I recently thought about getting a part time job; one, because I’d like to have more than $1.75 to my name sometimes, and two, because there is an influx of job openings during the winter season. Businesses are frantically bringing in in new employees to work during the busiest time of year: holiday shopping. Although I need the money, working in a store during the holiday season is a bit intimidating. What was once something joyful and exciting now seems stressful and sometimes dangerous. Yes, dangerous. People go to drastic measures during the shopping season. But for what? Well a new holiday has, in recent years, gained an enormous amount of popularity. That holiday is Black Friday.
Black Friday, by definition, is the Friday after Thanksgiving. Stores have sales, and many people shop for Christmas gifts. “Friday” is in the name, but people still don’t get that because they camp outside of their favorite stores right after their Thanksgiving meals on Thursday.
Stores have the power to reel their customers in like bait on a hook with sales after sales after sales. It seems like every year the sales start sooner, though, which doesn’t make sense because the holiday’s called Black “Friday” for a reason. As soon as the sales begin chaos is unleashed.
I’ve attended the Black Friday sales once. It was a cold winter night, and I went to Walmart at 12 am. Upon arrival though, I wished I had never even left my house. The store was messy, overcrowded, and people in flannel pajamas argued over XBOX games and IPads. It’s funny because less than 12 hours before, people were sitting around a table being thankful for what they had, and now they were crawling on all fours to snatch the last pair of Beats headphones. Needless to say, I never went Black Friday shopping again.
The moral of the story is, one, I think I’ll stick to my peaceful, summer job at the pool, and two, if you ever do find yourself in the bedlam of Black Friday shopping, just remember, keep your eye on the prize, but don’t sight of what the season is all about.