Too many shopping days

The first day was simply known as Black Friday, a day of early morning sales the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The term “Black Friday” allegedly comes from a day noted for workers calling in sick after Thanksgiving to have the four-day weekend. The term took a darker turn in the 1960s when police in Philadelphia used Black Friday and Black Saturday to describe days where police would be called in for traffic and crowd control as shoppers made their way to shopping centers. Of course, now people tend to think of Black Friday in relation to crazed mobs trying to be the first into a store.

Beyond that, there’s Small Business Saturday which aims to highlight the benefits of shopping local shops.

Cyber Monday, describes massive deals online retailers put on goods to attract customers and now, there’s Giving Tuesday to promote donations to charitable organizations.

I haven’t been fond of Black Friday for the past few years as stores, attempting to one-up their competition, have slowly bled the day into Thanksgiving. It isn’t uncommon for many places to host their big sales Thursday evening, which impacts their workers as those who would spend the time with family are otherwise forced into working on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Small Business Saturday is good as we need to keep the smaller, local businesses in mind during the holiday season, but having it the day after Black Friday somewhat defeats the purpose. It pits them against the biggest retailers who are competing for those holiday shopping dollars. It should be the week before Thanksgiving.

Cyber Monday, another sales extravaganza for people who think themselves too smart to fight the weekend crowds or those still high from the Black Friday shopping, to find the perfect gift at the perfect price.

Giving Tuesday, like Small Business Saturday, seems like an afterthought when compared to the previous day, is also a good idea, but would likely benefit from being separated from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Perhaps the day after Christmas?

These major sales and charity events are a complete drain when combined over the course of six days. In the case of Giving Tuesday, it almost feels like charities are given the scraps from the three previous sales events.

More than that, people are absolutely inundated with sales fliers, pitches to shop locally and donation requests from local and national charities. Unfortunately, this state of affairs won’t likely change soon and will only shift with shifts in consumer behavior.

In that case, may I recommend one more day to place on that list? How about, “Wiped-Out Wednesday?”