Here Comes Black Friday, Again

Earlier today, my husband and I were discussing the origin and meaning of the term, "Black Friday". He said he has heard this term since his childhood, while I thought it was a far more recent phenomenon. Personally, I associate the term more with stock market crashes than store and market rushes. I also thought that the Friday after Thanksgiving might be labeled so since retailers tend to use it as a yardstick of how successful the Christmas shopping season will be. According to Wikipedia, we were both right on each count.

According to that online encyclopedia, the use of the term Black Friday dates back to around 1966, just as my husband thought. It has been used much more frequently over the last decade, however. Also, the term was used to describe a stock market crash, back in 1869. It is referenced as the heaviest shopping day of the year, although Wikipedia states that this is not necessarily so, at least according to SEC data. Many retailers still declare it the day they begin making their profits for the year, however.

When it comes to capitalists, money and the consumer, there is never enough propaganda to go around, it seems. In their yearly quest to post the biggest profits ever, hawkers of all manner of widgets and gizmos do their darndest to make us believe that without these things they sell, our lives are nothing more than empty shells. They use sales, price reductions, psychology and, when all else fails, guilt toward this end. Watch the news reports on Saturday and just see if they don't whine interminably about how their sales did not meet their projections. And why didn't they? Because you, the selfish consumer, refused to buy their useless thingamajigs so they could have themselves a merry little Christmas. For shame!

Am I being too hard on them? I don't think so. Think about the stupidity of a system that relies so heavily on the last five or six weeks of the year to make the bulk of one's profits. What do these merchandisers do for the previous ten-and-a-half months of the year? Well, they do make money, of course. But they still feel the need to make the working Joes and Janes feel small when they don't mortgage the house in order to splurge on Christmas gifts. Anyway, who ever decided that basing 70% of any economy on consumer spending is a rational idea?

If you're like most people, the recession has tapped out your resources and you're not planning to go on any Christmas spending sprees. Stand your ground, and don't let the profit makers make you feel guilty. Remember the basic tenet of capitalism: If they are unable to make a profit in a competitive environment, the government will bail them out. There, now don't you feel better?

Retailers Using Psychology to Boost Christmas Sales

This year, it seems as if stores have decked their malls earlier than ever. Immediately after the first frost, Christmas decorations bloomed at various retailers, nearly squeezing out the Halloween wares. Could it be that merchants, always concerned with the state of the consumer's psyche, are just trying to cheer us up during this deep, dark recession? Alas, no. Apparently, they are trying to "psych" us out in an effort to persuade us to spend those last few pennies on Christmas purchases even as the economy continues to spiral downwards.

An article by Associated Press writer Anne D'Innocenzio describes this marketing strategy. Last year's dismal year-end sales have spawned a new marketing campaign to revive holiday spending: Retro-Christmas. Well, that's what I call it, anyway. Retailers are bringing back memories of Christmas of yore in order to get us to spend more (I'm waxing poetic). Nostalgia sells, as merchants well know. Therefore, it's out with the new and in with the old: Gingerbread houses, classic glass tree ornaments and tartan plaid everywhere you look. This is their plan to make us spend money we don't have. Brilliant!

Actually, I find this all a bit insulting. Unemployment is closing in at 10%, one-third of those applying for loans are getting refused and the U.S. income gap is widening every day. These are undeniable facts, yet these marketing geniuses seem to think that most of us will just throw caution to the wind and stock up on useless do-dads to put under the tree. Perhaps they haven't noticed that consumers have been steadily cutting back on debt and the use of credit cards, two behaviors that bode ill for retailers at Christmas time. More likely, they have noticed and hope to reverse that trend despite the sad fact that there won't be any more money in consumers' wallets come January, when these type of bills come due.

The article quotes a "professor of consumer psychology" at San Fransisco's Golden Gate University as saying, "Nostalgia is a way for people to feel safe". Well, maybe it does if you have a nice cushy academic job teaching "consumer psychology", whatever that is. For the rest of us, however, it's a bit less academic and more real-world. People who are unemployed and can't pay their bills aren't going to be conned into spending funds they don't have simply by walking by a display of pine cones and dripping tinsel. What we really need is Santa to bring us the sort of bonus our government gave the big guys around this time last year. Let's see...$787 billion divided amongst 200 million households... Ho Ho Ho! Now there's a Merry Christmas!