Rant Bum Harbug (AKA the ANTI-xmas thread)

i actually agree with you in theory its nice to receive and to give and also have a day to get together, but, i was in town this weekend and every shop was up to the hilt in stuff and of course your expected to pay a certain amount for things and everyone should get something (not just the people you really care about).

and the thing that gets me is this all starts in October now as companies know what a massive cash cow christmas is. we should all go back to getting each other simple things instead of useless tat. i for one am very impressed with families who are confident enough to ignore chriatmas and have a family celebration in January (during the sales)

however i know that probably like many fmailies here we all know someone that would eb deeply offended if we were to move christmas.

 

The joys of following the religion of not believing in religion really come to light at this time of year.

 

damn that superstore! damn them to hell! I havent shopped there in years, they turned me away buying a PS2 game once because I looked too young ...

 

Over here they refer to the day after Thanksgiving as "Black Friday". That's partially because EVERYONE goes to the malls to do their Christmas shopping, starting about 430 in the morning, but also for another reason. You see, it's generally firgured that most retailers operate at a loss all year and then only become profitable, or move into the black, at the start of the Christmas season. What's really absurd is that my G/F was doing her xmas shopping yesterday and said there was already Valentines Day stuff out on display

 

My sister and her boyfriend just bought their Valentine present for each other, a new house (gorgeous house mind), completes on February 14th

 

As I've said in another thread, the idea of the Friday after Thanksgiving being the busiest shopping day of the year is, up until recently, largely false. While it is often one of the busiest days in terms of foot traffic, accounting records show that it typically runs between 5th and 10th place in terms of actual sales volume.

The idea that the name "Black Friday" emerged because retailers only begin to earn profit at this time of year also has been proven false.

Many people complain about the evil corporations and their desire to commercialize the holidays, but I think a parallel my be drawn between this idea and illegal immigration. Immigrants come because businesses are willing to employ them. Likewise, the big bad corporations wouldn't be able to commercialize Christmas if the general public weren't so willing to buy up the merchandise. Supply and demand, right? In recent years, Black Friday has risen in the rankings as the biggest shopping day of the year, but I think part of this is due to media hype. I think people go out at 4:00 AM on that day because the media tells them they must.

-monkey

 

Heh, quite a valentine's gift tbh, shame the rest of us can't stretch that far every year!