So, it's the day before Thanksgiving, and retail looks like it might be just a little crazier than ever. I was fortunate enough to leave the retail world about a year ago, but I still have a lot of friends who work in it.
   Many of you have heard, I suppose, that some retailers will be opening earlier than ever for Black Friday (Best Buy is opening at Midnight on Thanksgiving, Toys R Us is opening at 9:00 pm that night) so that they can get that little boost of sales that puts them at the top of their prospective heaps by the end of the year.
   Here's some stuff you may not know: Best Buy makes Black Friday the most important shopping day of the year for them, and forces their employees to work incredibly fucked up hours in order to rake in all the money they can. However, they don't actually make all that much money. It's all for hype. In fact, Best Buy typically does 3% of it's annual gross sales on Black Friday, but the merchandise they sell is so deeply discounted that they rarely make a profit on that day.
   So, if Best Buy doesn't make a ton of money on Black Friday, why do they inconvenience their employees AND their customers?
   Typically, it tends to pay off during the Christmas season.
   But does that excuse what they are doing to their employees? Or their customers? Has it really become so important to save $150.00 on an LCD TV that people are willing to give up their Thanksgiving Holiday for it? Some people only get to see their families at the Holidays, and many won't this year, because they will be in line, trying to get a deal on cheap electronics that they don't actually need.
   Of course, some of these people will, later this year, complain about Obama giving bailouts to banks, and helping Corporate America. Do they understand that Corporate America is allowed to behave the way it does because (among other things) every time Black Friday is a success, it is a silent endorsement of Corporate Greed? Do they understand their own culpability in this mess?
   In a week or two, we will start seeing stories in the news about "Keep Christ in Christmas". We will read about the "Spirit of Giving", and how it feels better to give than receive. But all these people who will be writing this stuff will probably be in Best Buy tomorrow, not thinking about anyone but themselves, and the few precious dollars they can save by missing a few hours sleep, and an opportunity to spend time with their families.
   The sad part of all this is not that people are willing to give Thanksgiving away to faceless Corporate Entities- It's that when confronted with the reality of the situation, almost all of them will say "I have the choice to do this. I CHOOSE to do this. You can choose not to." Choice, indeed. You are puppets of Corporate America. The rest of the world watches what we do on Thanksgiving, and they laugh at us. A holiday that is supposed to celebrate Gratitude to God and Love of Country has been reduced to a Nationwide Fire Sale, and YOU are responsible. I have never, not once, shopped on Black Friday. I never will. It makes me sick to see what this country is becoming.
   Maybe, in a generation or two, we can just call this holiday what it really is; "Thanksgetting", a celebration of MEMEME, and greed. A precursor to Christmas, ironically the Birthday of Christ (*Not his birthday, by the way...) and the ULTIMATE celebration of greed.
   The Holidays mean dick anymore, and you are all to blame.
   Merry Christmas and Happy Thanksgiving, suckers.