After the summer, fall and winter comes another first. Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Thanksgiving:
If the roasted pig takes center stage on the dinner table in the Philippines during holidays, here in the US it is the roasted turkey that get the spotlight. Oh well it doesn't taste as good as the squealer, but I like the way it is presented on the table. And like Tracey's mom, my mother love cooking too, and yesterday she buried herself in the kitchen whipping different pies and other dessert aside from cooking three more supporting dishes to go with the holiday star.
Yeah, yeah. I over ate as I just throw caution in the wind and stopped counting the quantities. But at least this put a smile in my mom's face!
But the true meaning of this holiday they say is to be able to give thanks for all the blessings that came our way. I could not count mine for there were so many.
And that alone is a lot to be thankful for. Amen.
Black Friday:
This day like it's predecessor gets plenty of news coverage. For days television and print media is bombarded with ads about these big deals that stores are offering. Door busters? What's that?
Okay I get it. I have to be standing in line in the cold to be among the first to get in the store to avail of those knockout deals.
Knock out and busted. Yeah right!
I don't see the logic why stores have to open their doors at such goofy hours as 3am! Getting up the day after Thanksgiving at some ungodly hour can be very brutal especially if the temperature outside is 12 degrees F. So me, Linda and Frank decided not to sleep at all by playing Chinese madjong till three in the morning. I don't know if it was a right decision, because I wasn't feeling uppity going around the stores with eyes half closed.
I am not a super shopper by any stretch of the imagination but I do like to save money. And besides I just wanted to see first hand what's the fuss about and why is there so much frenzy about this day. Also Ken was generous enough to give me shopping money(yay!), but put his foot down about going with me. Good decision.
I did not buy any of the "door busters" items as you can see from the photos above. What I got are just ordinary things which I need in the house but are sold by a few dollars less than their original price. So is going shopping at dawn in freezing temperature worth it? NO!
Now I can say that Black Friday is a modern day treasure hunt. It is the one day where ordinary shopping become a competition. So, never again.
11 comments:
Because our harvest is generally earlier we have our Thanksgiving a month sooner. For Canada it was last month.
I was once on vacation in New Hampshire on the American Thanksgiving and Black Friday and by chance we happened to be in a factory outlet town. Unbeliveable deals the town we were in had the outlet for L.L.Bean
Well at least you had a nice day! Congratulations in staying awake for so long!! xxx
First of all...I know that your idea of "over eating" really means you added one more teaspoon of mashed potatoes and two more sting beans to your plate so save your dinner table "war stories". lol If it wasn't Turkey Day, it would've been one more teaspoon of rice and one more fish eye.
As far as Black Friday...here's your first mistake...STOP BELIEVING EVERYTHING YOU SEE AND HEAR ABOUT "Door Buster" SALES YOU GOOF!!!! lol
It's all a big scam. It's hard to belive but some people here are actually mentally ill enough to literally camp out in tents in front of the store for almost week before Black Friday. But, for all their insanity, they know how the scam works.
Every single item on sale at "Door Buster" prices would've been on sale for the rest of the year until x-mas anyway. Most are discontinued items but, either way they all need to be moved off the shelf to make room for next year's inventory. The stores use the Black Friday hype to their advantage.
They only put a select few "killer deals" here and there throughout the store knowing damn well people will come pouring in like a herd of angry buffalo, tripping over themselves (and literally trample others to death sometimes) just to snatch them up. Where the stores make their real money is off of the people too stupid to realize that only the first 15 to 20 people through the door (hence all the psychos camping out) will actually get any of those big ticket items at great prices. They know that all these "unlucky" suckers...errrrrr...shoppers will wonder thoughout the entire store, clinging to one last shred of hope of finding a great sale. On their way around, they'll pick up tons of other items at a store they might not have even come into for another week or two (DAMN Judy, I hope you didn't fall for that lol).
ONLY IN AMERICA BABY!!!
As for Ken...SMART MAN!!! Good thinking dude!!!
This whole thing was probably thought up by a big business think tank sworn to secrecy to conduct black budget psy-ops to control our minds and take over the world. ;)
Marketers from all over are paid ungodly amounts of money to meet somewhere, all expenses (and "massages" with happy endings) paid to sit on their asses for a week and invent scams like these. Wait...WTF...where can I get a job like that? :(
AA,
yeah i am aware of all that, but i want to see for myself how americans go crazy on this day. somehow the atmospeher yesterday was subdued - no elbowing, no long lines,no running. i even took my camera with me but wasn't able to use it. i just dreaded the cold and i wish i was in bed digesting my thanksgiving meal.
xoxoxo
The reason why it was so subdued there is because you live in a farm state. 99.999% of MN is nothing but corn fields. Those simpleton farmers wouldn't know how to get excited if I poured gasoline on their ass and lit them on fire. I'm not exaggerating either...it's true.
