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Health & Fitness

Is It Worth It?

Tim Young expresses his views on the earlier Black Friday sales and the modern American family.

 

I have been guilty of getting up at the crack of dawn multiple times in my life to partake in Black Friday.  I’m not really sure why either.  Now that I think about it, I don’t recall ever getting a "super special" deal on anything.  Well, except for the time when I was the ONLY man, or even person in their 20s, voluntarily in line at Michael’s craft store to buy discount frames and shadow boxes at 4AM. 

That’s right; I spent $125 for about $500 worth of things at a craft store to display my cool collectibles.  I’m alright with admitting that.

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There was even a time, just about 10 years ago now, when Best Buy would GIVE you FREE things, like bean bag toys, film development, or a cd at different stations around the store in order to compel you to race around, see the top sale items and hopefully pick a few more of them up than what you had originally planned. 

Those were the “glory days” of Black Friday.  Now, you can get even better deals online or throughout the entire week, which makes me wonder why stores are upping their gimmicks to open at midnight or earlier on Thanksgiving.

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At what cost are we rushing out to save few, if any dollars on Thanksgiving? 

For the employee who has no choice but to work on Thursdsay, they lose what may be one of their few days to relax and spend time with their families.  And I speak not of the teenager working to get a few extra dollars, but rather the mother or father who has only their retail job or maybe a second job in retail to make ends meet. 

As they work to put food on their tables on this holiday, they lose time from one of the few holidays designed specifically to enjoy the company of their family. 

Are the sales really worth that?

 

 

 

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