Black Friday (aka the Friday after Thanksgiving) is less than a week away. I myself stay as far away from the stores on this particular day as possible given my aversion to crowds and shopping in general. It’s not that I don’t like to buy things, rather the whole “retail environment” seems very unfriendly to me. The overcrowded shelves and isles barely big enough for a person to navigate (much less a person with a cart) are anything but inviting. Getting too close to most shelves sends scads of products tumbling to the floor with dozens more teetering on the edge just waiting to be hoisted into an awaiting shopping cart. Lately, I’ve wondered if stores position products too close to the shelf edge purposely to lure unsuspecting customers into knocking them onto the floor and being forced to examine the item(s) and perhaps take them home.
My sister, on the other hand, loves the adventure of shopping on Black Friday. An otherwise demure and lovely person, she transforms into a tiger relishing the thrill of the hunt for the best and most-sought-after items. Like the other hungry hunters, she dresses light and maps out her route using the newspaper ads to devise her shopping strategy. Admittedly, I have not seen her in action, but listening to her describe the adrenaline rush was eerily familiar. These tiger-like shoppers are precisely the reason I cannot venture past my own backyard even for a gallon of milk or loaf of bread on Black Friday.
I suspect the waning economy will have a pacifying affect on shoppers this year with fewer people rushing to buy, buy, buy. Perhaps more of them, like me, will shop online or play the “waiting game” to see just how low stores are willing to price things to make end-of-year sales. Hopefully, this year stores will re-evaluate their environment to make the atmosphere more appealing to buyers. Can we bring back the soothing music, store demonstrations, and retrain some of those stock people to run a cash register for goodness sake!
If you happen to be working in the retail trenches on Black Friday, I will keep you in my prayers and hope you take plenty of aspirin with you.
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