Whew! It’s Monday, and the extended Thanksgiving weekend is now but a Facebook upload of blurred photos of turkey, although our waistlines may take a little longer to recover from all that pumpkin pie. I haven’t even but put away my Cuisenart mixer, and it’s time to dust off the psychadelic tree my crazy sister gave me for my Birthday 2 years ago.
Last Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) is traditionally known as “Black Friday” in the US, for it is the start of the shopping season – the so-called horn of the hunting season. ”Black” because it is when stores go from hanging out in the red (accounts speaking-wise) into the black (i.e. making a profit.) He he he – like we are to believe Apple stores don’t make money year round! Like most opportunists in this great nation of ours, Commercial America makes a big deal of the day. Some open a minute after midnight to encourage the spree. Others set up camp for those willing to brave a night in the carpark, for what the stores like to call “doorbusters”. These offers are streaked across the newspapers that week in black and white, so you can be strategic and pick your slaughtering ground. Electronics stole this show this year, in almost all the “Early birds”. The catch is that you have to face up against the glass at 4am, and willing to fight off the ravenous crowds, like crazed brides at a wedding gown half-price expo. This year, the poor Walmart employee who’s task it was to open the doors was trampled to death! On the upside, the market had it’s biggest gains since 1934, so we can assume lots of Christmas shopping was ticked off the list. Probably more self-shopping when we consider those printers and digital cameras that topped the list at Target, but it’s economy-boosting, and that’s what we all need now.
My first year in America, and not knowing all these specifics, I took advantage of a day off work, to head for downtown for some good old fashioned endorphin release. The mass crowds nearly stomped me to death, and I must’ve looked like a salmon swimming upstream. To add to my difficulties in crowd-management, I normally veer left which I blame on my upbringing in a country with lefthand rule of the road. Interestingly enough, while originally most of the world’s traffic used to drive on the left, 66% of people live in right-side traffic countries today. I came home shaking my head of roadrage.
The Monday following this credit card-busting weekend is known as “Cyber Monday”, as we return to work from the long weekend, and it’s the online stores that get their Christmas bonuses. I may be wrong, but this year’s sales don’t look as promising, considering it’s past lunch on the East Coast and the gold price isn’t looking too golden.
In foreign countries, none of these commercial markers of time exist. Christmas carols play in the supermarket aisles, alongside fake greenery with big red bows, around November. It’s warm in South Africa, and we shop en route to the beach. Lights go up halfheartedly on the roofs of around an eighth of homes in my neighbourhood. A teller here or there may don a Santa hat till the wool prickles with warmth. Some part of me both loves and hates the Christmas spirit of America, although it could just be the homesickness in me talking.
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