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The Elite Distaste for Black Friday
Ah, Black Friday: The day wealthy whites are applauded for judging lower-class folks who are just trying to buy affordable gifts for their kids.
Huffington Post’s mocking headline blares “THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT!” followed by bold black and red stories of consumerism gone wild. New York’s Gawker features “The Best Walmart Thanksgiving Day Fight Videos” (I won’t dignify them with a link), while coastal elite news anchors cluck about the barbarians at the Target security gate.
I hate shopping on a regular day, let alone Black Friday. I’m hardly loaded, but would rather pay a few extra bucks to buy gifts on a slow day or online. Everyone doesn’t have that luxury.
Most of our progressive friends don’t seem to care. They cheer Walmart strikers, never noticing that the 1% doesn’t camp out for Black Friday sales. The howling picketers are merely making life more miserable for the have-nots.
The average Black Friday shopper isn’t throwing punches or trampling the infirm. And most lower-income folks waiting all night for that Xbox aren’t doing it because they’re greedy. It’s because they want to put a smile on the face of their child and possibly feel guilty they couldn’t afford one before today.
Disapproving hipsters via Shutterstock.
Published in General
Whether you’re a department manager, small shop owner or a big box franchisee, serious nail chewing begins with the Christmas season, because the answer to whether you’ll be in business for next year lies in the sales between now and Dec. 25.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year.
Huh? Libertarians are constantly being criticized for their Utopian view of the rationality of humanity.
Utopian? Hardly. Usually libertarians are criticized for being in favor of a dog-eat-dog world. Alternatively, libertarians are accused of being anarchists. Leftists are the utopians.
Perhaps your idea of utopia is different from mine. Anarchy and ruthlessness are not generally considered utopian.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year.
You can’t really apply such a rule to every retail business.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year.
You can’t really apply such a rule to every retail business.
At some point, the Christmas period becomes too large a number from which to gain significant sales volume. The gains have to be made in the underdeveloped months. If you were a business owner, you’d surely understand this.
At the mall right now, waiting for my wife. Sad fact is, most people are shopping for themselves.Sure, some folks are using the sales to prebuy Christmas gifts. And I see more than a few moms trying to get their kids to sit still to try on new shoes. But the vast majority in this particular upscale outlet mall in FL are trying on clothes for themselves.I think that is why many reject the Black Friday thing. I am included in that bunch. The wife has a different opinion obviously. This day is really about grabbing the goods for yourself., with a side of buying for others.
P.S. This is the most astute comment on the thread.
Whether you’re a department manager, small shop owner or a big box franchisee, serious nail chewing begins with the Christmas season, because the answer to whether you’ll be in business for next year lies in the sales between now and Dec. 25.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year. ·44 minutes ago
It would be totally awesome to own a Toys R Us or a clothing store that didn’t depend on Christmas sales.
Huh? Libertarians are constantly being criticized for their Utopian view of the rationality of humanity.
Utopian? Hardly. Usually libertarians are criticized for being in favor of a dog-eat-dog world. Alternatively, libertarians are accused of being anarchists. Leftists are the utopians.
Perhaps your idea of utopia is different from mine. Anarchy and ruthlessness are not generally considered utopian. ·18 minutes ago
Edited 16 minutes ago
No, this is a complete miss-characterization of the mainstream of libertarian thought (think Rand Paul, Reason, Cato). Funny how conservatives get their tu-tu’s in a twist when the “let granny die” label gets applied to them by progs but have no problem turning right around and using it on libertarians.
But we’re quickly straying from the original post’s intent so I’ll let you have the last word….
Union-paid protesters against Walmart receive a “living wage” of $50 gift certificates, redeemable at . . . . Walmart. Heh.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/345334.php
Whether you’re a department manager, small shop owner or a big box franchisee, serious nail chewing begins with the Christmas season, because the answer to whether you’ll be in business for next year lies in the sales between now and Dec. 25.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year. ·1 hour ago
What about people who sell Christmas trees, play ‘Santa Claus’ and produce the ‘Nutcracker’?
There are usually exceptions to every rule.
Whether you’re a department manager, small shop owner or a big box franchisee, serious nail chewing begins with the Christmas season, because the answer to whether you’ll be in business for next year lies in the sales between now and Dec. 25.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year. ·1 hour ago
What about people who sell Christmas trees, play ‘Santa Claus’ and produce the ‘Nutcracker’?
There are usually exceptions to every rule. ·0 minutes ago
The exceptions do not represent, in any way, the majority of the producers in this country.
Whether you’re a department manager, small shop owner or a big box franchisee, serious nail chewing begins with the Christmas season, because the answer to whether you’ll be in business for next year lies in the sales between now and Dec. 25.
Any business owner who depends upon a five week period to make the annual donuts is simply asking for failure.
One needs to be competitive 12 months out of the year. ·1 hour ago
What about people who sell Christmas trees, play ‘Santa Claus’ and produce the ‘Nutcracker’?
