Greg's Corner

The hassle of Black Friday isn’t worth it

In case you missed yesterday’s post on Thanksgiving safety you can read it here. One aspect of safety that we didn’t discuss yesterday was the specter of Black Friday. Traditionally the day after Thanksgiving sees a number of retail outlets offering sales that they’ll tell you are too good to pass up, but in reality, you can.

As we’ve pointed out in years prior a great number of Black Friday deals the retailers are offering are nothing more than predatory business practices. In too many cases the stock these retailers have on Black Friday are limited on purpose in order to try to get you to buy more expensive products. These same items that are supposed doorbuster deals can often be found for the same sale price later on in the holiday season. That’s not even taking into account that a lot of these items can be found for better prices online than in the stores. This way you don’t have to risk injury or inconvenience by diving into the hordes of other consumers trying to get a deal that doesn’t benefit them in the long run. There are also many other scams abound on Black Friday.

While Black Friday shopping incidents have been down over the past couple of years, it still isn’t worth your time to camp out in front of a big box store in order to get an item that you can safely purchase anywhere. Thanksgiving is a holiday intended for us to spend time with family and friends and give thanks for what we’re fortunate enough to have in life. The crass consumerism that the retail stores push on us by opening as early as Thanksgiving Night is an affront to all of us who deserve more than to waste our time competing with each other for a cheap gadget. Stay home on Black Friday, your time is better spent with loved ones and that deal will be back around sooner than you think.