Are you one of the hardy shoppers that springs into action to get the best deals the day after Thanksgiving? Or even the night of Thanksgiving? I never was. I dislike crowds and like to shop when it feels leisurely and not stressful. But now with our new life of running a small business I am thrown into the very thing I tried to avoid!! Its a paradox alright. My sisters and I used to have a Christmas shopping tradition when we lived in the small suburban town of Winchester, Mass. We would shop on Christmas Eve day and visit all the cute shops in downtown Winchester buying gifts for one another and other family members. Then we would have a bite to eat in one of the small eateries in the town to cap it off. We all enjoyed that for the years that it lasted before geography separated us. We were shopping local, in the cute little town we grew up in. "Shopping local" has become a catch phrase these days, and for good reason. Small businesses need shoppers to survive, and if we don't the world will be filled with only the Walmarts and Targets.
I managed to get a small feast prepared for our small Thanksgiving.
(Though not much else in the way of table decor as I was working
in the store the day before Thanksgiving until 5 pm.)
We had a nice quiet dinner and then went off to the movies to
see Captain Phillips, the true life thriller of the Somali pirates taking over
an American tanker. The movie stars Tom Hanks.
The funny thing about Captain Phillips, is that he also grew up
in my small town of Winchester and was a friend of mine.
His nickname was "Jungle". Hah!
While he was going to the Mass Maritime Academy he would
go out to sea for weeks at a time, and then come home for a few weeks off.
I would go pick him up in black VW or he would swing by
my house and pick me up in Steve's vintage fleetwood Cadillac.
It was always a good time hanging out with him!
What a nice guy~he was a funny guy too, but they never
showed him telling jokes or doing funny stuff in the movie.
(Good movie, by the way.)
But I digress....back to the point of the blog post.
While I never shopped Black Friday, I did shop local.
Which brings me to this shameless pitch:
We will be behind the counters for this weekend of
Black Friday and Small Business Saturday at
150 Main Street Reading Mass.
50% off sales?! You won't see that at small businesses.
We don't price our things with that much meat on the bone
like they do at the big box stores.
We have to start our with competitive pricing to begin
with, so when we have sales the discounts are smaller
but the value is real.
Just know that whatever small business you shop at
you will be making a difference.
And isn't that a nice feeling?
oh heck no, shopping on that day which I just learned bout a couple of years ago if forbidden. I think its consumer insanity, but also no shopping on weekends at all in November/ December, only weekdays between 11am and 2pm between school zones. Actually I don't even go shopping at all because all friends and family are in different locations now. I the only one left to move, yet it just got cozy in this house last year, so not likely. But the Christmas Spirit is one I have all year long, really. :-)
ReplyDeleteit sure is a deal to keep it local and help fellow neighbors too!
ReplyDeletelove that you knew the real captain phillips.
you will have to pen your memoirs one day. :)
happy thankful weekend.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I bet this will be a busy time of year for you and your family now! I hope your stores do well. I know this is usually when stores make most of their money. I saw that movie too and just loved it! How cool that you actually knew him in real life!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great weekend of sales, Amy.
ReplyDeleteSuch a fun post!
ReplyDeleteYou must be exhausted!
I love my brushes! Thank you for including the color card, Amy!
w/l
I used to shop with my mom the day after Thanksgiving. That was before it became known as 'Black Friday.' It seemed like once the marketing gurus named the day Black Friday, it stopped being fun. It became a day of pushing, shoving and grabbing. We stopped going a couple years after that. It was long after that that I started doing most of my shopping online. Although I do enjoy going to our local shops too.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning Amy, I had never heard of Black Friday until I visited my daughter in Atlanta. We never went shopping on Black Friday as we were told there were so many people who were shopping, trying to get a bargain and that it was not a pleasurable experience. Now, Black Friday has arrived here in England. Yesterday Asda (bought by Walmart) opened it's doors to the first Black Friday and there was absolute chaos. A couple of people were arrested and one poor lady in Ireland broke her arm in the foray. I just ask myself, do we really need all these supposed bargains that are reduced in price or is it because we just cannot let a bargain pass us by. Personally, I would let the bargain pass me by, as nothing is worth receiving a broken arm.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that we should support our local shops and markets much more.
Best Wishes
Daphne
I've never been a boxing day shopper or black Friday shopper. I live in Canada, so we approach sales days a bit differently. Thanksgiving is in October - so there are no big sales then, just time off to spend with family and giving thanks {what a concept}.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing so much on the news about people going crazy and fighting at big box store sales - or camping out for 3 days just to get a few dollars off of something, I know that I wouldn't ever do a black Friday sale.
Oh..you know I don't do black friday but I worked it of course. It wasn't bad at our store as I knew if wouldn't be. I would have liked to have shopped local today but I was working again. I'll shop local later in the week. A much better way to shop. This coming weekend the local Antique Mall is having their holiday open house...and I'll be going to that. I hope you had a liquid weekend.
ReplyDeleteBlack Friday is obnoxious! I hate it! The crowds are insane, and i'd rather shoot myself in the foot than shop then! Plus shopping local is so so important and waaay more charming.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting that you knew the actual guy the movie was about! We haven't seen it yet, but i will tell mr. fractured about him and his jokes when we do...
Cindy