Friday the Blackening

For ten years and probably more, the relationship between Thanksgiving and the start of the Christmas season. Decorations and good will has turned into hard core shopping.

Thanksgiving/November 2015 started off auspiciously, with several retailers reversing recent trends and stating that Thanksgiving was for friends and family. No hours on Thanksgiving.

Next up were places deciding to offer Black Friday sale prices all month. No, not extending the Christmas shopping season guys! Also color me skeptical that month long prices will rival the ridiculous specials which sell out in seconds.

But it sounds like Black Friday had something of a soft landing this year. Sure, everyone is still doing the Black Friday, Black Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday... but it's not novel. And all the ad campaigns are stretching the dates.

So maybe this is the year where we break with the feeding frenzy and maybe go back somewhat to the "good old days". Not that I have ever gone to shark chummed crowd assaults. Even stuck myself in the hospital to stay away. (grin)

Although... my new complaint is the number of Christmas ads clearly aimed at people buying things for myself.

Dr. Phil