Looks like Black Friday is living up to retailers’ expectations this year. The day after Thanksgiving, traditionally when the stores move from the red into the black, has been chockers with shoppers. & their wallets seem to be open.
None of the reporters out at the malls seems to have asked shoppers how they plan on paying for their purchases, but in an era when folks think it’s okay to 1)buy houses they can’t afford with mortgage payments they can’t make; & 2)play the victim when they’re foreclosed on, I guess “plans to pay” don’t figure large in their thinking process.
During Thanksgiving day, I had the TV on for a while. I marveled at the commercials for all the enormous bargains to be had at all the various emporia, but gawped even more at how early the stores were going to open today. Kohl’s, opening at 0300, put Macy’s & Wal-Mart (0500) to shame.
But then it turns out that Toys-R-Us made them all look like pikers: they started their Black Friday sales at 2200 on Thanksgiving itself. Jeez.
I had occasion to go to Trader Joe’s today—I needed milk—around 1030. Well, I turned into the parking lot around 1020, but it took me 10 minutes to get my car to the actual store. I’d completely forgot that that shopping centre has both a Wal-Mart & a Kohl’s in it. Both drivers & pedestrians were not paying any attention to what they were doing, so I had to be extra alert as I navigated the sudden-halts-in-anticipation-that-someone-was-ready-to-leave-a-parking-spot, the wandering shopping carts & wayward children.
TJ’s itself wasn’t at all crowded, which was a massive relief. As I made my exit out the back way, however, the experience was as nightmarish as the journey in: there’s a Sears there.
Since I’m making most of my holiday gifts & buying a few online, I’m going to be able to avoid bricks-&-mortar shopping over the next few weeks. I have this thing about not spending money I don’t have, which is good for my economy but apparently not for the nation’s.
But I can’t think of any bargain good enough to get me to line up in front of a Wal-Mart at 0300 in order to be among the first couple of hundred spenders into the store.
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