Today Op-Ed Friday is Black Friday- the biggest shopping day of the year. We’ll see if consumers are out in force when the HELOCs and credit cards are tapped out.
In the meantime, enjoy Oc-Ed’s Thanksgiving contribution, and if you’ve got any great links, stories, ideas- we’d love to see them:
As always, this thread’s for you!
Buy Nothing Day
I’m sorry, but that BND link rubs me the wrong way. They could really put out a good message (one that many Americans are finding out on their own), but they appear to cross the line and become militant and sensationalistic. Not only that, their front page is a bunch of whining. Maybe I’m wrong, but if I wanted to get a message out I’d use the front page to inform, not to air my dirty laundry.
Just my 2 cents.
And I like the cartoon. The turkey should say “FB”
I don’t know – even if you think they’re losing some credibility by appearing over-militant, I think their message makes some sense. The fact that MTV refused to run their ad also says a lot to me about how controlled our media have become, and last night on the news, they were consistently running sensationalizing buy buy buy stories.
What’s even worse is that they kept talking about big “sales” at the retailers, without even mentioning the obvious that most of those so-called sales will pale by comparison to those after XMas.
The most I’ll buy today is some coffee.
This could be the last chance for many folks to buy lots of stuff before their credit runs out. “Buy Now!!! Your last chance to screw the bank outa cash before they figure out that you will never pay them back!!!”
JimAtLaw-
I didn’t boycott the sales today, but I suspect I was a disappointment to retailers nonetheless.
I don’t blame retailers for trying to make a buck, but I do blame the sheeple who allow themselves to be drawn in.
I went out with some of the family, made some small purchases, and paid cash.
I don’t have a problem with holiday shopping- it’s just the “over-the-top-gotta-have-it-no-matter-how-little-I-need-it-or-how-long-I’ll-be-paying-for-it” attitude that makes me get on my sanctimonious high horse.
Last night I was watching my local Fox news because it’s on earlier than the others. They said our local real estate market is up 21 percent. I just had to laugh thinking wow are they trying to get people to go shopping or something?
Where I live in Madison Wisconsin, after recession is declared it takes about a year for the effects to be felt here.
Then about half way into the recession, depending on how bad it is you’ll hear on the radio that mexicans are moving here for jobs since we are still hiring.
Wisconsin is kind of a high tax state so I see quite a few drifter types, mostly from down south or out east. Some move back from out west but only after they have made their fortune first.
Here in Madison, it’s all about gentrification these days. It’s one way to get people to use the public transportation system. Sounds to me like driving is going to get really expensive one of these days.
twist: Well put, I couldn’t have said it better.
JimAtLaw: I’m not sure that the post-Xmas sales will be better, I think retailers will simply carry over bargains into next year (versus ending them, as normal). That’s just my opinion, and you may well be correct. I have to agree, today was a GREAT day for coffee
LOL… Confession time: I slipped, and bought some tacos on the way to Huntington Beach dog beach with the wife and dog. Total out of pocket for the day: $30. Put the tacos on a cash back debit card that pays me back a small percentage on every transaction, so I actually get a few bucks of their cut back in my account each month.
Re: After XMas sales, I guess I just tend to think after watching past years that anything called a “sale” before XMas ends up relatively lame compared to the year-closing sales. Who knows, if retail is hurting maybe it was better than usual this time, but given all the media hype about the shop-a-thon, I have difficulty imagining the retailers giving up too much when everyone and their mother is out and determined to spend themselves into oblivion. Then again, maybe this was really all hype and they’re actually desperate… will be interesting to see.
So maybe the day after Thanksgiving is now “National Poor People’s day to shop for Christmas”
Why else would someone choose to get sleep in front of Best Buy to save $50?
I was extremely disappointed with the “sales” this year. At least last year’s loss leaders were enormous. Obviously as a “dude” I tend to focus on consumer electronics. As far as I can tell the only “deal” in Tucson was really cheap Sony laptop under $300.
Oh well, I hope BF is a complete bust. I’m going to short the retailers until next black friday. Joe six pack is done and they don’t even know it yet.
I was going to wait in line at Toy-R-Us for a $79 Zune, but found that they were offering the deal on line at the same price a couple of days before BF.
For $5.69 extra, I’m getting it shipped to my door. A good thing too..the local store only had five of them available, even though it was prominently advertised in their flyer as an “early bird special.”
The fine print probably said “quantities limited”…but five?! I’m surprised there wasn’t a riot.
The only non-loss leader I got was a cheapo DVD storage unit for $20.
Robert Shiller compares today to the epic collapse of 1925-1933, calls for fundamental change.
NY Times: A Time for Bold Thinking on Housing, Robert Shiller
I felt the urge to get drawn in, especially as I have been wanting a large screen HDTV set for a while. However with the market being what it is, any monies need to be pooled into the “max out credit score/build downpayment” fund rather than the “make bedroom awesome” fund.
Best Buy had a deal for $1500 that was normally worth over 2k. Even if I saved a ton of cash, I’d still spend more than I had to spend at the moment.
It’s funny how the words “SALE”, “CLEARANCE”, and “WILL NOT BE HERE TOMORROW” tug at emotional buying cues.