Black Friday

I’ve always had mixed feelings regarding Black Friday. Don’t get me wrong – I am certainly always up for a deal, and, in my day-to-day life, I look for them wherever I can: I stock up on essentials when Publix has buy-one-get-one deals, I scour web sites for the best prices on airfares and hotel stays, and, yes, I even cut the occasional coupon. I always feel good when I can get a good deal on something I was going to buy anyway.

I also think it’s a fun Thanksgiving tradition to run out to a local gas station early in the morning for a couple gigantic papers full of Black Friday ads. Brandon and I typically spread them all over the living room floor, and then go through them one-by-one, looking for the most amazing deals. And, over the years, we have found some that are pretty incredible. But, more often than not, we buy things that we definitely don’t need and probably didn’t even want until we saw that they were “on sale.”

A couple years ago, we were in the market for a new computer, and we located a great deal on one at Office Depot. I had to work that Black Friday, so Brandon went out at some ungodly hour to stand in line at the store. He got the computer, and we definitely saved money on it. But he also came home with a shredder. It had been a great buy – almost a steal, really, he told me. Who could pass up a deal like that? But we already had a shredder, and it was working fine. The new one has never seen the outside of its box and has been taking up space in our closet for two full years now.

It certainly isn’t only on Black Friday that “good deals” influence us to buy things we normally might not have. We live in a consumer culture, and our lives are very much about the exchange of money for merchandise – stuff we need (homes, vehicles, food, etc.), stuff we want (TVs, trips, a newer car), and stuff we might need or might want at some point down the road (shredders, for example, but I could go on and on with this one). This is true whether it’s Black Friday or any other day of the year.

It’s just that Black Friday brings this consumer culture to a whole new level. The papers are two inches thick with ads that will end up in recycling centers or landfills by the time the leftover turkey is eaten, and, if we thought we were crazy for waiting in line to get into the stores with the best deals at four in the morning, this year places like Macy’s, Target, and Wal-Mart opened their doors at midnight!

Brandon and I were once again in the market for a computer this year. When he got home from work on Thanksgiving, we went through the ads, as is our tradition, and we saw a great deal on a nice little computer in an ad for a new electronics store called H. H. Gregg. They, too, were going to open at midnight. So, at about 10 o’clock, we decided to take a drive by the store to see if it looked like we needed to wait in line. But when we got there, two hours before opening, the line was already wound around the store. We couldn’t even see the end of it, and we just didn’t want a computer that bad! We decided to go home, go to bed, and check the store in the morning just in case.

On our way home at 10 o’clock, though, we cruised by Best Buy, just to see what level the craziness had reached at that store. Their line was even worse than H. H. Gregg’s, and it was evident that some of the customers had been camping there. It’s one thing to come prepared with a lawn chair and a book, but a tent and a sleeping bag?

I’m still not sure what my true feelings for Black Friday are. It’s fun, and it can definitely be exciting; but it’s also exhausting and stressful! And it seems that it becomes more exhausting and stressful (but not necessarily any more fun or exciting) every year. I know my little blog can’t change Black Friday, and I don’t know if that’s even my intent. If you want to sit in front of Best Buy for two days in order to ensure you enter first at midnight on Black Friday, that’s your privilege and your business. But I do know where I draw the line. Sure, I want to get as good of a deal as the next guy does, but I’ll always ask myself: At what cost?

Even still, Brandon and I were up at four in the morning to go back and check on that computer (we got it, without waiting in the line!) and to pick up a few items at Dick’s Sporting Goods, such as a 12-gauge shotgun, a 24-gun safe (500 pounds and the size of our refrigerator), and 200 dollars worth of ammo (and in case you aren’t an ammunition connoisseur, that’s a lot of bullets). Is it any wonder I’m not crazy for Black Friday this year?