Ready. Set. Fight Shop. Those are the words that will be going through thousands of shoppers’ minds come the wee-hours of the morning Nov. 23 — Black Friday.
Born into a family of women who, admittedly, love to shop, I have been watching this phenomenon dubbed as “Black Friday” for as long as I can remember.
Although I understand the love for shopping, I’ve never understood the madness that ensues on Black Friday. It seems crazy to me that a normal, generally polite woman can turn into a vicious monster who looks like she could rip the hair out of the woman who happens to be reaching for the same shoe she has been eyeing.
My mother has never understood my unenthusiastic response to her invitations to go shopping. You see in my family, shopping trips were not just normal relaxing afternoons, browsing the racks of clothes — they were serious business.
I would describe shopping trips with my mom as marathons. We would start early in the morning and go until the early evening hours.
By the end of the day, with little to no breaks, my sister and I would be sitting on a bench together, leaning our heads on each others’ shoulders while stroking our sore feet, completely exhausted.
It wasn’t until I was in my late high school years, and a bit more into fashion, that I actually wanted to go shopping and realized that it could be an enjoyable experience.
Shopping is meant to be an enjoyable experience. Relaxing, not stressful. Unfortunately, this is not the case on Black Friday.
I recently saw a list of tips for shoppers on how to survive Black Friday, and I was a little unsettled. Most of the list included things like, be ruthless and fight for what you want.
Forgive me for thinking this, but aren’t we asked to be moral and Christlike all of the time, not just most of the time with exception to the biggest shopping day of the year?
So in reaction to this I decided I would change the list of tips to things that would help us act like decent human beings and not revert back to our feral natures.
Tip number one on the original list was, travel in a group.
I think this is a good idea if taken in the right way. Shopping should be a relaxing social activity, so I think going with a group of friends is a great idea. Unfortunately, the reason the author gave for this tip was not so that you could have fun with your friends, but so that the group could bully the other shoppers and therefore get what it wanted, since there is strength in numbers.
Bullying others should not be the reason to travel in a group on Black Friday. Make the day about spending some quality time with your friends and family, while attempting to get some great bargain deals.
The second tip on the list was know your way out of the craziness.
This suggestion is in reference to having prior knowledge of all of the exits before entering the store so that you can get what you want and then get out as fast as possible. Ultimately, I don’t think this is a bad idea.
Before you go shopping on Black Friday, look through the inventory of what you want to buy so you know how to get in and out fast.
However, you should not under any circumstances cause bodily harm to another customer in your haste to get in and out of the store.
The third tip, to be honest, I had an issue with; the advice was to be ruthless.
What? Seriously? I have seen countless YouTube videos and articles surrounding how ruthless people can be while shopping on Black Friday. People can get crazy.
At the end of the day, is it worth risking your integrity in order to buy a few shiny new things?
If taken in the right way, Black Friday can be a wonderful event. It all depends on your perspective. Are you there just to get what you want no matter the cost? Or are you shopping in order to get some great deals and spend some quality time with those you love?
It’s up to you to decide how to act, no matter what the situation.
Take some time to ponder what qualities you value in a person and how you would like to be viewed in the world, because ultimately it is up to you to portray that image to the world.