There are usually exceptions to every rule. ·0 minutes ago
The exceptions do not represent, in any way, the majority of the producers in this country. ·4 minutes ago
Edited 3 minutes ago
You are right, but there are businesses that operate in a ‘niche’ market who make most of their income within a short time period each year.
There are tree farms in northern New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine (and also in Canada) who make most of their income in the two months before Christmas, marketing wreaths and other decorations and Christmas trees.
There are, doubtless, other industries that do the same…
No, this is a complete miss-characterization of the mainstream of libertarian thought (think Rand Paul, Reason, Cato). Funny how conservatives get their tu-tu’s in a twist when the “let granny die” label gets applied to them by progs but have no problem turning right around and using it on libertarians.
Libertarians are neither utopians nor anarchists. I thought your whole point earlier was that libertarians are mischaracterized. Or is it your thesis that libertarians truly are utopians?
I don’t consider myself a conservative in any sense you might imagine, if that was what you were intimating.
Elite whites now aim their prejudice and hatred at the working class, as opposed to blacks and foreigners as they used to before the Civil Rights Movement(TM). That’s just a given as their self-righteous snobbery has to be aimed at somebody.
We have one holiday dedicated to giving thanks to our creator for our blessings. We have another holiday commemorating the invasion of Christ into this evil world. That bookmarks the American Christmas season.
In between these holidays, businesses promote the apex of hedonism and materialism of the year.
Given this sort of nonsense, I’d prefer that “Happy Holidays” replace “Merry Christmas”, as I don’t want people to think the cultural trappings of Black Friday have anything to do with the Christian religion.
You are right, but there are businesses that operate in a ‘niche’ market who make most of their income within a short time period each year.
There are tree farms in northern New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine (and also in Canada) who make most of their income in the two months before Christmas, marketing wreaths and other decorations and Christmas trees.
There are, doubtless, other industries that do the same…
Yes. There are plenty of businesses that are seasonal, particularly in rural areas that are dependent on the tourism industry. Perhaps coastal dwellers and urban folks don’t think of them asreal businesses, but when they come here and drive their noisy speedboats and waverunners up and down our lakes, we’ll happily take their money anyway.
Just please go away after Labor Day so we can have some quiet while we count the piles of cash you left us.
The average Black Friday shopper isn’t throwing punches or trampling the infirm. And most lower-income folks waiting all night for that Xbox aren’t doing it because they’re greedy. It’s because they want to put a smile on the face of their child and possibly feel guilty they couldn’t afford one before today.
The Media’s version of this is as accurate as it is on most everything else, and their villainization as shameless as every other oddity they don’t participate in; I’ve only “done” Black Friday once or twice, and not once did I even hit crowds let alone the mass of people that occasionally hurts someone.
Anytime someone gets hurt on Black Friday, it’s news; when folks get hurt or in a fight just because they’re tacky on other days of the year (barring a few, like Christmas Eve) then it’s just something that happened.
I’ve been pushing back a bit against the chest-beating over stores opening on Thanksgiving evening. Odd how few folks can explain why it’s “different” to be waiting on you at Target than at the gas station.
from the Original Post: “Most of our progressive friends don’t seem to care. They cheer Walmart strikers, never noticing that the 1% doesn’t camp out for Black Friday sales. The howling picketers are merely making life more miserable for the have-nots.”
Since you brought it up, did you see the news that the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that it is permissible for the unions to pay picketers, including picketers that are neither Walmart employees nor members of the union? Somebody, I don’t recall who, went to interview Walmart picketers and could not find any of either group among the picketers.
That kind of math only works if they’re actually trading work time for standing-in-line time.
Did they really give up work in order to stand in line all night, or is this how they freely decided to spend their free time. I have relatives who do the “stand in line all night” thing. (Even in freezing Wisconsin.) They enjoy it. It’s fun for them. Should I tell them to repent?
Exactly the objection I had when XKCD did a similar thing on comparison-shopping for gas prices. It’ll be relevant when it’s actually a choice of shopping tactics vs being paid, rather than “if I had a job that would let me do these things and be paid, it would be more effective.”
Ignoring the thing where folks usually calculate straight “paid minimum wage” rather than take-home.
Funny how some conservatives pay lip service to the free market and then look down their noses when they see it in practice. ·5 hours ago
You can appreciate the virtues of a free market and still recognize that free market excesses are still bad. I’m not Ayn Rand, and I don’t think the frickin’ dollar sign is a replacement for the crucifix.
Any nation that takes reverent holidays and turns them into worst, most vulgar displays of consumerism… with parents fighting each other over the last GI Joe with the kung-fu grip… is sick in the soul, and I’d bet that Adam Smith himself would agree with me.
Funny how some conservatives pay lip service to the free market and then look down their noses when they see it in practice. ·5 hours ago
You can appreciate the virtues of a free market and still recognize that free market excesses are still bad. I’m not Ayn Rand, and I don’t think the frickin’ dollar sign is a replacement for the crucifix.
