Most Un-Mustacian Day of the year?

[Terrestrial]

Brief rant to blow off steam, it might resemble slightly incoherent musings, but I don't really care....is Black Friday the most Un-Mustacian day of the year??

Here I sit on a nice Wednesday, getting ready to spend a wonderful day off tomorrow with my family...and all anybody wants to talk about at work is this godforsaken corporation-manufactured spend-fest.  The marketing for this thing is genius, they took what should be a nice Friday off to spend relaxing with your family and managed to brainwash everybody into believing in this pimping out of the start of the Christmas season, and magically transform people from logical beings into animals who will wait in the freezing cold at 1am for the opportunity to trample each other to be the first one to get to the $7 toaster.   

Ah, I see it gets even better this year!  Friday at midnight is no longer enough.  NOW to get the very greatest deals, it's expected that you shuffle your family dinner around in order to be in line at 4pm on Thanksgiving.  Ah good.  Wouldn't want all that 'spending time with loved ones' and 'being thankful for what we have' to get in the way of saving all that money.  I really wouldn't want to wait another 12 hours for the deal of a lifetime on that toaster.  Even better, I'm giving people working for a little more than minimum wage at Wal-mart/Target/Best Buy etc etc, the opportunity to earn extra money for Xmas by having to come in and work instead of being with their family.  I have half a mind to take note of whatever stores I see engaging in this 5pm on thursday nonsense and actively make efforts to never spend money there again.

Even my dear wife seems to be buying into the brainwashing from some of her family members who think this is a 'great event' and who don't want to be left out of all these miraculous life-changing savings.  It actually amazes me even more that people still do this crap because you can buy almost everything online anyway.  Frankly it's worth it to me to spend a few more bucks on the few things I will be buying for xmas just to avoid this buffoonery.

Counterpoint...perhaps it is the MOST mustacian day of the year because of all these 'great deals' you purportedly get....'saving' you boatloads of money!!! 

Thoughts?

[Beric01]

I think it's a great time to buy any needed items - from the safety of your computer. I refuse to venture into the mess that is Black Friday in the physical sense.

I purchased my current PC monitor 6 years ago on Black Friday - online. It's still a great-quality monitor (1920x1200). I've also had excellent success buying gifts.

The people who go out shopping at 5AM "for the experience" are the anti-Mustachians.

[Terrestrial]

Beric - Agree on the online shopping.  I have no problem taking advantage of online deals, I do most of my large item buying online anyway.

I was more referring to the clown-like behavior that goes on at the physical stores.   

[ketchup]

I've done some online grabs in the past, but there's nothing I need this year.

Now that I think about it, we got our barbell + plates on Black Friday last year.  Our roommates (couple) spent about the same amount of money we did, but on a TV.  Different values.

This is how I think of Black Friday now:

[Eric]

[Glenstache]

Black Friday is the logical end result of a consumer holiday in an consumer-driven culture. It is the 4th of July of consumption. While the "good deals" may be in some ways exploited by mustachians, the orgy of mindless purchasing is decidedly anti-mustachian. Though, to be honest I would put 12/25 as the most un-mustachian day of the year based on they way it is typically celebrated in this country (the religious context is effectively a separate/parallel entity). The whole carnival kind of mystifies me.

There are some points of light out there though. One of my favorite local bike shops, Woodinville Bicycle, closes up shop on Black Friday and hosts a group ride instead. 

[sky_northern]

As a Canadian I just learnt about Black Friday last year as it's transferring over to us, which makes no sense to me at all. I don't participate and I cringe at every mention of Black Friday. The cyber Monday thing I might be more open to but really, we don't need more excuses to buy crap and I've never really noticed any extremely good deals.

I still don't understand why American Thanksgiving is on a Thursday, but that is a whole other line of discussion.

[Goldielocks]

Nope, it is a thoroughly planned, researched purchase... Which is how I found out it was not a great deal, to replace my old PC.  Will check again at boxing day.

Most anti-m day is valentines.   Obligatory mushy present or overpriced dinner out with bad food to say I love you.  A holiday where you have to pretend that price does not matter for someone you love.  The recipient has to pretend the cheesy package on that box of chocolates is the prettiest she has ever seen.  Ugh.

