A Black Friday Goodbye letter to retailers

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Dear Black Friday and retailers, (and yes, I am looking straight at you; Toys R Us, Target, Wal-mart, et al.)

Black Friday, this is where we end.

I have decided to not Black Friday this year, and it is because of your tactics of opening earlier and earlier for Black Friday, when it is still clearly Thanksgiving Thursday that has left me no choice but to decide who is going to win my time, and you all lose.

For the 20 years of my being a mother, I have participated in Black Friday. For the years before then as a daughter, I participated with my mom. For the past 2 years, my own daughters have been along in the what at one time was a family tradition but now is just a fight to stay alive. And I mean that most seriously, as the ‘insane low prices’ your ads often speak of for what really is cheap toys from China and refurbished and repacked electronics that are really just crap have left people dead. In case you need a reminder: https://www.ranker.com/list/13-most-brutal-black-friday-injuries-and-deaths/john-barryman

Instead this year, I will support Small Business Saturday https://smallbusinesssaturday.com/ in my area and tell my friends elsewhere to do the same. Of course I will do mostly all Internet shopping, because I refuse to spend almost $4.00 per gallon of gas to drive around looking when coupon codes and sales can get me better discounts than the stores, plus free delivery right to my door.

Because my children are older, and because I have lost many family and friends in the recent years, I think traditions are important, so I mourn the loss of what once was. But I also recognize that time together with those we care about is precious. Thanksgiving day, on THURSDAY, is the one day that we can all be together without interruptions. I will not leave my family to come line up with the hundreds of others in hopes to snag an $80 Kindle that the store only has 15 of or any other anything that I can find elsewhere. We don’t even eat until 6:00 p.m., or so, and I am most certainly NOT going to miss out on dessert…so, this is where we part ways, Black Friday. It just looks as if we have grown apart. I can’t stand Big Box Retailers, I want more time with my family and friends. You want to lure me in with things I most likely will take back anyway and buy something better (ooh..was that your secret all along?!) as well as take my time.  Time stops for no one, even you, Black Friday. It is about time I learned my own was more precious than you.

Sincerely,
A Former Black Friday Junkie