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Black Friday is an funny tradition. Fun too, but mostly funny. In case you hadn't been able to tell, I'm not a very avid black friday shopper; I'm hardly a shopper at all. I suppose I'll dip into a store if I'm already out and it looks enticing, but that's about the extent of my shopping proclivities. Polar opposites from the kinds of people that I encountered on that blackest of Fridays.

It all starts with the timing. I hadn't quite put this together before, because Canadian holidays are differently timed, but black friday always takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, that means you hardly get a single night's sleep before you have to shift gears.

I'm personally a big fan of Thanksgiving. I think it's one of the most spiritually sincere holidays, with such universally positive message that almost everybody should be able to appreciate it. Having black friday so soon after such a wonderful day really cheapens the experience. It almost feels sacreligous to me, which is suppose part of why I usually tend to ignore it.

Once the day arrives, the first step is to get to the shopping center. Unfortunately, everybody else looking to take advantage of some rare deals will be aiming to reach the exact same shopping center at the exact same time on, and this is the worst part, the exact same roads and intersections that you need to take. This means spending probably half of your time out sitting in traffic, negotiating parking in an overcrowded lot, and waititng your turn to be let in. This also might include the long, heavy walks between the car and the store plus all the waiting in lines once you're there.

I have a hard time justifying this all to myself, but I know it's because I don't really buy much anyways. Even if there are absurdly good deals, I'll probably spend so little that the ultimate cost savings won't add up to that much. I value my time highly enough that it's hard to justify giving up half a day to save so little money. For others, who I've come to learn delay their shopping all year until black friday hits, I suppose it might make sense. If you're coming to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to buy things for yourself, your family, and your friends then perhaps all the math does work out.

Once inside, I was still pretty surprised by the rush. I've learned that black friday is a fraction of what it once was, thanks to the equalizing effects of onlice shopping. Coincidentally, this has also made many of the deals much worse because anybody can access them from anywhere. Still, to my crude it there seemed to be quite a lot of people.

For the stores with the best discounts, there were not only long lines in the store. There were also lines to the get into the store, and then sometimes even lines for specific items or areas that were especially limited. I spent a while waiting in all the lines, mostly marvelling at all the different kinds of people who showed up for the big day. I think many of them were people with children or buying for family, since that's one situation where having to buy in bulk makes a lot of sense.

There were some stores with limited inventory sales, so if you wanted the best stuff you had to go earlier in the day to get there first. The people I was with didn't do that - we arrived well into the afternoon, and it seemed like the most rush was around that time. It does raise the question, that if the deals are so good you're going to dedicate so much time to sitting in traffic and lines and parking to get access to them, then why not force yourself to wake up early and get all those deals, and even better ones!, and skip most of the waiting.

I suppose one answer is that the limited time deals aren't even that great. I think a bigger reason though, is kind of a laid back attitude towards black friday. I don't think most people are super excited about going shopping on this day. I think it's more of a tired, "we might as well go and get what deals we can" feeling. Nobody's too thrilled about spending money, but we all need to get new clothes and things sometimes, right?

Actually, I'm not sure that we do. I think many people treat shopping and consumerism like a hobby. The classic buying things we don't need with money we don't have critique. They go because shopping feels good, and if you haven't been in a while then it's best to go when there's at least a lot of good deals. It feels good to snag a nice item from a store you've always wanted at an amazing price, and extra good to do that all in one day and have extras for gifts.

I don't mean to be critical here either. Clothing, electronics, and beauty products don't necessarily appeal to me, but I've been known to get snagged into buying nice outdoor gear that I don't have an immediate use for. I suppose the real issue might be having that kind of relationship with purchasing and consuming things, especially if many of them end up unused. A lot of these shoppers need to work on their impulse control - they purchase first and think about it later, sometimes justifying their purchases for gifts and other times losing them at the back of their closets.

It was hard to differentiate the savvy, price conscious shoppers with the low willpower shopaholics looking for a quick fix. At worst, imagine all the slot machines in Vegas were discounted by 50% and you'd get a sense of what it felt like.

But ultimately, I can't judge. After all, they were all walking out of there with expensive brand name merch while I still wear my clothes from high school.