On the day after Thanksgiving one year, I sat in the family room and watched football through closed eyelids. I was bored, so when my wife asked if I'd run out to the store to buy a few supplies, I agreed. I hopped in car and decided Wal-Mart would be the best place to get what we needed.
Yes, there are times when I'm very, very stupid.
I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and immediately heard that screeching soundover from the Psycho movie. I had arrived at Wal-Mart on Black Friday--the busiest shopping day of the year. So successful had I become in treating Black Friday as the Black Plague and avoiding it with the same intensity, that I'd gradually forgotten it existed. Now stunned and disoriented, I was pulled into the store, shuffling like a zombie as I entered The Horror.
I hope I won't make that mistake again, but for millions of people, shopping on Black Friday is considered a good thing. And certainly the retailers consider it a good thing.
In the current issue of Shelf Awareness, Robert Gray (author of the publishing industry blog: Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal) talks about his experience working the sales floor at Northshire Bookstore last Friday. He also discusses the myth surrounding the day--a myth "based on a true story":
You already know the story because it doesn't really change much from year to year: consumer mob scenes, absurd discounts on "limited quantities," stock shortages, crashing superstore Web sites and 24/7 coverage of this peculiar cross between the Oklahoma Land Rush and shark attacks.
And:
On a national scale, Black Friday is always what it pretends to be, influencing consumer behavior the way The Da Vinci Code manipulates religious prejudice by suggesting that it's all "based on a true story."
I like that line about the Da Vinci Code. He's got some other great tidbits:
If you've never faced, from the business end of a cash register, onrushing waves of book/toy/CD/DVD/tchotchke-laden customers, I can say only that it is an amazing sight to behold...
One predictable aspect of Black Friday's litany that never changes at the bookstore is the number of times someone says, "I can't believe I'm shopping today." Black Friday is postmodern consumerism, in that the characters (customers) are not only aware of their role in the plot, but also conveniently provide exegesis...
The art of handselling changes at this time of year. Conversations tend to edge away from "I'm looking for a great read" and move toward "I need a book for my father/mother/brother/uncle, etc." When people buy a book for themselves, they often feel guilty and confess at point of sale. Booksellers conveniently absolve them as part of good customer service.
Read the whole thing...