Now Don't You Wish you Had Stayed at home in Bed on Black Friday?

I read an interesting article in my newspaper this morning, yes, some people still actually get these delivered daily to their homes. Apparently, many of those people who stayed awake all night on Thanksgiving to hit the deals at the mall or camped out for days to be first in line at insert favorite box store name here are now returning their purchases. Say what? Yep, buyer's remorse is hitting the bargain shoppers big time this year, and they aren't even waiting until December 26 to make those returns. The article states that this year for every dollar the stores took in during that glorious shopping frenzy, they will have to return nearly ten cents. it looks like the credit card bills are rolling in, and consumers are in freak out mode. 

I have never been one of those black Friday shoppers, one year I did fold to the hype and headed to the local mall at 3am for a toy store's 6am opening. Armed with my ex-mother-in-law and the store's sales flyer, with all my planned purchases circled. I was not surprised that the store didn't have any of the toys I had wanted in stock, that's how they get you in there, I scooped up a couple of items I just knew my one year old daughter just had to have, and I was out of there. It was my last foray into the bustle of Black Friday. This year though I have to admit, I felt the nudge from the constant deluge of commercials and news coverage, you would have thought a major catastrophic event had occurred because the reporters where in hyper-reporting mode. "Oh my God...people are shopping," you could almost hear them say like exuberant cheerleaders, "you must get out here and buy something..anything!" So much so that even I, an avid crowd avoid-er felt like I could be perhaps missing something. Apparently I wasn't.

So now I am left wondering why so many people would do this to themselves. Why loose sleep, spend money that you don't have to buy things that you really don't need, only to have to return it, meaning that you have to haul it all back to the store from whence it came.  Do people watch the news, read papers, listen to the radio anymore? Our economy is in the toilet, there are millions of people unemployed and homeless or in foreclosure, it makes no sense to me. There is a difference between Christmas spirit and insanity, you know.

I hope that next year these shoppers remember the lesson of this year and spend the time they could have been in line being thankful for their loved ones, spending time with them, eating left-overs, watching football games or one of the many cheesy Christmas movies that start playing the week before Thanksgiving. Because no matter what you buy on sale, there is no return policy on family time and love. If you miss a sale, another one will come along, not so with missed moments with those you love and that is the real meaning of Christmas.
Until next time..ME