The 5 Biggest Myths About Black Friday

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/culture/5-biggest-myths-about-black-friday



1. “Black Friday” refers to the day when retailers turn a profit. It’s commonly believed that Black Friday signifies when many U.S. retailers go “into the black” or hit the break-even point, but retailers generally break even, and indeed profit, nearly every quarter.

2. Black Friday is an effective economic indicator. It’s widely believed that strong sales on the weekend after Thanksgiving is a bellwether of consumer confidence and show how strong holiday sales will be. But Black Friday is actually a poor indicator of both.


3. The best deals are on Black Friday. Not every sale you'll find on Thanksgiving weekend will be the biggest bargain of the year, or even the holiday season. Nestled among the deals, you’ll see a lot of items that are selling at either their regular retail price or close to it.

4. You can only get doorbuster deals at brick-and mortar stores. To those who wait in line for hours to get a doorbuster deal, you’re probably wasting your time. While it’s true that Black Friday — and now Thanksgiving — is often a good day to pick to get one of these fantastic deals, many retailers now offer the same price at the online store to attract shoppers there. In fact, DealNews.com reports that 70% of the doorbuster deals you see at a store are also available online.

[onethatcares]

1. fuck black friday

the con of us all being consumers just can't go on.

[hobbit709]

2. They use those deals to get people in the store but only have 1 or 2 of those items on the shelf.

I won't go on BF since I can't stand being around that big a crowd.
I've found that the best deals are usually about 2 weeks before XMas when the stores are getting desperate.

[Lex]

3. Black Friday is for suckers.

[bulloney]

4. Black Friday is the best testimony of the stupidity of American society.

It's become a day when millions spend an entire Thanksgiving laying on a sidewalk in freezing temperatures just so they have a crack at buying "stuff" they don't need. We've completely bastardized Thanksgiving into "the day before Black Friday" instead of a day for families to gather and be thankful for what they have.

Millions more act like a bunch of dumb, starved animals when the stores open their doors, trampling people over if they're in their way.

Others resort to physical violence when necessary just so they can get that overpriced crap they really don't need.

Overall, it's a percentage of people being duped by the retailers into thinking they'll only get the best prices by going through all of this crap on Black Friday.

Christmas is supposed to be the season we observe and honor the birth of Jesus. Instead, Americans increasingly resort to behavior and materialism that Jesus supposedly spoke against. And I'll bet most of these clowns that go full bore in this Black Friday/materialism debacle will tell you how "Christian" they are.

If that doesn't demonstrate how dumb Americans are, then I don't know what does.

[tabbycat31]

5. As a former retail employee

I won't step near a store on Black Friday. It was bad enough working them (although I did like that time went by very fast because we were so busy--- I'd rather be busy than slow because slow days drag on).

I'm actually DONE with the exception of finding a stocking stuffer for a 3 month old.