Every year the consumers go nuts the day after Thanksgiving and buy all the Christmas stuff they can fit into their cart at the day after Thanksgiving day sales. The retailers love it because it usually pushes the profitability of the store from red (loosing money) to black (making a profit) for the year and all their sales from then till the end of the year are all gravy. Hence the retail name for that day: Black Friday. The day 3 days later on Monday when everyone gets back to work after the long turkey weekend is called Cyber Monday because people also find good deals with Christmas sales online and use work time to shop and order their gifts that way too.
For some reason that name has jumped to the consumer side of the holiday shopping season and people know about it for the deals and the real reason it is called that. People seem ok with it though, they need Christmas gifts, and you can call it whatever you want as long as they get a good deal. And the sales are really what people are after. If you have kids you probably buy toys and toys and electronics are the biggest categories for sale items. I don’t buy either so I am not so in tuned to these sales anymore but I hear about them at work and on the internet constantly.
What has changed this year is that everyone knows about these sales so the retailers have been thinking about how to make them even bigger and get more people interested. They have been marking down prices before thanksgiving and releasing the sale information online for the additional sales they will be staring the day after thanksgiving. If you are a die hard shopper and like to go out on Thanksgiving night at midnight for special sales and get up at 7am for special deals at stores like Kohl’s or Jcpenney, check their web sites on thanksgiving first. You may be able to get the same deals online this year that you were only previously available in the stores.
The store items and sales notoriously don’t match what is on retailers web sites. But I have read that this year retailers are getting smart, and they are planning to have the same special promotions available in store and online. So you may be able to get a free shipping promotion and do at least 1/2 your shopping online and save a lot of time with that saved money.
It is also important to make a budget and a list and stick with it. Too many people end up with huge credit card debt come January. And it is usually just because they wanted to impress their friends and family, make everyone happy and get some sweet stuff for themselves to feather the nest. All this adds up really quickly and with financing and credit-card interest soon you will owe thousands of dollars. So, don’t try and impress anyone this year, just do the nice thing and get some reasonable presents within the budget. People don’t love you more if you spend more money on them, and if they say they do, it’s only temporary. Plus those kind of people are probably not the best friends to hang with nor do they get the real meaning of Christmas.
If you want to find out about black Friday sales online, this is the best site to look at: www.bfads.net They are the absolute best and have everything listed there that is a special Black Friday Sale.
And if you want to give to others in need this season instead of going consumer crazy please donate to someplace like Cat Nap Shelter or another local tax deductible charity. (I have adopted 2 cats from this shelter and know it is a great home for cats that otherwise would not have homes and a no-kill alternative to the humane society)