I remember the first year I went Black Friday shopping. My mom woke me up early and we ate a breakfast of pumpkin pie and hot chocolate, the tradition that we’ve had for many years in order to prepare us for the long day ahead. Next we were headed to the mall. The parking lot was nearly all the way full, which I had never seen before in my small town in Idaho. I was so excited. I was ready to go in and fight for some deals, and see what all of the fuss was about. We took the Black Friday craze by storm. We shopped and shopped and shopped, and probably saved my dad right into the poor house. It was totally worth the early morning to find the deals. It is a memory I remember fondly. Yet, we haven't been back for a couple of years. Recently, things have gone too far. The retail industry has taken over the holiday of thanks by reminding us of what we don't have that we cant live without. Its no longer tradition for many people to sit down with their families and have a nice turkey dinner, but to head out to find the best sales with the rest of the greedy side of America.
The retail industry is smart. They know how to take advantage of an event such as Black Friday. They start opening earlier, to make you feel the urgency of the sale. If you don't show up on time, you could miss out on an opportunity to buy something you never knew that you needed. This is something that I refer to as FOMO- the Fear Of Missing Out. Its something that plagues the society we live in today and the industry knows how to use this to its advantage. I got about 30 emails on Thanksgiving to remind me of the sales that would be starting as early as six p.m. on Thursday night and would go into Friday morning. They wanted me to believe that I would regret not being there. I didn't take the bait; I didn't go. I decided that for me, it was more important to be with my family, thinking of all the many things I have to be grateful for. I didn’t even think once about the sales I would miss or the people that were not enjoying Thanksgiving in their homes with their families because Black Friday was too hard to miss.
The other issue that I have with the Black Friday insanity that has washed over our country is the loss of common sense that happens as soon as the doors open. The people around you are now competition. There is no sense of camaraderie and no one cares about you or your story. Everyone is only focused on the money they will save by buying as many objects as they can. You hear of fights breaking out over TVs or toddlers being trampled in the wave of shoppers as a new sale is announced over the intercom. Any other day of the year, we would find this ridiculous. When did plastic become more important than the people around us? Why have we given man-made products the power to allow us to forget the humanity of those around us?
Thanksgiving was once a holiday used to gather as families and enjoy time that we have together. Now, it has been overtaken by an the retail industry. If we don't stop and think about it, Black Friday could become the holiday that we use to take more, rather than a time to give thanks for all that we have.
