Grey Area Thursday

               This holiday season, Black Fridays has changed drastically for the majority of franchised stores across America. I have a very big problem with this though.  Black Friday, a time when buying all you can for what you believe is “Lower Pricing,” who wouldn’t love that? Unfortunately this holiday season has changed drastically. There are two BIG things that have changed for this black Friday. First, is that it now starts anywhere from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. The second big change that has occurred is at the super-center store Wal-Mart, and maybe other stores I just didn’t see it advertised, but at Wal-Mart they have now created the number system.

                The first change is the timing of the new what I like to call “grey Thursday.” This basically means that on Thanksgiving, there is a grey area in which stores can now start “Black Friday.” I personally feel like this is insane! They have officially cut a holiday and replaced it with a fully fake made up holiday. Now I understand that some people don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, and that is totally fantastic, but for those that do, having dinner cut in half because you want to participate in the deals that are going on is ridiculous. This past black Friday, I was watching the news and found out that 40% of the annual profits big stores like Wal-Mart and Target happen on Black Fridays. How crazy is that! That fact of the matter is that, even sticking to regular Fridays, these stores were making a huge profit, what’s the new reason for starting so darn early?

                The second change that has happened is that now, you have to take a number on their “big ticket items” and wait for it in line. Now, that’s great for not having any injuries… but is truly unfair. Basically how this new system works is, at anytime you can pick a number. But once you have that number, you cannot leave that item’s line (unless you need to use the restroom then you have a 10 minutes bathroom break. But you are not allowed to shop, or get in any other “Big Ticket Items” line. This I find truly insane, because there were a good 14 items on that list. That means that there are 15 items you can’t have because you have to stay in your line and not leave until you got that item. For me, I really wanted to get a TV and a laptop for my mom, I went to the TV line and without realizing it I took a number, the person then escorted me into the line and I said, oh wait, I want to continue shopping I just wanted to grab a number, but that was against the rules.

                Now, while some of these new changes have really cut back on injury or harm.  In the end I feel like these new regulations and changes are only going to hurt in the long run. With big savings you will always get people to shop, but in the end, is forcing them to go earlier and leave their holiday and family alone a great idea? I personally think that the time should stay to 12:00A.M.  But I do like the number system, so long as I’m still allowed to shop and get other numbers.