The Best Worst Weekend of the Year

            Thanksgiving is the best holiday there is. There’s no arguing about it. I mean, what could possibly beat sitting down with your family to countless servings of the richest, most gluttonously delicious foods in American culture, and falling asleep in front of a good game of football? Nothing. Sure, there are arguments to be made for Christmas as best holiday, but I can never seem to get that deep-seated food coma that I crave from a Christmas ham. It’s just not fundamentally American like Thanksgiving.

            Unfortunately, my favorite day of the year precedes my least favorite: Black Friday. I suppose the date is appropriately chosen because it too is fundamentally American. It is consumerism at its finest. People are literally killed and maimed every year over discounts on shitty camcorders and off-brand televisions.

            But that’s not even what bothers me about Black Friday. The most striking thing about it is that companies have manipulated a large portion of the American public into believing that they are better served by buying gifts for their families than by actually spending time with them on one of the few four day weekends of the year. My favorite news clip from this year’s festivities is an interview with a female shopper who says, without a hint of irony, that she had saved almost $1000 on Christmas gifts for her two young children. Not only did she miss the point of Thanksgiving by dedicating her day off to shopping, but she also missed the memo that Christmas is a time to show appreciation for your family, not to spoil them with ridiculously expensive gifts. All of this is not to mention the fact that most stores opened at 8pm Thanksgiving night this year, forcing people to work at a time when I was happily chewing bites of pumpkin pie. How the hell did we let this happen?

            Black Friday has long been one of the busiest shopping days of the year, but around 2005, stores began opening early for the occasion, eventually creeping up to 12am Thanksgiving night, and reaching 8pm in the past two years. Stores now offer huge discounts on supposedly expensive products, but the reality is that companies work with manufacturers to set starting prices that will still yield them a profit after the discount. Whereas stores typically offer discounts to attract costumers at the expense of profit margins, a product sold on Black Friday for 40% off was never meant to sell at full price. In fact, many of the products on sale on Black Friday, including discounted TVs, almost never sell at full retail price, even on a normal day. Retailers therefore give the appearance of a deal, when in reality, consumers spend just as much money, or more, than they would have on any other day. Black Friday is American consumerism at its finest, with a distinct dash of manipulation.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304281004579217863262940166