I know I mentioned in a previous meditation that the Thanksgiving holiday has been overrun by Black Friday marketing and the Christmas consumerism. I still believe that is completely true. While I did participate in the Black Friday shopping, the consumerism did not interrupt our family holiday and celebration of Thanksgiving on Thursday. I had to laugh at some of the stores opening at midnight for the Friday shopping. While the consumers chose to disregard the holiday, our family did not and instead of standing in the cold and rain all night in line we remained in our warm, dry house.
One of my friends on Facebook was bragging about the new 32” LCD Hi-Def television he successfully acquired during the Black Friday shopping. While he didn’t mention the price he bought it for, I am sure he got a great deal. His status message was flooded with comments ranging from “Congratulations” to “You’re crazy.” I asked how long he stood in line for the television. He replied: 5 hours outside of Best Buy and then 7 hours in the store. After which I agreed that he was crazy. I suppose, for some people, standing in line for twelve hours is worth a really low price on a television or whatever else was on sale. Personally, that twelve hours is a waste, in which I can be doing all sorts of other things. In the past I have stood in line for Black Friday shopping, however the longest I have waited is an hour. My time is worth more to me than a good materialistic deal.
My mother and I decided to head to Joann Fabrics for Black Friday. Like every other store they had a flier in the newspaper with a three day sale and Doorbuster items each day. There were two distinct differences from other stores however. The first was the store itself. Joanns attracts a certain type of crowd like any store.
Most of the Joann shoppers, however, aren’t the type to stand in line all night or get up super early for the deals. My mother and I left our house at 9AM on Friday after enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee and breakfast. When we arrived at Joanns there were a lot of people in the store. However the second difference is the crowd attitude. Most of the people shopping at Joanns were an older crowd. The attitude of the shoppers was light, jovial and happy. When looking for fabric there was no fighting over a bolt of fleece or who got the last color thread spool. Because of the great deals my mother and I piled up bolts of fabric to buy. While standing in line at the cutting counter we chatted with the other shoppers about our projects and shared ideas. In some cases there was swapping of fabric before cutting and sharing the bolts. The line for the checkout was long, however it didn’t wrap around the store several times, as I have seen in Best Buy previously. I think we spent around 30 minutes in line before checking out with the cashier. Our trip was a completely enjoyable experience, lacking the stress, attitude and rudeness of hurried shoppers.
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