No-Shopping Friday

Why I will not be out shopping on Firday, in spite of the "great deals" that the stores have every year.

From the time I left college until about five years ago, I worked retail. There is a reason people call the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" -- it is. I never had that day off -- in fact, I drove from Florida back to Atlanta on Thanksgiving day more than once so I could be at work at 6 in the morning on Black Friday. Most places won't have actual lunches scheduled for their employees -- they will have some food brought in (most places I worked found it was worth it to have local restaurants cater, but once we did pot luck) and employees will eat and run back to the floor, to be greeted by mobs of people whose only concern is what they have been wanting to buy.

I swore to myself that I'd never be a part of the mobs, and with a few minor exceptions I never have. I enjoy the Friday the way the Pilgrims did -- feet up, munching on leftovers. I may do some online shopping, but that isn't a sure thing. It's a tradition I plan on sticking to -- they really don't need my money badly enough for me to go out on Friday.

Unless someone is selling laptops for under $100. Then I might be interested.