Ruminations on Black Friday

Amongst our small gathering of the clan here in St. Augustine Beach there were no Black Friday shoppers. That isn’t to say all were against the concept. Out of eight of us, at least one openly admitted that, in years past, she has happily woken up in the wee hours of the morning after Thanksgiving and headed off to the stores with her mom.

“We’d shop til eight or so and then return home for breakfast followed by nap, comforted by having all of Christmas shopping completed.”

This ran counter to what I read yesterday in this article by Stephanie Clifford in The New York Times who reported that “the differences between how affluent and more ordinary Americans shop in the uncertain economy will be on unusually vivid display.”

“Those in a more modest income situation are the people who are going to the Wal-Marts and the Best Buys and the Targets at 8, 9, 10, 11 p.m. with little kids in tow because they can’t afford a baby sitter,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultant firm. “It’s a very unpleasant shopping experience, frankly, for a lot of people.”

I tend to think that income levels don’t necessarily determine whether or not someone enjoys shopping for bargains. For some, the very fact that they’ve learned to be shrewd consumers has become its own path to personal wealth.