If you love me, just vacuum the house for me...  Say that you appreciate me. Or just ...  Have coffee together....

[Baron235]

As a Canadian I just learnt about Black Friday last year as it's transferring over to us, which makes no sense to me at all. I don't participate and I cringe at every mention of Black Friday. The cyber Monday thing I might be more open to but really, we don't need more excuses to buy crap and I've never really noticed any extremely good deals.

I still don't understand why American Thanksgiving is on a Thursday, but that is a whole other line of discussion.

Canada already has their black Friday right? Boxing Day?

[serious_pete]

Black Friday has for some reason crept across to the uk, even though thanksgiving hasn't. I used the amazon sale to buy my Christmas presents

[MrsK]

All holidays are being ruined by consumerism.  Halloween--must buy sexy costumes and go out or decorate your entire house, etc.  Valentines Day--yuck, let's market romance.  Christmas has been basically destroyed and now Thanksgiving. 

The most radical thing you can do is to find a way to celebrate without participating in the consumer culture.  We had a lovely Thanksgiving.  We spent the day cooking all the traditional foods and going for a bike ride.  We had a fire and played cards.  Then we did most of it over again on Friday minus the cooking and enjoying the left overs. 

IMHO, gift giving is the silliest part of xmas.  No idea why this is the focus for so many people.  My gift is enjoying the day with special food and people.

[Artemis67]

I have a special loathing for Valentine's Day consumerist hype. I don't want roses, don't want cheap candy in an ugly box, don't want the same trendy piece of jewelry the ads insist every woman wants. Getting dressed up to go to a fancy restaurant and eat overpriced food on one of the busiest nights of the year? Just shoot me. And I've known too many women who insist on getting all or most of those things on V-Day, and yeah, I judge them and judge hard.

Black Friday is bad, but at least all those shoppers enter the fray with the idea (however erroneous it may be) that they will save money. They may not need all that crap, but at least they aren't paying full retail for it. V-Day, on the other hand, is a full-retail holiday, calculated to be expensive because men are the shoppers, they are buying things they normally don't, and there's a lot of pressure to not be "cheap." If women were expected to fully reciprocate in V-Day gift-giving? There'd be blowout Valentine's Day sales galore, starting the day after Christmas.

[Dr. A]

I think the day I became certain I'd marry my now-wife was the one where she, unprompted, said to me, "Ugh, Valentine's Day... what a bullshit holiday." I show my appreciation for her by going out on 2/15 and buying a pile of candy at 75% off... Usually lasts us until the day after Easter.

For me, one of the weird parts of the Black Friday nonsense is that a lot of people use it as a bonding experience. I know more than one family where grandma, mom and daughters look forward to planning out their route, getting up in the middle of the night and spending the whole morning together at what they see as a kind of family sporting event. It's like, it's ince that they put effort into spending time together, but also wish it were directed toward something less horrible.

[Bob W]

Take if for what it is -- either a give-a-way for the smart or another way to fleece the unconscious masses.

Last year I scored two very nice kayaks at Menards for $150 a piece.  This included car top carriers and nice paddles.   We use them a lot and the set up would have cost about $300-400 a piece for a similar deal.  So we bought them for a 300-400 dollar discount! 

We could sell them at anytime in the future for $200-250.  So yeah,  for us it is very mustachian. 

Didn't step foot in a store this Black Friday.  Didn't have anything on the list. 

My nephew scores 50 poinsettia plants every year for 50 cents a piece.  It is his only xmas decoration.   Uses them till spring and then tosses them.  Cheap thrills.   

[Cromacster]

While I realize there are deals to be had on Black Friday, but most of these items seem to be more impulse purchases.  Or most of the "deals" you get are items that are fairly low quality to begin with. I have been monitoring prices on a few items for quite some time.  They didn't drop at all in price, even though they were advertised under the cyber Monday sales.

As most have pointed out here and everyone else should know, marketers have completely won on this day.  Nothing is really on sale.  The items that are reduced significantly in price are cheap quality products to begin with.

[Mesmoiselle]

I once was working at a best buy in the weeks preceding black Friday. I saw them take regular stuff off the shelf, put it in the walkway, and smack a sale sticker on it with the exact same price before this little move.

It's all a scam. Know how I saved hundreds of dollars this Black Friday? By buying absolutely nothing.