I have lost count of how many Black Friday deal emails I have received in the past few weeks. I wake up in the morning with more than 20 emails in my inbox, all newsletters announcing the next big deal of the week. All of this madness is new to me. I am from Brazil and there is nothing like Black Friday over there. This was my second year experiencing this phenomenon and I must say it has already lost its magic.
In Brazil, we do not have Thanksgiving, but last year there was an attempt to create a Black Friday-ish event. The problem was that the stores, instead of lowering the prices and giving 50 percent plus discount on products, doubled the prices before the event and then announced that the prices were half off. Many upset customers that fell into the trap proceeded with lawsuits against several stores, making the shopping experience even more upsetting and frustrating.
This year people thought twice before going crazy and spending more money than they had. According to a recent article in Forbes Magazine, the consumer protection bureau (Procon)  released a list of 325 companies Brazilians should avoid, primarily for e-commerce. Due to the extremely high amount of complaints about last year’s Black Friday, retailers had to stay on track and were prohibited from making tricky sales. The consequences of that happening again would be the banning of Black Friday in 2014.
Even though it is not recognized as an official U.S. holiday, most people have the Friday after Thanksgiving off. The term “Black Friday” originated in 1960 to designate the start of the Christmas shopping season. When the stores changed their accounting records from red to black. This meant that with red, there was a loss of profit and with black, there was an increase of profit for the store. Around the same time another connotation came around, this one referring to how the streets turned into chaos because of all the heavy traffic and shopping, thus the term “Black Friday.”
My family and I celebrate Christmas with a supper on the night of December 24 and that is also when we share all our presents. Knowing how chaotic shopping can get near that time of year we try to avoid it by buying everything in advance.
My first Black Friday experience was last year when I came to spend the holidays with part of my family here in Louisiana. I had heard about the madness of the occasion. This special day was always broadcast on TV and I always saw how crazy people would get. But that did not stop me from wanting to participate in it. I picked the day of my trip specifically so I could be here to experience it first hand. Even though my cousins and I stayed in line for more than four hours for an iPad at Walmart I was still very excited. After hours of shopping, I was exhausted but happy with everything that I had bought. I could not wait to show my friends back in Brazil how low the prices were. After all, it was pretty shocking. A regular TV show season on DVD that cost me $10 would normally be around $50, and I think that was just another reason to keep me shopping.
This year, I had the chance to go shopping with my dad. It was his first Black Friday experience and he went pretty crazy too. By Saturday I was so tired of shopping, just going from store to store and seeing what big deal I could get had drained all my energy. That made me stop and think about all of these cravings we have for new things. Sometimes we buy stuff we don’t even need just because the prices are low. My cousin said that if I thought like that I would waste all my money on stuff I didn’t need without thinking twice. And she was right. We get so caught up on the madness that is Black Friday, with all the deals and sales thrown in your face, that you forget to even think if you actually need all that stuff.
Now after having two experiences with Black Friday I must say, I have learned a lot. We don’t need to go crazy and grab everything we see in front of us, we don’t need to shove people to get what we want, and there is no reason to be rude or lose all sense of respect. You need to think clearly if you actually need what you are buying. People get so caught up on this shopping madness that they end up forgetting what the season is really about. It is about being thankful, enjoying your family and celebrating life. Not digesting Thanksgiving dinner in line at Walmart and being angry at your mother because she couldn’t get the last iPhone of the day. I’m not saying you won’t see me next year waiting in line at Target, I’m just saying that we should not forget how to really celebrate the holidays.