My original intention was to write this piece the Saturday (November 26th) after Black Friday, 2011 but damn, I was having sucha good time on my Thanksgiving vacation that I thought to myself "Eh, it can wait." Yet on my FB wall during that same time period, I came across more than a coupla posts heavily condemning America regarding the annual retail season gauging frenzy that takes place every year on the day after Thanksgiving, hence the nickname "Black Friday." In fact, I noticed a great deal of such criticism coming from our neighbor to the north, Canada. Now I love all my friends in Canada and the country itself but I thought to myself "Now waita second, America is NOT the only country that goes through this annual indicative milestone of the holiday shopping season, the rest of y'all do it too so knock it off with the finger-pointing, thank you very much!" Why the nerve.
In other words, Canada, dont be making America out to be the bad guy on any of this retail crap because not only are you Canadians guilty on this count too but so are your mother countries of France and Great Britain as well as practically every other nation that is part of Western civilization as we know it. Guess it goes to show you that in every family, even amongst nations, there is always someone pissin-n-moanin about something. Pffft.
Anywho, I have not gone Black Friday shopping in about a good 15 years or so but I decided to go this year because I was staying with friends in the Ashland and Framingam areas of Massachusetts and lemme tell you, I may have only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before but mannnnnn, I had sucha blast! It was great, it was fun and I hadda sucha good time! I really did.
I'm not saying that because I love go to shopping either, though I'm sure that being totally kewl with shopping did prevent me from having some of the shopping aisle-rage that plagues alotta shoppers on sucha momentous retail-day as Black Friday. The crowds, nor the traffic jams, nor the long lines didnt upset me in the least.
I've said this every day of my life since I moved to the Boston area back in '95 and I'll probaly say it till the day I die - Boston and its suburbs are some of THE BEST places to shop on the entire planet, both during the holiday season and off-season. The variety of stores, the selections of items and the competitive prices - you just cant beat that. With the exception of NYC, other great shopping meccas such as Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis and Denver just dont impress me. Y'all are great but you just aint home on any of this.
As to where I went for Black Friday this year, my friends and I mainly stuck with the Shoppers World shopping plaza in the Framingham-Natick area, as well as the various stores on both Route 9 and Route 30. As I previously mentioned in one of my Facebook posts, I'm not gonna be able to afford much for Christmas this year so I mainly went window-shopping for myself for some badly needed clothes and for my Gram's Christmas gift (come hell or high water, I always get that Dear Lady something for Christmas, no matter how bad or good things are financially for me at that time of year) and l gotta admit, it was a lot of fun - the throngs of people scurrying all over the place, the silly melodramatic scenes of people panicking over locating and purchasing this-or-that item(s), the joking around and laughing heard everywhere, the pretty Christmas lights, the endless supply of fresh coffee being sold (or in some cases, handed out free) on every shopping alcove and quite frankly, just the rush of it all. If you like that kinda thing like I do, then it's the ticket, that's for sure.
In addition, I do have a coupla awards to give out regarding that day....the Best Store with the Best Front Door Customer Reception? That award would have to go to HomeGoods on Route 30 in Framingham. Omfg! Get this - upon walking across the threshold of the store we were greeted by an employee who offered us standard-sized cups of freshly made Dunkin Donuts coffee (none of those puny styro-foam sized cups), fresh, full-sized Dunkin Donuts donuts(which I avoided due to the diabetes, but still) AND a free semi-vinyl shopping bag available in 2 different designs - one with the store logo on it and the other in a bright pink color with a golden crown on it with the words "I'm a Chocoholic - Finding Happiness One Bite At A Time!" emblazoned upon it. Needless to say, the bag was truly fit for a Queen! Now I know some folks arent the least bit impressed with stuff like this but for a kid that grew up poor in the Midwest, walking into that store was like celebrating the Christmas spirit a whole month in-advance. It was really nice.
The Best Deal I came across was going into a store called "Five Below" on Route 9 and buying something that was not clothes, nor for my Gram, but rather something on my secret Christmas wish-list. I bought, for only $5 exactly a piece, the following films on dvd, "Twillight," "Twilight: New Moon" and "Twilight: Eclipse!!!" - all 3 films in limited edition formats! Yes!!!! Now I have all the "Twilight" films made prior to the one currently out in theaters, "Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 1" and I couldnt be any happier about this than some fat kid eating a piece of cake! The rest of my private wishlist consists of ALL the soundtracks to each of the Twilight films and ALL of the books that each of the films were based on. Give me those, one good-loving man and a bottle of Bleu de Chanel and my Christmas wish-list will be complete!
So all in all, I did have a wonderful Black Friday experience and with the exceptions of the blatant overcommercialism and retail hyperole, I think that day is just like any other day and/or event of the year - it's totally what you make of it. All I wanted to do was just relax, hang out with my friends and maybe find a great deal or two if possible and I not only did one of those things, but I did all of them and all on Black Friday. Will I go out again on that most heralded of holiday shopping extravaganzas? Perhaps if its with friends again or if there's an item that I want really really bad for gift-giving or for myself (hey, better to be honest than lie!), but either way, I think it'll all depend on how I feel about it at the time. So whether you do or dont go out on Black Friday, I dont think it's as much of a crisis-period as the media and folks in general make it out to be, I think it all depends on how you look at it. Thank you for reading.
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