WHAT COLOR WAS YOUR FRIDAY

BLACK FRIDAY: What color was your Friday, the day after Thanksgiving? Why do they call it black Friday? Don't know? Well, then I'll enlighten you. It is the day that merchants hope to turn their red ink black for the year. They hope to get enough shoppers in their places of business, buying items that they have put on sale, and that enough money will enter the business coffers, to turn that business into a profitable business for the current year. Whew. Stop for breath here. So, they put their wares on sale, hoping that people will buy. And they do. One news report said there was 9000 people camped out waiting to get into Macy's in new york city. OK let's try that again. NEW YORK CITY. That is about how many people are in the city close to where I live, with a few dogs and cats thrown in, perhaps. Too many people for this old country kid. At least crowded into one place at a time. Is there actually that many bargains in one store at one time for that many people to all buy something to turn Macy's red ink black. Must be, or they wouldn't be there shopping. MLWFAE and I went to a neighboring small city in a neighboring State here in the southwest and bought a piece of furniture. It was regularly priced at over $400.00 but was on sale for $399.00. However, for black Friday they took off an additional 15%, thus costing us $340.00 for a furniture piece that was originally priced at over $100 more than that. Now! if this store, ( and all others like them ) can price item's like this and get their red ink to turn to black, wouldn't it make more business sense to price things like that all year long, and have people buying all year long, and keep the ink black all year long and not have to worry about the crush at this time of year. Just saying. And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK.

View From The Ditch Bank

BLACK FRIDAY: Did you survive it? How about Cyber Monday. Now, I don't have a problem with either of those days, on a personal note. I don't participate in them as a lot of people do. I do wonder, though,about a couple or three of things. One of those things is, What is so important in a store, that would warrant camping out, in cold to freezing weather, for a day or more prior to Thanksgiving, just to be the first one in a store to buy something. And how about Cyber Monday. I heard that many people shop on line on that day, from work. Ummm, Uh! aren't these people supposed to be at work. Being paid by an employer to do work for said employer. On said employer's computer. Do employer's condone employees using company computers to shop online during business hours? I wouldn't, but then I'm old and old fashioned. Still, a days work for a days pay should be the mantra. And I wonder how many spend money they don't have, to buy things they don't need, to impress people they probably don't even like. And then spend most of the following year paying off the credit cards or store charge accounts. For said unneeded items. Well, maybe this year, not so much. I heard a tic ( that's a politician, for any who may be new to this blog ) say on the news a few days back, that the economy wasn't rebounding because the American people weren't spending money. Well, Duh! A lot of them are out of a job and don't have any money. Many that do have a job, are concerned that they might not have a job for long, so they are saving money. And the tic wanted those people to spend their money and not save it. Guess when you are a tic, you have enough money that you just don't understand that most Americans just don't have the spendable income that they do. Course, most of what they spend is the tax payers money any way. Maybe, when, and I'm optimistic enough to say when, the economy rebounds, people will spend money throughout the year, and businesses won't have to depend on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Then people can visit family on Thanksgiving day and employees can actually work and not shop on Cyber Monday. Yeah! in a perfect world. We could only hope. And That's the View From The Ditch Bank.