Suckered in by 'Black Friday' mania

Black Friday. You may think that you already figured out what this article will complain about, but I assure you that this blog will take a very unexpected turn.

Black Friday opened my eyes to the evil of stores across America. The fact that stores can offer all of their merchandise at half off and STILL make a sizable profit really grinds my gears.

During my first ever Black Friday experience, the deals offered by many of the stores amazed me. Since most stores claim to earn a large percentage of their yearly income on Black Friday, how can they offer merchandise at a fraction of the cost? I concluded that the $80 shirt at Abercrombie cost three cents to be made by a 3-year-old with one leg in a Chinese sweatshop, so offering that shirt at half off still yields a rather hefty profit.

My eyes lit up after sprinting through a local department store, hustling down the escalator, and discovering the sign at the front of the store: “Everything in the store 50% off until 9 a.m.” Whoa! That’s a low price. However, I looked at the first tag and . . . huh? Last week that shirt was $60. Now it’s $100, meaning “half off” saves me only $10 off the original price. It seems stores trick us all the time. Just when we think we landed the big deal of the year, a tall con artist with a goatee sitting in the back of the store laughing at all of us fools as he counts his money really just scammed us. 

Stores also prey on all of us with their gimmicks and advertisements. Last year, Hollister swindled my entire life savings from me by offering me a 25% off coupon every time I visited the store. The coupon would only be valid through a certain date, so I thought it necessary to use every single coupon I got. I’m not sure if the store ran out of coupons to give me or if I ran out of money first.

Advertisements and sales trick us into spending far more money than we originally planned. Furthermore, I found many stores pulling out all the stops this year from opening at midnight or never closing at all on Thanksgiving day, to deploying shirtless male models across the country, all in an effort by these greedy (or rather clever) CEOs to rip the money out of our pockets and into theirs.

Every year, stores around the nation conjure ways to prey on our desire for new and shiny things. We can’t help it. Why keep the Kindle you bought last year when the new and incredible version just came out? Or why wear the jeans that fit perfectly when all the new pairs sell at half price (supposedly).

We like nothing more about our money than watching someone else place it in a cash register and hand us a big bag. And every store manager around the world knows we fall for all the tricks in the voodoo bag of sales manipulation. They all take advantage of our lack of self control every year, and our lack of self control really grinds my gears.

[comments] 

Posted by "Andrew McDermott" on December 16, at 1:36 p.m.

I agree with most of the ratings. However, some of my favorite movies are "Christmas with the Kranks" and "Christmas Dan, you went Black Friday shopping?? I think I just lost all respect for you!! I mean who cares about waking up early and standing in long lines to maybe try to snag a deal? To me, you should go Cyber Monday shopping -- if anything!

Posted by "Emily Steininger" on December 16, at 8:33 a.m.

Nice article, Dan! However, I go Black Friday shopping and am quite aware that I might be getting swindled. I don't care that much. That sounds as if I love to throw my money away, but really I just like fighting old ladies for jackets at Old Navy. I win everytime.

Posted by "Kaitlin Gronski" on December 15, at 2:21 p.m.

I just recently started going shopping on Black Friday and I feel the same way. Obviously, having the experience is fun ( at least for me), but I find myself losing more money than on any other day. Sad fact, I will most likely always look forward to Black Friday.

Posted by "Jessica Kalmar" on December 13 at 8:57 p.m.

This is one of the reasons why I chose not to shop on Black Friday this year. Great article, Dan! Although shopping at midnight sounds very exciting, I would rather be sleeping. Too many people rush out for these deals. For many, it becomes about buying the item before it's sold out. They get lost in the rush and forget that the purpose of Black Friday is to save money.

Posted by "Matt Grantz" on December 8 at 8:28 p.m.

Dan, this is all entirely true, but I cannot understand for the life of me why you went Black Friday shopping in the first place.

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