By: Austin Chiavaroli
With Thanksgiving on the mind, most individuals are probably getting all the preparations and food ready for time with family to give thanks for the things they hold dear. However, another kind of preparation is being made that is intruding on this pleasant holiday and has grown more and more popular over the years. This of course is the preparation for Black Friday, the day where stores massively discount items for one morning/ day so that people can get an early start on Christmas shopping and get good deals on certain products. While Black Friday sounds like a wonderful thing that some families have done for years on the surface, this “holiday” does nothing but ruin everything Thanksgiving stands for.
One of the real issues that makes Black Friday a terrible thing is the amount of blood thirsty shoppers that will do anything to get their hands on the products they want. Due to the limited time and amount of products, massive amounts of violence normally break out on Black Friday. While some would think that this would stop this event, it’s only grown more in popularity due to how shocking the violence can get. Social media hasn’t helped this issue, as videos are posted every Black Friday showing how bad the carnage can get. From fist fights to people being trampled trying to get the last high definition television, it shows just how terrifying society can be to continue something that brings out the worst in humanity.
Another issue is how far marketing companies go to commercialize and sell the event. Each year, Black Friday commercials air on television telling people to prepare and even call the sales “door busters,” relating to past instances where people bust down store doors and stampede into them when they open. This promotion of violence even in people’s own homes is terrible to think of and shows that consumers are simply puppets.
Black Friday has been moving more into the time frame of Thanksgiving, which has been causing major issues for families that don’t celebrate and eat until around dinnertime. The event has even started to transform from Black Friday into Black Thursday with sales beginning as early as six o’clock Thanksgiving evening. This has rushed families to get Thanksgiving over with faster so they can get the deals and products before they’re all gone by Friday morning when the event originally started.
One of the biggest scams is the discount sales themselves. With most online shopping being cheaper through Amazon Prime, the whole purpose of Black Friday is destroyed. With online deals occurring all year, the discount deals are worthless and consumers can get their Christmas shopping done easier and with a lot less stress. While the deals are decent on Black Friday, it is better for people to shop online on their own time than have the chance of being punched just to grab a copy of the latest video game brought down 10 dollars.
With all this said, Black Friday is one of the most nationwide-marketed events of the year and is pathetic for that very reason. It is only a way for companies to gain money from brain washed consumers that think they are smart, shopping only to be doing the exact opposite. Here’s a recommendation from me to you, reader: stay home with your family and spend the holidays like they should be, happy, cheerful, and together with your loved ones. Nothing is
worth losing the nice moments you can be making with family, especially that waffle iron that’s on sale for 20 dollars.
