[Soapbox]Black Friday

[DISCLAIMER: Author has a history of working retail management for years combined with a history of really being pretty nonmaterialistic as these things go. She also respects that people may think she's being judgmental of individuals with this blog and, well, she probably is, but she won't apologize for that.]

Oh, Black Friday, Black Friday, it's another year and you're here yet again. First a little history, Black Friday is thus called because stores numbers are almost always in the black on this day. Or at least traditionally they used to be. It started off fairly innocuously as the beginning of holiday sales, back when the holidays weren't in stores until Thanksgiving was over, not when Labor Day was over. Over the years it has grown and morphed into a monstrous beast at the whim of corporate machinery and consumer greed. If that sounds like a bit of a grandiose description to you, then you clearly have never actually seen the mass stupidity that this day inspires in otherwise sane and normal individuals.

It starts earlier and earlier every year.  This year you may or may not have heard the uproar over so many place opening on Thanksgiving night and how unfair it was and how greedy the corporate heads were.  While I won't be the person to argue that corporations are greedy and unfair, it seems a bit disingenuous to put it all on their heads. As stores opened earlier and earlier every year, hour by hour, dawn to 3 am to midnight to now Thanksgiving, it wasn't the corporate heads standing there waiting at the doors.  That, dear friends, was consumers (yes, maybe even you).  You decry it now, but they wouldn't keep making it earlier if people didn't keep showing up in droves in support of it.

Now, I know the arguments for taking place in all this madness. The deals are the best of the season, my kids/husband won't love me as much if I don't get them exactly what they want, I question my own love for them if I don't get them just a little bit more than I did last year, they don't care about anything but the presents under the tree and I don't want to hear the fits. Granted, I'm probably imagining your children as far larger brats than they really are, but it's the general train of thought (with some rewording) that I hear when people defend why they wait in line for three hours to buy something.

Remember way back in the dark ages of the 80's when people were shocked by how violent parents would get fighting over the last Cabbage Patch Kid? Or in the slightly less dark ages of the 90's when the same thing happened for Tickle Me Elmos? Remember when that was news? It's not anymore, these days it's just holiday shopping tactics. It's every single day up until Christmas at Toys'R'Us. Black Friday is the crowning jewel on top of it. Think about how every year you hear about at least ten people who got hurt in the rush to shop or in a fight over something material.

Step back from yourself and really think about that for a second. Now think about what Christmas in a idealistic snow globe of hope, love and other shiny things is supposed to be about. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?  You know that whole bit about peace and love on Earth towards all mankind?  There's not a lot of that these days.  While it may have it's roots in Christian ideology, I think peace and love is something we can all agree is something to strive towards.  So, as I sit at home, curled up with my blog, my cat and a cup of coffee, instead of out in the masses fighting for something my son or daughter don't need, I leave you with that thought. Peace and love on Earth towards all mankind, not just on Christmas/Solstice/Hanukkah, but all through the season.