Is Black Friday for those who are not wealthy?

Gah. I’m a Canuck and I have to get over the border tomorrow to see my g/f. She lives in Michigan. I am expecting a good 2 hour wait on the Blue Water Bridge.

@Jude It’s not tomorrow. It’s the Friday directly after Thanksgiving, which this year is Nov 24th.

For our non-American friends.

In 2008 a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the local Wal-Mart. As opening time approached the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34 year old employee to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim’s fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9:00 the evening before. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Seriously, can you see the wealthy waiting outside a big box for 6 hours before opening. Then stampeding without thought or care of others because they don’t want to miss out on the $35 Mordaunt home theater system, a $90 Xbox, or $200 Nikon F90 digital camera? Even if they just wanted to be a part of it, I can see them not even caring if someone, maybe themselves, got killed trying to save a buck.

The trill of the hunt it is.

I am Canadian, and utterly perplexed at the concept of Black Friday. It sounds like the worst possible day to shop. Do you have Boxing Day down there? That would be our equivalent, though I don’t think it’s as physically threatening.

Yes, black Friday is for the poor. The poor spent $10.7 billion on Black Friday 2010. The really, really poor who had to shop from home on the Internet on Cyber Monday spent even more. The rich were sleeping off their lavish Thanksgiving feasts. Everyone knows the rich only shop white sales.

Black friday is for everyone… all shapes and sizes…

Not necessarily, It is aimed at getting the non-wealthy to part with more of thier money but it is actually FOR business owners and stockholders.
Personally, I feel sorrow for the clerks and salespeople who would probably rather spend the holiday with their family. I think most would not be at work if they did not have to be.

I’d say it’s more for those who are so consumer driven they’re willing to get up at some ridiculous hour to fight with others of their ilk over who gets the last pair of designer longjohns at 80% off instead of 40% off two weeks later. It has very little to do with actual need much more to do with hitting a big sales number.

Wealth plays a role in willingness to suffer for a deal but it certainly doesn’t exempt one from wanting a deal.

I sleep in regardless of whether I can afford it or not, though I still check the prices. I’ve yet to see something at such a discount I’m willing to go to that much trouble to get it. If I can’t afford it otherwise, that’s ok, I’ll make do without – we’re not talking about fighting over the last scrap of food on a dead island in the middle of nowhere. Though I do like to go shopping the last day or two before christmas just to watch the crowds.

However that doesn’t exclude me from deal shopping online during the holidays. Sure I can afford what I buy without the deals, but I’d rather save the money if I can – particularly if all it involves is setting a reminder to log in and click.

Lesson one: wealth may lessen the hassle one is willing to go through to get the best price on something but it doesn’t mean one will accept full price just because they can.

Lesson two: there’s a limit to the hassle one will go through for an item based on a combination of the value they place on the item and the availability of suitable alternatives to both the effort and item in question.

Lesson three: some people will do just about anything to get a bargain.

Most people who are rich and have money… are that way because they don’t waste what they have. They clip cupons, and they haggle for everything.

Read the book called “The millionare next door.”

It is for people who are materialistic.

@dappled_leaves

“Do you have Boxing Day down there?”

We call it Wrestling Day down here. ;-)

A little history. Black Friday is the day after thanksgiving, and considered the kick off to the Christmas shopping season. Thansgiving is always Thursday, and most people have a four day weekend for the holiday. It is called Black Friday, because it is the one day of the year that all retailers can count on being in the black. As in the accounting term, black in is profit, red in is loss.

During the 5–6 weeks before Christmas retailers do a significant portions of the year long business. Customers like Black Friday because it is a long weekend, they just spent all day Thursday inside eating with family, Friday is a good day to get out of the house and see all the decorations, grab some sales, and start feeling the Christmas spirit. Shopping on that day for many is a tradition.

The retailers have now turned it into a ridiculous competition to get customers into their store first that day, so many use door buster limited quantity items to draw people in at o’dark hundred wee hours of the morning. I hate it.

The higher end stores don’t do this. They sometimes have some specials, but they usually open only 1–2 hours before normal hours, and stay open sometimes 1 hour later. So, the wealthy sometimes do parttake in Black Friday, but it is not the hurried, uncivilized mess you sometimes find in the less expensive more moderate stores. If there is a particular item they want, they can call ahead and have it rung up before they ever even get to the store. I certainly knew people with a lot of money who still came out for the hectic crazy shopping and sales, it’s not like they all avoid it altogether, and they don’t buy everything at Neiman Marcus. They shop all over also. I think people very attracted to sales and filling Christmas lists come from all income levels.

@dappled_leaves Boxing day is the day after Christmas right? Or, am I mixing it up with something else? That day is actually one of the worst, most hectic days of the year generally at the stores in the states. Massive returns and massive sales. The end result is not a huge number for the retailer for the amount of transactios they did, because of the returns and deep discounts. But, for the people working that day it feels like they were all run over by a truck.

@JLeslie Yes, that’s the one. I don’t shop that day either, for the same reasons. But a lot of retailers have “no returns on Boxing Day” policies, so that they don’t go into the red on the 26th.

@dappled_leaves I have never seen that no return policy for Boxing Day. That is a good idea maybe? I can see good and bad with that policy.

I think it’s good… Boxing Day lineups promote crankiness, and that’s not helpful when an item needs to be returned. We had this policy in the shops I worked in when I was younger, and it certainly made our lives easier.

@dappled_leaves I definitely see it as a very positive for the employees. And, I guess that means the customer comes in for the sales on the 26th, and then back again for returns and exchanges.

What country are you in?

@JLeslie

Judging by my State Farm complementary calendar, I’d say that she’s in Canada.

@Brian1946 Hahaha. Well, that sounds official. Could you look up the first day of Chanukah for me? I was just wondering about that today.

@JLeslie

“Could you look up the first day of Chanukah for me?”

Sure thing- it’s the last day of Autumn and the day before my birthday- 12/21.

I have seen ads on Craigs List from people who are offering to stand in line, including camping out, for an hourly fee. Maybe the rich people pay someone to do it for them.

I imagine it’s anyone that wants to try for a steal of a deal.

Not my thing at all.

Pretty pathetic when someone is trampled to death and the Walmart shoppers don’t give a damn. Unreal!

@Coloma Pretty pathetic when someone is trampled to death and the Walmart shoppers don’t give a damn. Unreal!

Because, “I want it all I want it all I want it all and I want it now
I want it all (yeah yeah yeah) I want it all I want it all and I
want it now”

“I want it
Now
I want it I want it” Queen/Freddie Mercury

“I want that star, I want it now
I want it all and I don’t care how” Metallica

Black Friday if you ask me is for anyone and everyone who can afford a good deal for what they want to buy.

I just heard a statistic that this Black Friday people who shopped spent an average of $400. I don’t know if that was per individual who went shopping, or per family? $400! That seems huge to me.