Monday, December 1, 2008

We (At Least Some Of You) Are Strange

TW: The Economist being Brit and all has a fresh perspective on Americanisms. They look upon things like Black Friday with perplexion. I would agree.

From Economist relating a blogger's tale :
"During Thanksgiving lunch with my family, my mom, sister and niece and I decided to drive up to the North Georgia Premium Outlets Thursday night at midnight. We've done early bird shopping on black Friday for years, but kind of spontaneously decided to do the over-night thing saying that it would be an "adventure."... It's about a 45 minute drive, so we left around 11. About half an hour into the drive, we hit traffic. Thinking their must be an accident up ahead or something else going on, we pateintly waited, but the traffic never ended and we didn't arrive at the outlet mall until 12:45. That should have been our sign to turn around, but we were still thinking "adventure" in our heads and we were still in a good mood, so we proceeded to try to find a parking space...We finally found a space and at about 1:30 am, we began shopping.

There were literally lines to get into stores and once inside, the line wove around the store and finally through the register. There was no trying on. No browsing. You just got in the line on the outside of the store, walked through the store in line and picked up the items you wanted and proceeded through the check out. Every store that we wanted to go in, my mom said was too crowded. Sigh.

My feet, legs and back were killing me, but everything in there was 50% off. We ended up getting home around 6 and my sister and niece headed to the mall and Target, but my mom and I opted out. I don't really have "shopping" money right now and my mom was beyond her limit. It was a crazy night and an "adventure" I will not be repeating next year, although the deals were awesome. Not worth it though. Especially when you're not even buying anything."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2008/12/selling_point.cfm

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