Hello, another Friday has come to visit us. I don't know about any of you but I'm not leaving the house barring emergency today. I can't stand the crowds of Black Friday and no sale is worth it to me. I may be doing some online buying however. I don't have to deal with crowds that way and I'm not making some poor retail worker deal with me either.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we can let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, earthquakes, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It also allows us to find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a Kosmail and ask to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
We do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday:
BadKitties
Tuesday:
ejoanna
Wednesday:
Caedy
Thursday:
art ah zen
Friday:
FloridaSNMOM
Saturday:
Most Awesome Nana
Sunday:
loggersbrat
So why is Black Friday called Black Friday anyway? According to the webpage USEconomy it wasn't originally intended as a good thing. Back in 1966 it was a police term used because so many shoppers flooded the streets and roads of Philadelphia that many accidents and much violence ensued. Gradually the term spread to other major cities as well.
Of course stores didn't want the busiest shopping day of the year to have a negative connotation and so they started running deeply discounted sales to draw out even more customers and to try to change the negative to a positive.
Violence and accidents still plague the day.
The most violence seems to occur at Walmart, leading to the Twitter hashtag each year #Walmart fights
And now they are starting Black 'Friday' earlier and earlier, even into mid day Thanksgiving day. I remember when I was a kid Black Friday sales started around 6am on Friday. When my son was young they started at Midnight. And now of course some started at 6am on Thanksgiving, turning a family holiday into a shopping frenzy.
I used to work retail and I've had to work Black Friday. The customers were mostly rude, dumped clothes and toys all over the floor leaving them to be trampled on by others, and fought over things they wanted. Sometimes it took us into nearly opening on SATURDAY morning to get Friday cleaned up. This is why I stay home today. I don't want to make someone else's day more miserable.
What are you planning for the day?