Black Friday - To Shop or Not to Shop: Austin Lee

Growing up we had a rule about shopping:  "Buy nothing...(big pause)...unless it's on sale!"  I have lived by this creed for my entire life.  Black Friday for my family was like the greatest invention since sliced bread.  We spent many an hour in ________ (insert Department Store or Big Box retailer here) on Black Friday.  The sales were unbelievable: 50%, 60%, and sometimes even 70% off the retail price of the same shirt some moron bought on Wednesday at full price.  In fact, such was my father's penchant for sales that for Christmas 2002 he bought me a Chia Pet.

Since I didn't ask for a Chia Pet, I can only imagine that my Dad decided to change the rule to, "Buy something...(big pause)...because it's on sale."  I think I remember him telling me that it was 90% off when he saw it at the drug store.  For those of you that might not remember, a Chia Pet is a flower pot shaped like an animal or person's head.  You soak the provided seeds in water spread them on the outside of the shaped pot and fill it with water.  After a few days the seeds sprout and your Chia Pet has green sprouts for fur or hair.  If you have never had one, you aren't missing anything.

In the Lee family, we still love to find a good deal.  The recession has, however, changed the way we shop.  To be accurate, the recession didn't cause this change, the retailers themselves caused this change.  Over the last several months retailers have slashed prices so frequently that it has become hard to find something to buy that isn't on sale.  Whether its Black Friday or just a random Tuesday afternoon in August, everything seems to be on sale and deeply discounted all the time.  There is no longer a need Black Friday to find a good deal, we just wait a couple weeks and another sale comes right along.

For me, Black Friday just doesn't hold the same promise of a great deal that it once did.

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