Black Friday.
Almost unheard of in the UK two years ago. Now it's everywhere you look.
I suppose it makes a kind of sense in a nation that's just celebrated Thanksgiving. It would fit in here too if we could invent a public holiday to brighten the relentless November grey.
As it is we don't get the extra turkey dinner, but we do have to put up with the consumer madness this unwelcome import has unleashed.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/28/black-friday...
Comments
It Is Destroying Thanksgiving
"Black Friday" is DESTROYING Thanksgiving. The stores are opening when we should be sitting down to dinner, and we have long lines. This crass commercialism destroyed all the other secular holidays in the U S. I'm surprised that the stores are not open on Christmas, but it probably will be soon.
It takes two
The big stores didn't just come up with this marketing plan in a vaccum. A lot of marketing surveys were performed first. The results indicated that if the stores were open there were plenty of people happy to go out and spend money. It's like the US War On Drugs. Just attacking the suppliers (in this case the big chains) won't change what's going on, as long as there is a demand (shoppers) there will be a supply. Get people to quit shopping on Thanksgiving Day and the stores will quit opening.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
This probably a good enough reason
to deport Amazon and Walmart.
Angharad
Perhaps ...
... we could make Bonfire Night a public holiday. After all it is often said that the only person ever to enter the House of Commons with honest intent was Guy Fawkes :) That would brighten up November a treat.
Rob