Why Black Friday is so not abundant

So, Black Friday.

Here’s what’s good about Black Friday.  DEALS!  SAVINGS!  OMG, the amount of stuff you can purchase at a discount is SO MUCH MORE than you could’ve at full price!!  Clearly worth it, right?Um, I don’t think so.  While I generally tend to believe that cultivating an abundant mindset involves nourishing and treasuring our desires, and I fully support that…that’s not what Black Friday is actually about.  Do I like deals? Absolutely!

But…Black Friday is straight up about scarcity and feeding into our collective scarcity mentality.  “I have to buy this NOW because if I don’t it’ll become more expensive…or it’ll run out…or I’ll miss out on the elemental experience of trampling someone at Target or Walmart.”

Here’s what I mean.  Is it REALLY true that if you don’t buy that…stereo (or whatever) on the Friday after Thanksgiving that you’ll never ever ever ever be able to get a stereo?

No.  Stereos abound. You’ll be okay.  (Does anyone use stereos anymore?  I can’t remember the last time I even had one. But that’s another issue. 🙂 )

Is it really true that it’ll be more expensive, because OMG, Black Friday has the Best. Deals. Ever?!??  Well, maybe.  Maybe not.  I doubt it.  The internet is an incredible place for many a deal. And maybe it’ll cost you a few bucks more.  I find the idea of being in a place where people are going crazy insane and fighting over stuff so stressfully unpleasant that I’d happily pay a few extra $$ to avoid that.  Wouldn’t you?

And really: do we want to live in a world where people are literally trampled in order to get another mass-produced thing?  Yikes.  I don’t!

And is it worth shopping in a place that threatens to fire its employees for the temerity of wanting to spend Thanksgiving with their families, or doesn’t pay them vacation wages, squeezes out small businesses, and so on?

I might be convinced to shop on Black Friday, but it would have to be at a local store that I’d be happy to support, and I’d need to make sure that whatever I purchased, I was doing it from a place of abundant desire, rather than scarcity-based fear.

Happy Thanksgiving!