I'd Rather Be Sleeping

Black Friday: two words that to the general American population mean sales upon sales at retail shops. It can also mean possible limb detachment from an angry mob of parents who are seeking the deal on iPhones for their 13 year old daughters. While I’ve never been a big fan of the scheme of joining the crowd for a day of insanity just to save a few dollars, I can at least understand why a person might choose to go out on the esteemed Black Friday. Though there are some pretty great deals going on that day, I must honestly say that I usually do my Christmas shopping the following weekend, and I can commonly pick up some finds for the same Black Friday deal, without all the hysteria.

While browsing through Target on Wednesday evening, my boyfriend, Jared, and I ran into one of our good friends, Kyle. Kyle is a Target employee and we began conversing with him about his upcoming plans to spend Thanksgiving. He then pursued to inform us that after Wednesday night’s shift, he was going home to rest up before heading back to work around 5 pm on Thanksgiving Day. That shift would last until about 3 am whereupon he would head home again to rest up before working the same shift for Black Friday. I told him I was deeply sorry that he had to work on Thanksgiving Day. Something else I noticed which seemed quite interesting to me was that many Black Friday sales actually began by 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day. So Black Friday is no longer meant for just the Friday post-Turkey Day; it is seeping into Thanksgiving Day itself. What’s more, employees of the stores that offer these pre-Black Friday sales must stock up on employees to support the estimated amount of shoppers heading their way on Thanksgiving Day, pulling people away from their families and forcing them to work during a national holiday. I’m appalled.

Those are my reasons for boycotting the Black Friday flimflam. When I was asked this week if I would be going out for any Black Friday shopping, I simply replied “Nah, I don’t want to lose a limb.” A decade ago that would have been a pretty good joke. Today, it has become a reality. I can assure you that if you were to look on YouTube for a “Black Friday Accident or Scandal,” there would be thousands of results. Point taken, stay home on Black Friday and attempt to never work retail that day.