Saturday, November 24, 2007

The Black Market

I visited my aging mother for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. On Friday evening, she uttered the words that I feared - "I want to go to the department store." The LAST thing I wanted to do was go to a department strore on "Black Friday".

The experience wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. My mother didn't want to go shopping. She needed a couple of items, including a new heating pad. We found them right away. There were no crowds.

However, I am always amazed that so many U.S. citiezens spend the fourth Thursday of November gearing up for the opportunity to show that we are complete gluttons and in control of the merchandising/marketing industry. Stores now open at 4:00 am on the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. Most newspapers have pictures and stories of people being nearly trampled when the doors of stores open.

Why do we do this? How foolish can we be? Why don't we just save money and time by sending a check to Walmart or Best Buy?

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