You keep forgetting that MN is nothing like the rest of America and the people there are nothing like 90% of Americans. To most of the people in MN, the most "exciting" thing that might ever happen to them in one year would consist of having a flat tire on a highway in the middle of miles of corn fields with no help in site for about 1/2 hour. If you were anywhere here in my state or most other states, you would've seen what a real Black Friday looks like. Come to one of our ghettos and you'd have seen people and things you wish you hadn't. Remember all those "People of Walmart" emails I keep sending you? lol
For the rest of the year and usually on new years day, people are going to be in a big hurry for no reason. They're gonna be driving around like maniacs and cutting you off in the parking lots just to get a "closer spot" to hurry in and get "great sales" that don't even exist. Even at the risk of smashing into you or your car. It happened to me years ago and I learned my lesson about going shopping during the Christmas shopping season.
An idiot cut me off on an ice slicked parking lot, bounced off my car and the back of his car hit a woman and knocked her flat on her back like a bowling ball hitting a pin. He broke her leg but she tried to sue !!!ME!!! as well for that guy's screw up. That's what pissed me of the most about the whole incident. I didn't even care about the fact the money I got from his insurance didn't come close to what it would've cost to have my car's damages fixed. I just cashed the check, went to a junk yard for parts and did the work myself. This is what you have to look forward to for the rest of the year in most states America.
If you go shopping early in the morning, you'll be playing "bumper cars" with the old farts who can't see past their knuckles. If you go out after about 3pm, you'll be dealing mostly with moms hyped up on coffee and their 3 to 6 out of control little mongrels hyped up on sugar screaming and running around. I'm not sure how bad it gets in MN but, if you don't absolutely NEED something at shopping malls or major retail/department stores like WallyMart or Best Buy...STAY HOME!!!!
The few bucks you'll save aren't worth the aggravation of driving in circles for an hour trying to find a spot in packed parking lots or the risk of traffic accidents caused by retards who don't know how to drive even during normal shopping and weather conditions.
Just a friendly warning :D
Mimi,
AA had an impression that MN is nothing but "duke of hazard" country. we have gravel roads that leads to our farm. and our county roads are almost always deserted. but that's the very reason i warm up to this place. i have lived in a chaotic city far too long that the peace and quiet that the country life offers is a big relief. and yes the people here are very sweet and friendly.
AA,
you are in that mood again! breathe slowly, (inhale,exhale,inhale...) while listening to soft music.
xoxoxo
Judy: "AA had an impression that MN is nothing but "duke of hazard" country."
Hmmm....an impression or a realistic comparison based on 42 years worth of experiences from different cities in america?
Mimi: "Minnesota is also home to some of the country's finest malls and sophisticated cities and people. AA may not know that, but I am sure that you do."
Hmmm again...I don't know what part of Minnesota you visited Mimi but, it sure wasn't all the cities I visited and shopped and dined in.
Considering the fact that 90% of Minnesota's main highways from the northern border to the southern border and everywhere in between have almost zero street lights and zero drainage systems then yeah...I'd say that state is pretty high tech.
Considering the majority of those sophisticated people who live in a majority of those "sophisticated" cities have never even heard of national banks like Charter One, Chase, or even National City Bank (now PNC bank) then no...they're not simpletons at all.
Considering that AT&T, america's largest telecommunications company has almost no outlet stores in most of MN malls and almost zero signal (which is why I was forced to spent a ton of money on Verizon, a company who rips you off big time) then yeah...the malls are pretty modern.
Considering most of those "modern malls" have a store with Walmart, Payless Shoes, and a couple other stores under one roof, but only 1/10th of each store's stock then yeah...that's pretty modern.
It's bad enough when you can't find what you need, or the size you need when you go to each of those stores separately. But, when a vast majority of their items aren't even socked within those "all-in-one" stores? I'd never waste my time in a primitive, useless store like that again if they paid me.
I wouldn't find what I want anyway. Ohio was once a major farm state too but, the only cities in OH that have "modern malls" set up like that are the boon dock cities where some houses (shacks) have no electricity and/or no plumbing.
The whole time I was in MN, and the more I saw of the state's cities and people, all I could think of was the list of Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if..." jokes. It's funny how a modern, sophisticated state like MN can remind me of the toothless hill billy, mullet wearing red neck states like Kentucky or West Virginia.
I had mentioned the "People of Walmart" emails in one my other comments. Well, remember the nasty looking people who don't know how to dress that we were disgusted by in the restaurants Odette? Those !!!ARE!!! the people of Walmart right in your own back yard. lol
A majority of Ohio's white trash/trailer park trash population come from Kentucky and West Virginia. I hardly heard any southern accents while I was in MN and I can't imagine how tiny any MN ghettos (if there are any) might be anyway so, what's Minnesota's excuse?
AA.
i don't think people here are dressed like "hillbillys", whatever they might be. majority of people here are farmers but they take pride of their community and city. there are no crimes and people genuinely care about each other. also they don't need big banks as they feel safe just keeping their money wherever they want to put it.
If Ohio is better, then stay there.
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