Navigating Black Friday Like a Boss

Over the years I've gotten really good at Black Friday.  Really good.  I get exactly what I was looking for at the prices that I'd like to pay.  I'm sure you want to know my secrets.  I do all my black friday shopping at a grocery store.  They don't have huge sales there.  It's usually really empty.  Especially on friday morning.

I took some time this morning to learn the origins of black friday.  While there are lots of rumors that have to do with slaves being sold at a cheaper price after thanksgiving, this seems to be largely false.  In the 1950's there was a rush of people that would come a day early to Philadelphia for the Army Navy football game held every year the Saturday after thanksgiving.  Police in Philly could not take the day off and had to work long hours working on traffic and crowd control.  Local stores would be flooded with tourists and it would leave them open to some easy shoplifting.  And all the police were tied up there wasn't much that could be done about it.  They began calling this day Black Friday.  Over the years the stores tried to change the name to "Big Friday" but it never stuck.  It wasn't until the 80's that Black Friday became a positive thing when they described the title as turning their profit column from a negative (red) to a positive (black).  The more you know.

I've never understood the logic of black friday shopping.  If you are one of those people that love shopping and just go out to have fun, fantastic.  I'm sure you can find good deals.  But for those going out to specifically save a lot of money on one or two items.  How much money do you have to save for it to be worth it?  $50? $100?  And do you really need the item to begin with?  If you did really need the item, I would assume that has value.  That paying the normal price would be worth it.  So you didn't have to stand outside and wait for hours, your time is worth something too.   I'm not judging, I'm sincerely curious.

I might end up going to Lowes today, or maybe target to get a couple strands of Christmas lights.

Went to Field and Stream on Tuesday and picked up a couple things for deer season.  I got a hard shell gun case that was 50% off and sling for my rifle that was %30 off.  The store was empty.  The majority of the sales had started already.

Is Black friday slowly going away?  I know many stores open up on Thanksgiving day now.  But is the whole Black friday shopping experience falling by the wayside because stores are offering the sales and discounts throughout the whole week?  My guess is they want people coming in anticipating to buy a ridiculous amount of stuff.  More than if you'd casually stop in.

If you do go shopping, have fun.  Don't get trampled.  Be kind to fellow shoppers.  And enjoy your day.  Don't forget about giving tuesday next week as well.