Thanksgiving is over. Naturally, our society and the media shout louder than ever “TODAY YOU MUST SPEND MONEY!" It’s BLACK FRIDAY, for
goodness sake!! Some retailers even had
the gall to open on Thanksgiving Day. The media coined this shopping day as “Brown
Thursday”. Really?
That’s the best they
could come up with? With gems like “Fiscal Cliff”, “Weinergate”, and “Bradgelina”,
you’d think they’d find something a bit catchier. May I suggest this simple,
yet direct way to let consumers know you are making employees work on Thanksgiving:
“Forget being thankful for what you have, come buy more stuff you think you need TODAY!” Or, to shorten it up, just call it a “Thursday Sale”. I digress. For whatever reason, 12:01 a.m. the morning after Thanksgiving wasn't early enough to sell you something.
All the big box retailers bombard you via the television,
radio, internet, and newspaper, making you feel as if you don't shop today,
well, then:
a) you will be the only one not doing it;
b) you obviously don’t want
to save money;
c) you must be an agoraphobic if you are not willing to deal
with the massive crowds.
If you decided to actually spend Thanksgiving with your family,
or if you over slept your 2:00 a.m. alarm, don’t cry. More fabulous deals on
televisions, tablets, power wheels and the like will surely follow in the
coming weeks. Plus, there’s this neat invention called the Internet. With it,
you can shop from home on your computer and basically get the same products, at
the same prices, just like you would if you were shopping in the store. Wow!
Let me share another little nugget with you: If you missed the early bird Black Friday specials or felt as if your
experience was mediocre, there is a remedy. It’s called Small Business Saturday. Small, locally owned
businesses (yes, they still do exist!) all over the country have teamed
together to encourage consumers to rethink how they spend their holiday
dollars. Are they saying boycott Black Friday? No, of course not, that would be
silly. (That’s why they have their own day!) However, what they do want you to
know is that there are thousands of unique ‘mom and pop’ shops out there that are
the backbone to so many communities, small and large.
What does that mean to you? First off, there’s no need to “parking
lot stalk”; many mom and pops have plenty of free parking, all close to several
other small businesses. (Genius!) Second, small business owner’s like their
sleep; most don’t even open until 8:00 a.m. or later. (Nice!) And, when you buy
local, over 50% of the money you spend actually stays in the community. (Cool!) To top it off, what you'd pay at a big box store is often times the same, or even less, at a store in your community. (Interesting!)
The purpose of this post is not to try and change consumer
behavior; people will do what they want. I do wish, however, that consumers
keep their local community businesses in mind when doing their holiday shopping, and even
beyond. I am grateful to live in a small, self-sustaining community where I can
get just about everything I need in town. I bet if you really thought about it
too, you would probably come to a similar conclusion.
