Here’s Why You Should Stay Home On Black Friday
IT’S A SCAM. And it will make you sad. Also: leftovers.
4. Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year
5. On Monday, there were already people camping out in front of stores
8. Because of deals like this
9. I mean come on, that TV is HUGE
10. TEMPTING, RIGHT??
11. But if you’re thinking about shopping on Friday, STOP. Settle down. Let me explain something to you.
12. First of all, Black Friday will make you sad
13. And tired
15. Going to a big box store is always a bummer. On Friday, it will be the biggest bummer. The only thing that’s REALLY on sale is sadness, and they never run out of stock:
16. Worse yet, Black Friday can be dangerous. People get hurt:
17. In 2008, a man was trampled to death at Walmart. This is horrifying.
The lead sale item that day was a DVD player.
18. Nobody’s safety is worth risking for this
19. Of course, most shoppers’ Black Friday experiences won’t be dangerous, just hectic and stressful
20. But still, STAY HOME. Black Friday is a SCAM
21. And a SHAM
22. And most Black Friday deals aren’t really deals at all
23. First, a lot of the “doorbusters” are off-brands:
You keep your TV for a long time! You want to make sure you get the right one
24. And to get any of the decent-looking deals, you have to show up at an ungodly hour
25. Wait, just a sec. Look closer
26. Closer…….
27. ZOOM…. SHARPEN…….. ENHANCE……
28. But it’s worse than that. Data suggests that even the good deals aren’t that good:
The best times to buy, according to Decide:
-Laptops: Mid-December is the best time to buy during the holiday season.
-TVs: To get the lowest price on a TV, the best time to buy is the week leading up to Black Friday.
-Cameras: From point-and-shoots to more sophisticated models for professional photographers, the best time to buy is before Black Friday.
29. Also, like, this is NOT how you should buy electronics
30. The things you need — TVs, laptops, tablets, phones — are important purchases that you should think about a lot
You’re stuck with your phone for two years, and your laptop for even longer. Tablets are getting cheaper every day, and the best stuff, from brands like Apple and Google and Microsoft and Amazon, isn’t any cheaper on Black Friday.
TVs are ALWAYS cheap, and there are much more important things to consider than whether or not you’ll save $50. Like, for example, how that giant TV will look in your living room for the next five years.
Try the Wirecutter for up-to-date recommendations on the things you should buy.
31. It’s just not worth it. At best, you’ll end up with a bunch of stuff you don’t really need, purchased for slightly lower than list, and a headache.
33. And I haven’t even gotten to the opportunity costs yet. For example, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. Which means LEFTOVERS
34. Camping out at a store to score a deal on a USB stick or whatever means you’ll be missing this
(more here)
39. Or, jeez, just spend some time with your grandma. She misses you!
40. I mean, listen. You have the day off. USE YOUR IMAGINATION
43. So, whatever you do, PLEASE, please, please don’t let this be you. You deserve better. We all do.
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Dana Schneider 5 months agoI work retail and my ass has to be up at 2:00am to deal with this shit for 12 hours. If you do venture out, PLEASE remember to treat your sales people with kindness..this is literally the worst day of the year for us. Or even better, stay home. Let’s all agree to put an end to this madness.
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MrSwearword 5 months agoTechnically Black Friday doubles as National Riot Day. Just one more reason not to risk your ass for Black Friday.
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christyw6 5 months agoWord up people…. you can get better deals on the internet. I can’t tell you how many great deals I have gotten online, most before and after the 2 Black Fridays we have after Christmas and, after Thanksgiving. So, sign up for e-mail subscriptions to your favorite stores NOW and get ready for the good deals to come. Happy Holidays! :-)
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LikaLaruku 5 months ago
::Notes price of 40 inch Toshiba display:: “Boo! I payed that same price last month for their 20 inch monitor for the kitchen.”
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timt18 5 months agoUh, you know you can eat anytime, right? And most people are at laces they don’t want to be for hours during the week(it’s called work) what’s a few hours to get something they really want. And yes, Black Friday will generate lots of money with or with you, so why let it be without you, snapping up some primo deals? What’s more disconcerting is why the author of this and other detractors care so much. You aren’t going so what business is it of yours if everyone else wants to go?
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A.Leigh 5 months ago
The whole people have been trampled thing comes to mind. If you want to brave the mobs, that’s fine by me, but the last thing I want is to get a phone call saying someone I care about has been seriously injured or killed because they went shopping. Also…there are Black Friday deals on the internet. Stay home, stay safe, eat leftovers, AND shop. Problem solved.
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Bob Higgins 5 months ago
Buy in the middle of January when the stores are empty and everything is on sale. Or, don’t buy at all, don’t you have enough plastic crap already?
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itmustbeken 5 months agoFor the last 3 years I’ve got up at 5 am on Friday and taken my boy down to BestBuy, Walmart and Target to view the aftermath. We look at the adds, do the math and I try to explain that giving up time with family and taking a break is worth 100 times more than anything you could buy. Then we go to our local mom and pop donut shop and I tell him how much I love doing this with him every year.
