Christmas should be about white lights and love and giving, and should never be preceded by a shopping day called Black Friday. I personally think Black Friday should be blacklisted. It’s simply a day when retailers can humiliate us by making us get up at 4:00 a.m. to stand in lines with little hope of getting the one item they advertised.
I remember years ago when my friend, Elizabeth, and I got up at 3:30 a.m. to get our kids the Power Ranger dolls. We expected to be first at the mall, but found about sixty grouchy women in front of us. The entire line looked like a big, competitive slumber party. Women wore their big fuzzy slippers, some were in pajamas, and our collective hair was a mess.
While their pajamas said things like “I love my kids,” the look they gave you when you joined the line said, “if you even try to get in front of me I’ll cut you.”
Expecting a stampede, the retailer only raised the steel gate for ten women at a time. To further the humiliation they only raised the steel gate four feet. Once it was our turn, Elizabeth and I looked around and ducked under the gate as if we were knocking over the joint rather than trying to get some dolls.
Once we struggled back to our feet, we stood anxiously at the cash register, awaiting the delivery of our very own Pink, Yellow, Red and Blue Power Rangers. (There were only four Power Rangers in my day)
We stood in our sweatpants with faces devoid of make-up and breath that could curl our already out of control hair. But we discussed the looks on our boys’ faces on Christmas morning and that brightened us both a little, not realizing the final humiliation was on the way through the news delivered by a very prickly employee. They only allowed three Power Rangers per person. What? That’s like selling Three Musketeer dolls in sets of two.
We complained loudly, but even our breath gave us no advantage. We were powerless while buying Power Rangers. We’d had enough of Black Friday. However, remembering the look on my son’s face when he opened those three Power Rangers, I’d do it all over again. Just for him.
Dames: Hit “comment” and tell me a Black Friday story – I’d love to hear them!! Until then, enjoy the video below which shows what the day does to perfectly reasonable people!