I won’t be doing any Black Friday sales/festivities this year (probably for the best), but I wanted to talk about how far afield it has expanded. I haunt the forums at DVD Talk, a DVD news and reviews website with a lively forum community. Their DVD Bargains page has been listing the buzz-worthy sales on movies and related peripherals. The real winners so far have been the online-only DVD Planet and Deep Discount DVD sales. However, word is starting to trickle out about Black Friday sales. For those of you who don’t “know,” Black Friday is the designation given to the day after Thanksgiving. It is a day that characterizes man’s inhumanity to man. We’ve talked about it a bit at this site, but this year I’ve noticed something different.
Both jr.com and buy.com are having “Black Friday” DVD sales. These sales are week-long and culminate on Black Friday. Orders are shipped on Black Friday. But these are not pure Black Friday sales. These are week-long DVD sales which happen to arbitrarily end on a Friday, and that Friday happens to be Black Friday. There is no “man’s inhumanity to man” element in these sales. Discs can be ordered, leisurely, over the week (no over-taxed bandwidth or weird error screens) and will be shipped to you all within good time.
This may seem like a nomenclature issue or something bound by taxonomy, but for me it is important. In order to qualify something as being on/about Black Friday, the event should be marked by hysteria, should be bound by mere hours, and should be beholden to ridiculousness. For example, a few years back myself, Bobby, and another friend or two were at Best Buy on Black Friday. One of our friends picked up something - I think it was a digital camera, and it may have not even been on sale - but had to set it down on the floor to tie his shoe. As he was doing this, some frenzied, rabid shopper came by, swooped down, and yoinked the box. While I doubt that he really wanted the item in the first place, it is precisely this sort of behavior that really identifies what Black Friday is all about. No holds barred. Nothing is sacred. Two go in, one comes out. Take no prisoners.
Jingle all the way.
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