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Jessica Myers-White 5 months agoI worked Black Friday once in a cafe. We opened at three am and our first customers were grumpy and verbally abused me. Later, a very sick woman, who had no business being anywhere but at home in her condition, bought a cup of coffee. By the end of the day I was feverish and coughing, probably a result of being exhausted and coming into contact with someone so obviously ill. I was sick for months, but I collapsed on the day after Christmas, once again at work. Since I had to work and my boss would not except any absences for any reason (really, death in the family?, so sorry for your loss, you don’t have to come in IF you can find a replacement), I was unable to nip to the doctor or even rest, I needed the job and I worked with the people that would have been able to cover me. Even on the day I collapsed, one of my very kind coworkers had to call people to fill in for me. I wound up with pneumonia and it took me months to completely recover, my lungs are damaged and I am more prone to get sick like this again. If I had been able to seek treatment, stay home to rest, anything, I may have avoided such unpleasantness. But, it was The Holiday Season and Black Friday and the day after Christmas are Very Important Days in that season. So, even if I was sick, even though it was totally gross that someone as sick as myself was working as a barista handling food and drink (!!!! - I tried my damnedest to be sanitary and I washed my hands raw, none of my coworkers or regulars seemed to get sick so I hope I was successful), I had to drag myself in. Lovely isn’t it?
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ashleyb17 5 months agoI sell the things your listing. iPads don’t go down that low when you include the gift card. Some people work “not google image search hit counter attracting memes”. They don’t make a lot of money and need to budget the gifts they buy for their large families that like themselves didn’t go to university in England. “Off brand” to them is value since they can’t afford expensive, but would still like to watch tv without a converter box. As for the danger and depression, your defining what these things mean to people and considering one of your last points about black friday not needing us, your already wrong then. I see these people walk in my store with their families, and the families of those that work there but your trying to tell them what’s really important. Those depressed faces your pointing at are people who can afford to give the christmas to their families that they want to give to them. And your begrudging them that? If your actually trying to make an argument against materialism your doing a shitty job. (apologies for the grammar, spelling etc., it’s black friday and i’m in retail)
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John Herrman 5 months ago
Post wasn’t meant to point and laugh at people trying to get a deal, or trying to stretch dollars for gifts, or buying off-brand stuff, but points taken. Point was/is there are better, less stressful, less frenzied and less demoralizing ways to do those things. Black Friday ads suggest a loophole, or an exception to normal retail rules. But their real goal is to get people into the store to buy other things, and to spend money they didn’t plan on spending. Very few people get truly great deals on Black Friday. You’re almost always better off just carefully comparison shopping online, whether you’re shopping for fun or deal-hunting out of necessity.
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A.Leigh 5 months ago
To be honest, even brand name TVs aren’t THAT expensive anymore. You can get a 47 inch 3D TV with internet for well under $1000 (the price jumps up quite a bit at 50 inches). Amazon has brand name, 40+ inch TVs for under $500 (even some with internet). There’s nothing wrong with off brands but they typically don’t have as high of quality or (perhaps more importantly) as good a warranty, so you’re more likely to end up having to replace it. REGARDLESS, the point wasn’t that off-brand TVs are bad, the point was that it’s misleading, because they’re cheaper to begin with. An off-brand TV that costs $100 less than a popular brand is probably not on sale at all. Also, a lot of those people who “don’t make a lot of money and need to budget the gifts they buy for their large families” (was the ‘large’ part significant?) don’t go Black Friday shopping because, um…they can’t afford it. Most people who are on a tight budget aren’t buying TVs for Christmas gifts, they’re buying clothes and small toys and useful things like cooking stuff.
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intervamp 5 months ago
I’m sorry, but I can’t agree that off brand is a “value.” An off brand CD player bought this year would be a value because the knock off company will finally have a product close to the quality of those companies that can better afford the research and development of newer technologies. In 5 years a low brand plasma may be up to speed, but not today, today it is a rip off. Before I bought a large flat screen I spent a few hours researching online which were the best values in my price range, meaning, which were best made according to reviews and customers. 3 years and (knock wood) no problems. My sister bought the cheapest no name piece of crap and has no small amount of problems. But, it was there, it was cheap and she wanted it NOW! so…. Spending money like Black Friday locusts is what gets people into debt issues and a thing like Black Friday promotes spending without thinking.
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HarryShuldman 5 months agoI don’t agree with your post enough to celebrate Black Friday all of a sudden, but I appreciate the sentiment, thoughtfully expressed. One very fair point you make is the classist use of the term “off-brand.” It sounds anathema to a well-versed gadget blogger familiar with all the hardware and tech-specs, but for the average consumer, half of the superiority of a Samsung over an Emerson (never even heard of that brand til this post) is a placebo-affect. The Samsung is the better TV, but it is an economic certainty that not everyone can afford it. This doesn’t mean they should be denied some type of large-format 1080p screen. This “holiday” sucks for a lot of reasons but let’s always be careful not to devolve into mocking the poor when the real culprits are the marketers counting on their being uninformed.
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GillyMonster 5 months agoIn their defense, number 27 says, “At least 2 per store” They always have more than the minimum.
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BadNraD 6 months agoNo mention of all of us sad people forced to eat thanksgiving dinner with the thought of working AT MIDNIGHT hanging over our heads. No sleep. Horrible hoards of deal-zombies. You’re all perpetuating what will eventual ruin thanksgiving altogether for anyone working retail. Thank you. You should be ashamed of yourselves if you participate in this god-awful excuse of a “holiday sale”. It’s all a bullshit way to monetize what was once a way to be thankful for what we HAVE, not what what we will be getting for christmas…
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shannonm31 5 months agoI have to work 10pm-10am starting on Thursday! I won’t even be eating dinner because I will be trying to sleep! Black Friday is seriously the worst!
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