Slashdot Mirror
'Black Friday Is Dying' (fastcompany.com)
A reader shares a report: For years, Black Friday signaled the beginning of Christmas shopping. The day after Thanksgiving was a frantic day of driving to the store at the crack of dawn to fight off other shoppers for great deals. For people who truly hated the ritual, I have some good news for you: Black Friday is going away. That's according to data from GPShopper, which tracks consumer behavior. It turns out, customers are really not into Black Friday. A full 81% of us feel stress surrounding the notion of Black Friday, and 45% of us believe it is the most stressful time of the year. And with online shopping, consumers are increasingly realizing they don't need to do all their shopping on one day. The majority would prefer to shop in the second week of December. Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas, to capitalize on the post-holiday sales, even though their recipients would get their presents a little late.
Gifts can simply be food or wine or something like that. Most sensible adults give those type of gifts when giving to other adults.
It's clear to me that the very wrong time to shop is the time that they *think* you are shopping. The real key to get good deals is to follow your own pattern and not the pattern set up by corporations.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Why would we stand in line to spend money in person when we can spend less online for the same stuff three days later?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
>Newsflash: most people are not Christians.
There are two Christmases - ecclesiastical and secular. One's about going to church to hear about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and the other is about telling kids a magic fat man is watching them and will sneak presents into their home if they're good, erecting a Christmas tree, putting lights up on your house, having a few lunch or dinner parties, and exchanging gifts.
I know atheists (hi there!), Jews, and Muslims who all celebrate the secular version of Christmas to varying degrees. It's just a winter solstice celebration, and in a northern climate you want one of those when things are grey and dreary.
And nothing of value was lost.
There is no room to slash prices anymore. Competition is so stiff that the margins are already razor thin. In the pre-internet times stores could easily afford slashing 20% because of their 40% profit margins, but today?
Which is GOOD. Instead of being gouged the whole year, you get a better price now all year long.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They basically made Black Friday disappear when they decided that Friday at 5:00 a.m, juuuuuust wasn't quite early enough. So it became 4 a.m.. Then the next store thought, I better open at midnight to beat every body else! Then it started to run into Thanksgiving time, which nobody really wanted. It's the old story of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.