They say timing is everything … and then, once in a while … the stars all align … and there it is … the perfect time, the perfect statement, the perfect opportunity … to make a HUGE, HUGE impact.
What we have looming before us now is the High Holyday of retail banking. It is a day that bankers dream about, a day they anticipate with glee and not a little trepidation; will it be bigger than last year? Will anything go wrong? It is
BLACK FRIDAY.
Certainly Black Friday is of great consequence to retailers. It is the day that will mean the difference for many of them between living to fight another day and having a fire sale in the new year, the difference between being able to feed their families and being forced to close their doors and look for a job. I have no concern or sympathy for the big ones, but we all have neighbors and friends who work hard every day to provide us with goods and services and they deserve to make a living.
But who is it that needs to hear a message from the 99%? Oh yes, that would be the big banks, the banks who have so successfully insinuated themselves into retail commerce with promises of convenience and increased sales. Yes, yes, I know, there are a lot of good reasons for using credit cards; many of them were laid out yesterday in the comments to EagleOfFreedom’s diary “Don’t just move your money. Pay with cash”. But there are a lot of poor reasons as well.
I am a pragmatist, we are not going to get everyone to cut up their cards tomorrow. The system is here to stay until something better (read “more profitable”) comes along. People will still need to rent cars and guarantee reservations, so let’s not spin our wheels. I am tired of being taken for granted and taken advantage of. My guess is there are other 99%ers out there who agree. Not all of us can go to an Occupy demonstration for many, many valid reasons, as much as we would like to. But this is something we can all do, something we can encourage our mothers, sisters and friends to do. It just takes a little effort and a conscious thought. What is it?
PAY CASH ON BLACK FRIDAY!
Even in this economy, some of our family and friends will be out there fighting the crowds and looking for bargains at 4 a.m. on November 25th. I know, I see the pictures on TV every year. It’s a tradition in some families, as American as turkey and football. So let’s use this unstoppable force, let’s harness this energy and work to convince these folks to expend just a little more effort to send a message to the banks.
What will this effort require? A conscious thought and a little time, that’s all.
Throngs of us will be out on November 21, or 22nd or 23rd buying turkeys and tofurkeys, cans of pumpkin and green beans. Couldn’t we make one more stop and withdraw some cash from the credit union (or bank) to finance that shopping trip on Friday morning. Now, now, I can hear you saying it, “I’m afraid to carry a lot of cash, I might get robbed”. Besides the fact that if you do get robbed they’ll take your credit cards too, here’s the best part. I’m not suggesting you pay cash for that flat screen TV you’re planning to buy for your significant other. It’s really the small purchases you charge that hurt the retailers and provide the HUGE profits for the banks. I guarantee you that top people at these banks know how many transactions they processed last year and how much they made. And of course, every year has to be bigger, right? If we could cut the number of those transactions in half or even by 25%, they would sit up and take notice. I believe it would scare them. We are the 99% after all, there are a lot of us.
Can you help me get this message out? Will you talk to your mother, your sister, your neighbor and show them how easy this would be? I’m not asking them to change their whole lives, just to put in a little extra effort for one day, to join with others to make a statement. We are the 99%, ignore us at your own peril!!