You’re reading this on Blue Monday, but I wrote it on Black Friday. If you’re wondering about that day, you must not be from the United States.
However, research shows that this all-American concept is spreading around the globe, another export from the U.S. for which the rest of the planet is ever so grateful.
Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving when the American pastime of “shop till you drop” sends many into a tailspin. With glazed eyes and drooling lips, bewitched shoppers gallop around stores, looking for something to buy.
But it wasn’t until the 1960s that Americans started to think of the day after Thanksgiving as the beginning of the holiday spending season. This was part of a diabolical plan to convince us that once we celebrated the national day of thanks by pigging out on turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie, we could turn our attention to Christmas.
Back in those days, businesses accustomed to operating at a deficit — or in the red — could recoup losses with four weeks of holiday sales and end their fiscal year in the black, which is why it’s called Black Friday.
I was unaware of Black Friday until we moved to Seattle in the 1980s, when I noticed advertisements of huge sales the day after Thanksgiving.
On Thursday evening after the big meal and a nap, some Seattleites donned their winter coat to be first in line at 4 a.m. the next morning when stores offering deep discounts opened at the crack of dawn. As you can imagine, there was mayhem, scuffles and occasional injury. Friday evening news always aired snippets of crazed maniacs running amok vying for gigantic deals.
As I watched this circus, I had to ask myself if I really wanted to wait in the cold for that over-sized television set selling for $100? And did the kids need 5,000 more pieces of Lego priced at 10 bucks? They said yes to all of it, but I said no. So, during our many years in the Pacific Northwest, we spent Black Friday lounging at home in sweatpants, picking on left-over turkey and watching television classics such as “Frosty the Snowman.”
I am not alone in avoiding mindless shopping sprees. In 1992, a neighbor to the north countered Black Friday with Buy Nothing Day. This brave Canadian suggested that those opposed to senseless spending gather at busy traffic intersections and ceremoniously cut up credit cards, organize massive sit-ins at malls, and clog department stores by pushing around empty shopping carts. When confused onlookers asked what the heck was going on, protesters would then expound on the evils of consumerism. I applaud the common sense attitude from some of our northern neighbors, but so far, Buy Nothing Day has not taken hold in the lower 48.
And yet it appears that Black Friday crowds are dwindling. Stores are reporting fewer fanatics lining up in the early morning hours the day after Thanksgiving. However, this is not because people are coming to their senses and converting to anti-consumerism, but because more are participating in Cyber Monday when shoppers log onto their computers to do their maniacal buying.
Why wait in the dark in 38-degree weather to Shop till you drop when you can do it at home all day long in your pajamas? Australians call it Click Frenzy.
Bravo to the Canadians for proposing Buy Nothing Day, and hats off to the Welsh, who call it Silly Spending Day!
I’m with them. No need to cave in to such pupule-ness.
Rochelle delaCruz was born in Hilo, graduated from Hilo High School, then left to go to college. After teaching for 30 years in Seattle, Wash., she retired and returned home to Hawaii. She welcomes your comments at rainysideview@gmail.com. Her column appears every other Monday.