In the 1996 blockbuster film Jingle All the Way, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Howard Langston and everybody’s favorite comedian, Sinbad – emphasis on the “bad” – as Myron Larabee, the most sought after toy during the holiday season is Turbo Man.
In the film, Langston battles Larabee for the last of the coveted Turbo Man action figures. Through this battle, they realize that the holiday season is about being thankful for friends and family rather than attaining material objects.
Unfortunately, many have lost sight of the true meaning of the holidays, and instead of experiencing great joy from the end of November through the beginning of the New Year, the spirit of giving tends to cause a great deal of stress – especially during Black Friday.
It seems as if all aspects of life have become increasingly competitive since the “good ole days” of our grandparents. This is evident in sports, school and now even shopping – where the competition revolves around finding the best deals on products ranging from Gucci to the cult favorite, Snuggie.
More than any other day of the year, Black Friday brings out the cutthroat deal hunter in all of us. This cutthroat mentality was highlighted in an incident dating back to 2008, when a Wal-Mart employee in New York was trampled to death after being bowled over by a wave of Black Friday shoppers. And you have to ask yourself, was whatever deal they were having at Wal-Mart worth the life of an innocent employee?
Although that was an extreme example, it calls one to stop and think what life – and more specifically the holidays – are all about.
Recently, Black Friday got a little more interesting, with some stores in the Madison area opening as early as 8 p.m. on Thursday night. The earlier openings caused some to change their Black Friday shopping habits and others to forgo the retail event altogether.
Apparently, as the shoppers have become more competitive, so have the retailers, culminating in a vicious and stress inducing cycle as people feel like they have to get their holiday shopping done earlier and earlier. This is one of those situations where I feel like the guy from the movie 300 and I want to yell from the top of my lungs, “This is madness!” Now, I’m just waiting for a Black Friday shopper to kick me down to the bottom of a deep, dark well and yell back, “This is Black Friday!”
With all of this madness surrounding Black Friday, I think that instead of augmenting the competition by opening stores earlier each year, retailers should dial down Black Friday sales to make the holiday a less stressful time for everyone involved.
Dialing down Black Friday would not involve doing away with Black Friday altogether, but rather making it less of a big deal by extending the period of sales or staggering the sales of different stores. This way, retailers will still make their sales and customers will still be able to get all of the gifts on their lists – in a less chaotic fashion.
I know that there are people who get a rush from the mad scramble for sales and others that just generally love to shop, for God knows what reason, but wouldn’t you rather sleep in and relax with family on your Thanksgiving Break than run around like a nut? As a University of Wisconsin student with such a short Thanksgiving break, I know I would.
The holidays should be about time well spent with family and friends instead of material objects, however cheap they may be. I believe that the stress of Black Friday and just the search for gifts in general can drive many people crazy and cause them to lose sight of the true meaning of the holidays. In times of such chaos, I like to remember the famous proverb which I believe Confucius once said: “Black Friday deals come and go, but friends and family, oh friends and family, they are forever.”
Hayes Cascia ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in marketing.
