Friday, November 29, 2013
Shopping on Thanksgiving
Well, I won't shop on Black Friday, but I was there Thanksgiving day at 6pm for the start of their 'Black Friday Sale'. Learnings:
* Spirits seemed high at the Colorado Springs WalMart last night. Some customers seemed peeved, and the security guards seemed stern, but all the employees, most of us customers, and the one real cop that was there, all seemed to be having a good time.
* Interestingly, about one in twenty shoppers seemed ashamed to be there.
* I did not enjoy previous Black Friday expeiences, but this one was ok.
* Maybe 10% of the folks working were teenagers. Everyone else was older.
* Lots of families were shopping together. Lots of baby strollers. I'd always heard about the people who love this sort of thing, and saw many of them last night. Urban warriors who divided the store into a grid and communicated with their family via iPhone. Note for next time: More comfortable shoes, carry some bottled water, and go to the bathroom before the thing starts. :)
* I remember when I worked a holiday or two back in my college days - I did it by choice and was glad for the overtime. I remember that job - I started at $3.25/hr, and finished 9 years later running their production department, with a college degree and zero debt. Then I went and got a real job.
* I know things are worse now then they were in 1987-1996. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably have to work a whole lot of holiday hours instead of just that one time or two, and I'd still probably end up graduating in debt. I am concerned for what this means for the country and my children. But guilt-inducing Facebook activism "don't shop on Thanksgiving" deals just don't do anything for me, because as far as I can tell, they don't do anything for anyone. (Other than make one in twenty shoppers feel ashamed to be there?)
* If folks want to judge my worth because I abandoned family on Thanksgiving, take this into consideration: As a homeschooling family, we're pretty much all family, all the time. Whereas Holiday together time is the norm with all y'all, Holiday time alone is a gift we give each other here. I did two loads of dishes and all the tupperwaring. Also consider - this was how we managed to afford replacing our failing TV and mostly-dead DVD player. The kids were excited.
* Last and neither least nor most: Big screen TV for a hundred bucks! BlueRay for forty! Yay!
* Spirits seemed high at the Colorado Springs WalMart last night. Some customers seemed peeved, and the security guards seemed stern, but all the employees, most of us customers, and the one real cop that was there, all seemed to be having a good time.
* Interestingly, about one in twenty shoppers seemed ashamed to be there.
* I did not enjoy previous Black Friday expeiences, but this one was ok.
* Maybe 10% of the folks working were teenagers. Everyone else was older.
* Lots of families were shopping together. Lots of baby strollers. I'd always heard about the people who love this sort of thing, and saw many of them last night. Urban warriors who divided the store into a grid and communicated with their family via iPhone. Note for next time: More comfortable shoes, carry some bottled water, and go to the bathroom before the thing starts. :)
* I remember when I worked a holiday or two back in my college days - I did it by choice and was glad for the overtime. I remember that job - I started at $3.25/hr, and finished 9 years later running their production department, with a college degree and zero debt. Then I went and got a real job.
* I know things are worse now then they were in 1987-1996. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably have to work a whole lot of holiday hours instead of just that one time or two, and I'd still probably end up graduating in debt. I am concerned for what this means for the country and my children. But guilt-inducing Facebook activism "don't shop on Thanksgiving" deals just don't do anything for me, because as far as I can tell, they don't do anything for anyone. (Other than make one in twenty shoppers feel ashamed to be there?)
* If folks want to judge my worth because I abandoned family on Thanksgiving, take this into consideration: As a homeschooling family, we're pretty much all family, all the time. Whereas Holiday together time is the norm with all y'all, Holiday time alone is a gift we give each other here. I did two loads of dishes and all the tupperwaring. Also consider - this was how we managed to afford replacing our failing TV and mostly-dead DVD player. The kids were excited.
* Last and neither least nor most: Big screen TV for a hundred bucks! BlueRay for forty! Yay!
# posted by TheObiBlog : 8:25 AM
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