The I Should Be Shopping Blues
Posted on | November 23, 2007 at 11:33 am | 5 Comments
Is this the weirdest day of the year, or what? The day after a major holiday, which in itself has become something of a holiday celebrating consumerism. It’s officially the start of the Ohmigod Christmas Is Almost Here And I Haven’t Done Any Shopping guilt-inducing period. Makes me actually want to go out and brave the crowds and hit the sales just so I can say I’ve done something. Heck, I still haven’t even done anything about my washing machine/dryer issue (aside from just washing everything in cold water and waiting for more breakdowns), and I’m close to getting out there and checking out the appliance sales. But the only thing I’ve done so far today is order a ticket from Fandango for an afternoon showing of Beowulf IMAX 3D.
Do you realize that some people (like my girlfriend) don’t even have the day off? So they’re already behind everyone else on Christmas shopping. Some companies just don’t respect the proper spirit of the holidays. Heck, even if you aren’t into spending the day shopping or watching college football or whatever, there’s the much needed post-gorging recovery time. It’s almost impossible to pull oneself out of the comforting warm embrace of the linens, especially on such a cold morning as this one. Just as it’s impossible to write a content-heavy post. No one’s going to be reading today anyway!
Happy ________ Day!
Jogged Today: You must be kidding.
Today’s Weight: 162.6 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Guess. Actually, I’m not sure I had lunch yesterday. It was pretty much just one big meal at 3pm with lots of snacking on appetizers before hand.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Crowds. Which would make it even harder to go shopping today.
Latre.
Comments
5 Responses to “The I Should Be Shopping Blues”
November 23rd, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
As an example, pretty much no one in banking (in the US) has today as a holiday. Federal banking regulation prohibits banking institutions from being closed four days in a row. [My Better Half spent some 15 years in banking and my brother is presently in banking, so I have oft heard this lament.]
Who goes shopping anyway. That’s what personal computers are for. I haven’t went to an actual store for holday shopping since easy access to fax machines and catalog ordering; so, online shopping is “summum bonum” as far as I’m concerned.
November 23rd, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Fight the conformist tide. There’s no good reason to shop today: the stores are their most crowded, which more than counteracts whatever values any sales might have – and there’ll be sales later anyway. It seems like a few years ago things changed: sure, people used to talk about doing their Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t this enormous media event. Now, you can’t look at a newspaper (i.e., a newspaper website – I hear they still print them…) without seeing some bozo worrying about how this will be the weakest “Black Friday” (talk about a dumbass name) in years blah-blah our whole economy is built on people buying worthless shit out of guilt blah-blah.
I did go out, though – to a local restaurant, had a sandwich, then to a grocery store because the diet soda supply was running low. And Rose, too, has to work (or rather, has too much work to do not to work).
Damn – just wrote my own blog entry when I’ve gotta write my own blog entry…
November 23rd, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
Actually there ARE genuine ‘loss leaders’ out there today, precisely because so many more people are shopping online. If you happen to find out that something you want is gonna be deeply discounted, it might be worth going out early. Don’t make me repeat my story about finding a 160gig external HD for $40 on Black Friday ‘05… (they were normally over $200)
For instance, this year I read someplace is selling 19″ widescreen LCD monitors for $50. That’s 1/3rd the best price I can find elsewhere. If I could, I’d be out there trying to nab at least two or three.
But going out just to find some random “good deal” is a waste of time and effort, certainly, unless you’re so lonely that arguing with strangers in parking lots counts as social interaction….
November 23rd, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
Well, I did brave the crowds for a bit today. The Maytag store was empty, and the Best Buy was less crowded than I thought it would be. I did pick up a few xmas presents at Best Buy. And they had some interesting specials, like DVDs of 300 and Knocked Up (both fairly new releases) for $6.99 each, which as far as I can tell where not advertised or available online for that price. So, as InfK says, maybe there is something to this Loss Leader thing.
November 24th, 2007 @ 8:32 am
As Bill says above, banks tend to follow the Federal Reserve schedule, which prohibits having consecutive weekdays as holidays. Before I started working for a bank in 1995, I was always one of the people who thought bankers had it easy, what with getting all the minor stuff like King Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, etc., but they take those days because they *can’t* give the Day After Thanksgiving, Day After Christmas, etc. In contrast, my ex, who works for a private non-profit foster care agency, gets a whole paid week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and it doesn’t count against her vacation time. Me, I took yesterday (the Day After Thanksgiving) off, but it cost me a vacation day. I did not shop, though – those Day After Thanksgiving sales (when did it start getting called Black Friday? I think I first heard that in the late ’90s, and it struck me as a newish term, and one more appropriate for stock market crashes) were never part of my or my family’s traditions.