Any nation that takes reverent holidays and turns them into worst, most vulgar displays of consumerism… with parents fighting each other over the last GI Joe with the kung-fu grip… is sick in the soul, and I’d bet that Adam Smith himself would agree with me. ·0 minutes ago
You make an excellent point; there are not just two false alternatives here.
Funny how some conservatives pay lip service to the free market and then look down their noses when they see it in practice. ·5 hours ago
You can appreciate the virtues of a free market and still recognize that free market excesses are still bad. I’m not Ayn Rand, and I don’t think the frickin’ dollar sign is a replacement for the crucifix.
Any nation that takes reverent holidays and turns them into worst, most vulgar displays of consumerism… with parents fighting each other over the last GI Joe with the kung-fu grip… is sick in the soul, and I’d bet that Adam Smith himself would agree with me. ·43 minutes ago
Pray tell, what exactly constitutes a “vulgar display of consumerism”? If I walk into Best Buy on, say, a Sat afternoon in Aug, that’s OK but if I wait in line on the day after Thanksgiving I’m somehow contributing to the moral decay of the nation?
Anyone else getting heavy “if by whiskey” vibes?
I rather wonder if folks are arguing with each other or with what they think others are saying.
Yes! Thank you! This year I’ve decided to push back a little against the annual rending of garments over “Black Friday.” (A term I loathe, by the way.)
This year I’ve been trying to remind people that retail business owners are just trying to make ends meet, too. That often the Christmas shopping season is the make-or-break time for them. Will their business be around next year? It might depend on whether they have enough holiday sales. With Thanksgiving being late this year, the Christmas shopping time is shorter, and with the economy being this dismal (with the added costs of increased “affordable” care) I can’t blame a retailer who opens for shopping on Thanksgiving.
So rail all you like against “consumerism,” but that retail business open early on Black Friday (or even Thursday!) most likely has a family to support.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-27/hey-shoppers-black-friday-savings-are-a-hoax
Sorry, not buying it. Watching people claw at each other to buy crap that 95% of us don’t need is stupid. Look at how the holiday margins go through the roof for some of these companies. Yes, I know that each of these places employes people and so on, but I sincerely doubt that all those great Black Friday profits are going to trickle down to the mother of three who had to go to work at Target on Thanksgiving day.
Drew, the retail businesses that fuel these things are hardly the mom and pop enterprises. I think the whole holiday shopping season has gotten way out of hand. I am hardly a member of the 1% and I shake my head at the whole thing. We spend a lot of time on Ricochet condemning the culture, and this is an offshoot of the modern culture we live in. It shows an unhealthy attachment to stuff and fuels the debt that most people find themselves in and is all built upon a sense of guilt to find “the perfect present” Bah to that.
Those look more like yuppies than hipsters. No ironic t-shirts, handlebar mustaches, or knit hats in sight
I cry bull! Since when is consumerism the highest conservative virtue.
The fetishizing of all things in the consumer market by some conservatives is off-putting, counter productive, and dehumanizing.
Shopping smartly can be an example of thrift, it can also be a misplaced example of materialism.
How many working poor families would benefit by spending time with their kids rather than spending 10 or 12 hours shopping when they could be home together today.
Not to mention that giving stuff to your kids isn’t what family or Christmas is or should be about.
As to the poor (and I assume the working poor is meant – as opposed to the entitlement poor – of which I was for a number of years including years when NO money was available for much in the way of gifts, and I am barely out of now), when I was a boy (including for a time my own family) and when my parents and grandparents were children, the working poor didn’t feel the need to jeopardize their families fiscal well-being for gifts. A few well chosen sacrifices, sure, but being part of the riot of greed this represents, never.
My favorite fact about Walmart is this one: if a family concentrates their purchases in Walmart, they decrease their annual purchases by 15% . That is a big thing to a family.
They know that continually resisting unions is one of the key factors in keeping prices down. That drives the left crazy . Alice Walton is building a world class art collection in Bentonville , but somehow that goes missing .
Yeah Walmart ! Where else can you buy everything from lobster to wine to bullets ?
You point is painfully insightful.
Like many others, the thought of flying around a mall, searching for great deals alongside hoards of other shoppers, does not interest me in the least.
You remind us that there are those for whom ‘Black Friday’ is a boon. My grandfather used to say, ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison.’
My disdain was ill-placed; thank you for pointing it out.
I did not make that argument. I’m confident my wife and I spend less on our kids than most parents in our income bracket. We have no Xbox and our ancient tube TV wouldn’t be able to hook up to it if we did. Does that in itself make us more righteous? I don’t believe so.
It’s always a balancing act determining how much money to spend on your kids, and how much time to spend with them vs. time at work to provide for them. One week I worry that I’m depriving my kids of time and money and the next worry that I’m smothering them with too much of both.
It’s not my place to judge lower-income parents for having different priorities from my own and different ways of achieving them.
@4,
Funny how some conservatives pay lip service to the free market and then look down their noses when they see it in practice.