Black Friday

President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring November 26, 1863, “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”  An annual holiday since then, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a day for family and friends to gather and give thanks for material and spiritual blessings.

In the last few years, however, Thanksgiving has been overshadowed by the rampant consumerism of Black Friday.  The beginning of the Christmas shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.  Retailers advertise special sale prices and other incentives to bring shoppers into their stores.  Shoppers, in an effort to find the bargain price or the hard-to-find-gift, flood the stores.

Long lines of anxious shoppers form outside the stores days in advance, waiting for the retailers to open their doors on Black Friday.  Stories abound of violent shoppers assaulting and pepper-spraying other shoppers or injuring store workers and shoppers in their haste to get at the bargains.  In 2008, a Walmart employee was trampled to death and shoppers refused to stop their shopping and allow employees and rescue workers to render aid.  Pretty pathetic behavior considering Christmas is supposed to be season of giving.

This year, retailers such as Target and Walmart opened on Thanksgiving night.  Not a surprise, considering retailers are in the business of meeting shoppers’ demands.  However, news stories about shoppers lining up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving caught my attention.

According to the news, people began lining up on Wednesday at various Best Buy locations in order to be the first to take advantage of the sale prices.  Are the sales prices really that great and are the items advertised the things we really want?  Is it anything we need?  Have we become so materialistic that we will skip time to share thanks with family and friends just to save a few dollars?  When did we lose sight of the purpose and importance of Thanksgiving and Christmas?  Is your time really worth $300 off a 50-inch television?  Most of the people in line appeared to be well-dressed, over-30 adults.  After reviewing prices of many of the Black Friday deals, the Black Friday “deals” were the prices offered in September. 

I understand that folks want to find a bargain.  As consumers, we need to make smart purchases, not fall into the media frenzy that pulls shoppers into the store with promises of ultra-low prices, but often result in impulse buys.  So, think through these questions before Black Friday 2013:  Do you need it, can you afford it, and with a bit more planning, could you have gotten it at a better price with some planning?  More importantly, we should also remember the meaning of Christmas in the midst of the shopping frenzy.  Christ was betrayed for the price of 30 pieces of silver.  Let’s not betray him again for a discounted television and BOGO (buy-one-get-one) DVDs.