I have a confession to make: For all the Black Friday deals that I have been posting, I haven’t been to a store on Black Friday for at least 10 years!
There are several reasons for this and recovering from my turkey/wine coma is certainly one of them. I know that some people just LOVE to get up at 2:00am and hit the stores that morning. I am not one of them. Here’s why:
- The deals really aren’t that great any longer – certainly not “getting up at 2:00am-worthy”, in my opinion. If there is one thing that I know – it’s deals. I have been posting a bunch of Black Friday deals on things like Keurigs, XBoxes and more and, while there are some nice deals on those items, I have seen much better prices on a regular basis when shopping online.
- Many of the same deals are available online – and earlier than you can get them in the stores. I remember 2 years ago, sitting at my sister’s kitchen table Thanksgiving morning and being SHOCKED when some of the best deals that I had scheduled to post at midnight were already live on the websites. Last year, many of those deals went live on Wednesday afternoon. This year, some of those Black Friday deals are already available on the websites!
- I have to work. Ok – lame excuse, but I spend all day finding deals to post and this time of the year, the deals that I am posting are ones that I just bought for myself. I’ll be at my laptop at 4:00am on Black Friday looking to find deals for you guys
. As a bonus, I can shop from home and not have to put on mascara. - I don’t like how people act on Black Friday. Sure – there are plenty of people walking around the stores humming “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year”…but there are even more people pushing, shoving and elbowing their way in front of you in order to get that Baby Fry Daddy at $2 cheaper than they can if they wait a week. I’d rather spend the extra $2 and not be annoyed
- In-store Black Friday deals can be a budget buster. Sure – you only went to Target to pick up that XBox for the kids, but while you are there, you might spy a great deal on a DVD, book, clothes, etc that wasn’t on your list and you CAN’T pass up that deal! With credit card spending being up this year, the last thing people need to be doing is making more “inpulse purchases!
- I don’t like how Black Friday is now Black Thursday. I get that stores wouldn’t open on Thanksgiving if shoppers weren’t showing up, but I still don’t like it. I know that some retailers pay their employees time-and-a-half-holiday pay (and some don’t), but I don’t like it. I know that stores aren’t opening until after most people are done with dinner anyway, but I don’t like it. I know that some people WILL head out to the stores on Thursday night as a continuation of their “family time”, but I still don’t like it. I have always felt that Thanksgiving was the ONE holiday that everyone in this country could agree on as a “day off” (except for essential jobs like police, fire, etc). I’m not happy that it has become “just another shopping day”
So those are my reasons why I won’t be heading to the stores on Black Friday. Some may be logical to you…some may seem silly to you. But that is just how I roll
Do you shop on Black Friday? Why or why not?
