Black Friday needs to die a slow, painful death.

Back in the mid-to-late-1990's, I worked in various retail establishments. Working retail, you were taught to fear and/or be excited about "Black Friday", a term that was pretty much solely used by those same retail workers and their overbearing "I'm better than you because I have a name tag" managers. Those who didn't work in retail referred to Black Friday rightfully as "the day after Thanksgiving".

Over the last 10 years, the term has crept into the public lexicon. It was cute at first, but now, 10 years later, It's beginning to damage my calm.

A few years back, stores started to call it "Black Friday Week".

In November, 2011, stores went so far as to declare it "Black November". They wouldn't shut up about it and I was inundated with advertisements beginning in October about the event.


"But why, Tengu" you ask? "Why are you writing about this today, three months after Thanksgiving?"

While it is indeed true that this is Black History Month, I'm not quite sure that Black Friday is the kind of "Black" history they're talking about.

It's simple. because at least once per week I get an e-mail in my inbox, or I see an advertisement for "Black Friday deals!" ALL YEAR ROUND.

TigerDirect is one such offender. They've gone so far as to declare the last Friday of EVERY MONTH "Black Friday".





This is why we can't have nice things.

Are you sure it is not still the Friday after Thanksgiving within your event horizon?

schnap.

Know what I do on the day after thanksgiving? smoke weed to kill my hangover, fuck shopping. If I have returns to make after christmas, I wait until january

On the other hand, TigerDirect is one of those electronics vendors that has sales and deals constantly, tied to other periodic features like their Daily Deal Slashers. Almost no one else has anything like "Black Friday" once a month.

This is true however Tiger Direct is competing nearly apples to apples with Newegg in terms of their niche market, so they pretty much have to have a weekly loss leader to keep in the game

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Originally Posted by sycld

On the other hand, TigerDirect is one of those electronics vendors that has sales and deals constantly, tied to other periodic features like their Daily Deal Slashers. Almost no one else has anything like "Black Friday" once a month.

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Except for Newegg, Amazon, and sometimes Dell.

And those are just places for computer parts.


Edit: I get e-mails from all of these places with weekly deals. Newegg is the "Black November" offender IIRC.

I fail to see what most of the hubbub about Black Friday is all about. Stores keep their ultra-top secret Black Friday sales flyers hidden until Thanksgiving (by "hidden" I mean that you have to search more than two minutes to find them online), and then stock only a handful of the big ticket items. Foolish Kool-Aid drinkers (my wife is one of them) then wait for hours on end for a chance to save 50% or more. Stores try to salvage shoppers' dignity by issuing tickets and the like (hence trying to avoid the bum rush for the electronics section) but inevitably ignorant shoppers make the news when they trample over one another for that 80-inch plasma/LED TV they gotta have. They couldn't afford it at $3,000 and really can't afford to pay the sale price of $19.99, but that TV is suddenly a necessity.

Some of the lesser advertised sales are worth going to later in the day, when the crowd dies down, but I've consistently pissed off the wife by refusing to plan my day around the sales. Even the internet sales are hardly worth staying up till midnight and dealing with overloaded websites in hopes of checking out before everything is sold out or the website crashes. My wife doesn't see it my way, but if I wait in line for three hours to save $50 I just lost another $70.

In short, I guess I can understand your ire at having "Black Friday" advertisements thrown in your face year round.

Even better, a lot of retailers order shitty products specifically to advertise and sell at sale prices for high-volume sale days.

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Originally Posted by coqauvin

Even better, a lot of retailers order shitty products specifically to advertise and sell at sale prices for high-volume sale days.

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Sometimes you can luck out with these special offer deals. For example, I got a 16 gallon wet/dry vac at Home Depot a couple of years ago for $49. Regular models sell for $100+. The main difference is the $49 one is a little less powerful (though still more than adequate for my needs, and well worth the price tag). But yeah, usually the "best" deals look better in the box. The model or submodel on sale is probably a little different than the regular model, even if it looks the same.

Guess the problem

Attachment 643

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Originally Posted by Jan Klerks

Guess the problem

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The problem is that you were drinking The Macallan instead of Laphroaig?

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Originally Posted by DaiTengu

The problem is that you were drinking The Macallan instead of Laphroaig?

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Said the casual alcoholic

Speyside or go home, your shit comes from a crummy island

I don't know what liquor we're talking about but Sailor Jerry/Kraken all the way

Attachment 644 test

you passed!