us that work retail the 'Black' in 'Black Friday' very often seems to reflect the mood of the average shopper. It is a painful time for both the seller and the buyer. The seller wants to entice the buyer with wares in hopes that the shoppers will buy others things while the buyer wants to get in. get the cheap bargain item and get out as soon a humanly possible. In the balance tempers have been known to flare and even fights have broken out.

As a veteran of 19 Black Fridays with two major retailers and as a vendor rep for a couple of seasons in between that I had to serve at a third retailer, I can tell you that I have witnessed things that have tested my faith in humanity. I have seen insanity and even violent outbursts over a few dollars of savings, misinterpreted verbage in the text of an ad and threats of everything from law suits to bodily harm.

I have personally been threatened and even physically accosted. Yeah, I have less than fond memories of the season that is supposed to bring out the best in people.

Obviously the spirit of the season is dying if it is not already dead. Maybe we can blame those that seemingly want to remove Christmas even from the dictionary - they are also those who want to remove voluntary prayer from schools, mottos from our money, nativity scenes from public displays and the Ten Commandments upon which many laws in the western world are based from any courthouse.

I am no longer a practicing anything. That is not to say that I believe that I have practiced enough to be perfect. I am not perfect. Just ask anyone that knows me personally. It is just that I do not believe in organized religion because in my opinion it often fosters zealots and ideologues that are on the fringe of sanity. Do not confuse the term 'zealot' with the term 'faithful'. I have a firm belief that this world is a better place because there are good people in it and people that want to do right and help others that are less fortunate. Religions do that for many people and that is good. My problem with organized religion is that the believers also do strange things to some people and those people become so impassioned that in the case of som emiddle eastern faiths they at the very least annoy others and at the worst they blow themselves up and kill innocents in the process.

I digress.

Black Friday is the traditional beginning of the Christmas buying season. It is traditionally the busiest shopping day in retailing. It follows a major holiday sacrosanct as much as Christmas and Easter in our society as days that it would be considered vulgar to be open for business unless of course it is a convenience store or a restaurant catering to the poor few that are alone and cannot cook dinner. There was a time not so long ago that no one was able to do business on Sundays in several states. Religious holidays were sacred as well under the 'blue laws'.

It seems to me that the more politically correct we have become, the more respectful of the atheists rights we have also become. The end result of the secularization of everything from soup to nuts is that stores, in the interest of competitive advantage open ever earlier in an attempt to trump the competition. There will be idiot savings minded morons willing to start shopping at any hour that is set, even at the midnight that lingers between Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday. They will even complain that they had to come to the store that late or early, depending on perspective. They will cite that greed prevails over common sense. They may even lament even as I am now at the loss of the sense and the departure from message of the season.

I have heard it all before and progressively it has become worse with each passing year. Retailers are in competition in our society and in the interest of gaining some competitive advantage over everyone else, they will open earlier and cut prices so low that no one could possibly ignore the lure, even until the opening for Black Friday is at midnight, the first possible instant of the most profitable day of the year.

Prophecy? No. Even if it were then it is has been fulfilled. My store opens at midnight. Will I see you there?

E

posted by Unknown @ 9:44 PM