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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Black Friday
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
It's all over the net, it's in the papers - it's Black Friday - as if it's a national phenomenon.
I'd never heard of Black Friday before I started working in Merthyr Tydfil - and then was told it was the last Friday before Christmas when there were lots of office/works parties, or when the men went out drinking. Why "Black" Friday? Because the drunks could be rounded up by the police in a "Black Mariah".
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
It's a celebration of sorts for merchants who sell enough stuff to bring their books into the black, and making money. And we fall for it. Every year. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
As a big supporter of Thanksgiving and family togetherness, I am very offended that so many stores open their doors on Thanksgiving Day, forcing employees to leave (or to not even attend) family gatherings.
Are we sure this doesn't belong in Hell?
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
It might yet belong in Hell. We don't do Thanksgiving on this side of the Atlantic - it would have been nice to have had a festival of gratitude, but no, we get the festival of encouraging people to spend and the police being called to shops to break up people fighting over bargains. I'm sure retailers are delighted at the enthusiasm shown.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
Kevin Drum, now blogging at Mother Jones, has been retelling the story of BF for a few years now. He posted it again today.
As far as I can tell, he's got the evidence for the origin of the name. We don't have to look past cupidity for the reasons we endure the chaos.
If that doesn't send the thread to the nether regions, I guess it really doesn't belong there.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Not a thread, but Eutychus has condemned in Hell for spreading to France, and we now have retailers using it as a hook to hang a sale on, any excuse will do.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
One can choose not to participate. I ventured out for groceries late this morning and noticed that more people were out than usual, but otherwise I stay at home on Black Friday.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
I'm finding it annoying, nonsensical and stupid as it has spread to Canada. It's being advertised like crazy. Even with Thursday and Friday being just regular work days. Thanksgiving day is the second Monday in October in Canada.
Black Friday sounds like a bizarre take on crucifixion day.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I suppose a Doppler black Wednesday will appear in Canada after Canadian Thanksgiving as soon as the merchants figure it out.
Oddly the whole super sales during the Christmas shopping season has proved a mixed blessing in recent years. A lot of consumers decided to wait for the next big sale, which they felt sure would happen before Christmas. Merchants aren't that excited at all the holiday revenue being discounted.
The next nastiness that will probably spread globally is the Chinese Singles Day. Pushed by Ali Baba over the last three years it encourages single people to buy gifts for themselves on 11/11. This year they sold 9 Billion dollars of merchandise creating quite a bulge in the delivery system.
[ 28. November 2014, 21:30: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
What I really resent, and I'm not the only one, is that the retailers, feeling they have to follow where A**z*n leads, have chosen to whip up a frenzy of buying, with a new name none of us have heard of before, by reference to an event in a public calendar on the other side of the world, which means nothing to any of us, and has no bearing on our lives.
In all previous years, the sales started on Boxing Day and were supposed to be about flogging off cheap the forlorn and left over presents nobody had wanted to buy. Now we have a sale presumably designed to flog off cheap the presents nobody is going to want before they even knew they didn't want them.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
I make such a point not to shop on Black Friday, I didn't even get out of my pajamas today. Nice to do that once in a while, especially on a chilly, snowy day just after a big feast!
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
The stores only do it because we play their game. So don't. Certainly don't shop on Thanksgiving Day, and don't shop on Black Friday either. If we none of us go to the stores, they won't do this.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
On the other hand, the stores will open because people want to shop. It is actually very convenient (if you're in the US where it's holiday), at least it would be if not for the stupidly large numbers of people egged on by over-hyped marketing.
Normally we work Monday to Friday. That leaves two days to fit in: spending time with family, going to church (if we do), going to a sports event, doing some other leisure activities, just chilling out and relaxing before going back to work on Monday. A holiday weekend gives us another day to do those things, and that leaves more time for doing some shopping.
