Sunday, November 25, 2012

Black Wednesday

This past Wednesday, I happened to pass a Best Buy and saw something I didn't expect. There were people already camped out in front of the store. I found it amazing that people would miss spending Thanksgiving with their families to instead wait on the street to buy a TV or something. It seems like they value savings over their own family. I only saw this in one place, but I imagine that people were doing the same thing across the US.
I think that a lot of people's eagerness to skip a holiday to shop comes from the hype we get about it. For weeks before Thanksgiving, we hear about upcoming sales from all sorts of stores. Even after Black Friday, I still heard ads about extended sales. Everyone seems to be pushing people to go out and shop. 
What does this say about us? To me, stores seem to be using holidays to capitalize, and people seem to be responding to that. However, I think that people are responding too well to this. Holidays become commercial shopping events. I think that this commercialization has shifted people's values.
Personally, I don't think that this shift is very good. People holding sales and savings higher than their families isn't a good thing. I'm not saying people shouldn't shop and be frugal, but there is a point where it gets to be too much. What do you think? Post your thoughts below. 

1 comment:

  1. I would agree with you that holiday sales are insane. They are both helpful and harmful to our society. Holiday sales allow for the all Americans to get great deals on products that they want or need. Thus, both the consumers and producers benefit from these sales. Sales give a boost to our economy from the small business worker to the larger corporation. On the other hand, many workers have to work longer hours and miss the holidays with their families. The way I see it, despite some problems sales may cause with tradition and family, the benefit to the nation as a whole outweighs the costs.

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