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Boycott Black Friday

I hate Black Friday, always have and can't foresee a time when I don't. I mean that number one shopping day, the day after Thanksgiving. This is because I've been in retail and worked it, but fortunately I never worked at a store (as a salesperson) that really did well out of it--people aren't buying fabric on Black Friday.

But now someone has died, and quite frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. And the real horror isn't that this young man was accidentally trampled, but the fact that the shoppers became ANGRY when they were told that they had to leave. I can't even imagine--"Sorry, you died because somebody needed that big screen TV at Walmart prices."

I remember when I was working in visual merchandising and I was decorating a Christmas swag on Columbus Day (and before you wonder why stores have to decorate for Christmas before Halloween, let me remind you that our Macy's put up 52 Christmas Trees and 30 swags, plus numerous other decorations and displays--thank you to all of the shoppers who felt it was OK to come and insult us as we stood teetering on ladders--but that's a rant for another day) and the store was opening at noon. I was on a ladder near a mall entrance and for an hour before we opened I watched a crowd gather--faces pressed against the glass, as if they were starving and we were the only food.

And I thought, "I have to get off this ladder and have it packed away before that door opens or I am going to be knocked off."

Visual didn't even work the day after Thanksgiving--there was no point. We'd have spent our day directing traffic.

I also remember times when the power went out--both at House of Fabrics and at Macy's when people didn't want to leave--claimed they could keep shopping in the dark, even though we couldn't have rung them up. What is this madness?

And now you have stores opening at 4 AM, and shoppers waiting in line over Thanksgiving night all for some lottery on the lowest prices. Will this tragedy cause laws to be enacted like after the concert tramplings in the 70's?

My husband and I boycott Black Friday--we always have. We see no reason to go out at all, even if someone had $5 big screen TVs and $1 Wii's. We don't get groceries. We don't go to a movie. The only time I can remember going out was when we had just gotten our dog Guinness and we had to go to the vet.

I urge you and your family to do the same next year--stay home and be with your family instead of shopping for things.
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