Then add in the proximity to Advent, and preparing for Christmas adds to the mix. So, it's a convenient weekend with the extra time for shopping to check out the decorations and get in anything that's needed (although it is too early to put them up, you can always prepare), you've just cooked a big family meal and now you know what kitchen gadget you need to do better at Christmas and restock the non-perishable items you'll need for the next pig-out, and of course it's convenient to get in some presents.
All in all, good reasons to be shopping on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. None of which really translate very well to countries which don't have a holiday this weekend.
The stores know that they'll get extra custom this weekend for those reasons, and naturally they're going to want to cash in on the bonanza and add to their bottom line. The best way for them to do that is to shift as much stock as possible. Which means cutting prices - a small reduction in profit per item is more than compensated for by increased turn over.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
Neither Thanksgiving or Black Friday are yet the custom here, and I hope that remains so. I can understand the historical basis for Thanksgiving in the US, and it's a valid feast there - but not here. Black Friday seems simply to be an excuse for retail hype.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
I'd never heard of it before this year and at first assumed it had something to do with leaving the ERM (But I think that was Black Wednesday, wasn't it?) I didn't realise until someone said someting at dinner last night that it was to do with the American thanksgiving.
But it was everywhere yesterday. I'll choose when I go shopping, thanks.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
And don't forget folks - upcoming is Cyber Monday! This is when everyone goes 'Chistmas is when?' and starts working through everyone's wish list on Amazon.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Nenya
Shipmate
# 16427
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Posted
I had heard of Black Friday but, like M., have only been aware of it in the UK this year. We don't get a holiday for it but people seemed to be going mad over televisions when Tesco's opened their doors at midnight. Aldi, upcoming discount competition, has rather neatly made the point that their prices are low every day - every Friday is a Black Friday and they just call it Friday. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Nen - glad to have pretty much nailed the Christmas shopping over a week ago.
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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.
Posts: 1289 | Registered: May 2011
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
My in-box was full of 'Black Friday' offers from retailers yesterday. Today I got a newletter from my favourite wool shop ranting about how such events don't do independent shops any favours.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
On the other hand, the stores will open because people want to shop.
And a good number of the people who want to shop on this weekend do so because they have a limited amount of money to spend and it goes farther when the stores are heavily discounting merchandise. Rich people don't shop on Black Friday -- but poor people do (LA Times article).
Black Friday sales start earlier every year, with a lot of stores being open on Thanksgiving Day this year. We can bemoan that all we want, but there is a good reason for it: retailers serving purse-pinched people open earlier and earlier because they are competing for customers who have a fixed budget for Christmas spending.
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I only found out what 'black Friday' was a couple of weeks ago.
I went for a day out with friends in Manchester yesterday not realising this was it! (Not shopping - I don't do shopping, ever)
Anyway, I'm pleased to report all was well, we had a lovely meal followed by a pamper session and got the train home - no problems.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
If it was just one Black Friday of retail hell most of us could probably live with it and not go out then, etc if we didn't want to. But it isn't just one day - there are a lot of notices up in shop windows saying it's the whole weekend and into Monday i.e. three or even four days of it.
This has all the marks of becoming entrenched in a very short space of time.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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swllwmzn
Shipmate
# 12945
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Posted
Up in these parts the last Friday before Christmas is known, for obvious reasons, as Black Eye Friday.
Posts: 96 | From: Budleigh Babberton | Registered: Aug 2007
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
This is a recent import to the UK that we could do without.
As far as I'm concerned 'Black' Friday is another name for Good Friday - yesterday was 28th November and the feast day of Saint Juthwara.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
And don't forget folks - upcoming is Cyber Monday ...
D. did our e-shopping last week (pressies for family in the UK from The Wine Society).
**smug grin** ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Magersfontein Lugg
Shipmate
# 18240
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Posted
But then I heard its Giving Tuesday - which seems a bit of a better thing to me than all this buy buy buy stuff.
Ho ho ho!
Posts: 104 | From: Bottle Street | Registered: Oct 2014
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