What the Spirit of "Black Friday" Is Really All About
A.J. Karidis
Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: Opinion
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The holiday season?
Oh right, that time of year when good cheer goes around in bundles and people think about giving of themselves to help others.
Well that's one take on the whole affair. The other is slightly less benevolent, if you will.
It's no more evident than on the first day of the "holiday season," aptly named "Black Friday," which spits in the face of everything this time of year is all about.
Many had barely gotten through going around the Thanksgiving table telling everyone who will listen what they were thankful for before thoughts of everything they wanted (and would sleep on the street corner that night in order to get) were dancing in their heads. The culminations of that through process…Black Friday hysteria.
To think, one day after Thanksgiving everyone shows how thankful they are by rushing into the stores like savages in order to reward our greedy selves by taking advantage of the best deals on the latest plasma televisions and the most generously marked down laptops.
Drink in the irony for a moment.
Some decide to not even wait until the Thanksgiving holiday concludes. While most are digging into their dinner late Thursday afternoon, a friend informs me that people are already camping out outside of Best Buy at 5 p.m. I was a little puzzled, but then I thought, well who wouldn't want to take that tryptophan nap in a tent on the sidewalk in 30-degree temperatures? It's not the Hilton, but then again the Hilton doesn't offer plasma televisions at 60 percent off either!
Apparently getting to the Best Buy at 6 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. also means you're 30 people farther back in line. Doesn't seem all that crazy, except that it's 6 p.m. the night BEFORE the store opens for business.
The term "Black Friday" was originally coined by the Philadelphia media to describe the large-scale traffic jams of cars and people that would ensue in stores on the day after Thanksgiving. Commonly held thoughts about Black Friday are that customers rush into the stores to get a head start on the gift-buying season.
However, Black Friday is not the busiest shopping day of the year.(contrary to popular belief). In truth, it has only been the largest one in the past three years. Comparatively, the Saturday before Christmas is usually a larger shopping day for consumers.
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