You have to smile and think, “Amazing” that we’ve sunk to such a low. How did they do it? What did they do to turn so many Americans in to crazed lunatics. Running, screaming, shrieking as they push each other out of the way to be the first person in to a Walmart, Sears, ToysRUs, etc.. Yes, $397 is a pretty good price for a laptop, but is it worth standing in the rain for hours, freezing, just to get a “chance” to purchase one? Oh, they are giving away a free doughnut? A cup of coffee? Neat.
I hope that all these people planned these expenditures. Something tells me that a large percentage of them are going to put these purchases on credit cards. So, while they get a lower price on the latest “Tickle me Elmo”, or $5 off a purchase of $50 or more, they end up paying 5 times that savings in finance charges as they carry this debt for the next year. Just about the time that they get these purchases paid off (yeah, I’m making the generous assumption that everyone will pay these purchases off within 12 months), it will be time to do it again. If these folks would just catch up, then they could save themselves some REAL money as they paid cash for everything and avoided all the finance charges. It would be like an 18% discount all year round. Call me crazy.
And since when did they start calling it Black Friday? Let me get this straight. We have declared Nov 25th as the first official day to start buying gifts for our friends and family for Christmas and we named it “Black Friday”? WTF. Black Friday sounds like the day that millions died. They were all hit with some sort of plague, or disease. Oh, maybe that’s it. Millions of Americans have been hit with a disease called consumerism.
I don’t know man. I was watching the frenzy on the news last night and they interviewed shoppers and asked how much they’ll spend this season and the consensus was, “It’s Christmas, I’ll spend whatever I have to”.
Then they interviewed some financial analysts and they didn’t seem to worried about consumer debt this year either. Their view was, “The economy’s doing better, stock market is up this year, gas prices have fallen about a dollar in the last month. Everyone has more money to spend so the shopping season will be a success for retailers”.
Then the news report ended with this little survey. Top three ways to pay this season were 1) Debit card 2) Cash and 3) Credit card.
I don’t know what to think anymore.
I think for a lot of people your comments about rising finance charges will be accurate. However, whoa be the parent who doesn’t get their young child their favorite Elmo toy or whatever. Although the times are changing the desire to please the children does not.