After thanksgiving is over, its time to rest of up for following event...Black Friday! Black Friday is the day where things such as electronics and clothing go on sale, for what is said to be the biggest sale of the year. To me, it just seems as if its based on the hype of sales because from personal experience I believe that the days surrounding Christmas tend to be the biggest sales of the year. In other words I believe that its probably the biggest rush of customers of the year and the biggest in-store incidents of the year. The day after Christmas seems totally different from black Friday. People are going to return and exchange things and get things for other people, instead of going to rush to catch sales in order to buy things for themselves which takes place in the case of black Friday.
Last year for black Friday I woke up at around 6:00am along with my sister and friend. We got out to the stores around 7:00am and the second we got there we regretted it. It was so crowded, clothes were every where and basically it looked as if a tornado had it every store. Even though the prices for most of the items were lower than usual, it still didn’t seem as if there was much to buy because people had already trampled through everything. A question that I want the answer to, is how did black Friday come about in the first place? And why is it called black Friday? The whole day seems very weird to me when I really think about it. Its just a regular day of shopping to me, but just with a few sales. Its so much emphasis put into just one day based on shopping. It makes Americans seem like obnoxious manipulated consumers and seem very materialistic because they are tricked into buying things on a daily basis that on black Friday will be half the price. Which means it could have been that price in the first place and because it is cheaper than normal they buy more to make up for the money they saved. Therefore ultimately they are probably not getting a deal. Even though this may actually be true, people still go shopping and I have to say I am one of them. I guess it shows that I sometimes fall into that trap of saving money on “sales” also, just like many other Americans. The message that its shows me is that Americans are overall big consumers..and big consumers of things that we probably don’t really need. Many buyers who went out on black Friday buying big flat screen televisions and new computers mostly likely already have those things..but the point is they want an upgrade. They want what ever is bigger and better than what is already had, all for self fulfillment...which in a way can represent greed.
This year for black Friday I was in New Jersey at my grandfathers house, along with my sister. Since is around the time my sister will be starting college, my grandfather thought it would be a good idea to go buy things for her dorm while they were at a low price. The first place we stopped at was Wal-mart, because they are known for having some of the best electronics. The line was ridiculous! When first arriving there, it was only around 10 people on the line...by the time 6:00 hit it was probably around 500 people. Even though I have heard of this happening, I never witnessed it myself, and from having this personal experience I can honestly say that America is full of hungry consumers!
