I got dragged into a Wal Mart once and because I refuse to spend money there, I tried this hat on and took photos of pink stuff. I HATE pink stuff.
I’m not a big shopper. I dislike it because I’m not a browser. I don’t like going to stores just to see what they have. My shopping is purposeful: If I need something, I get it. It’s simple really. Shopping to me isn’t a sport. With some people, if they aren’t shopping as though it was a scrum at a rugby match, they haven’t really shopped. Now I ask you; is this really necessary? What is the point?
Simply awful. I just hate them. Hideous quality, they wouldn’t last two weeks. Why bother?
I haven’t bought a pair of jeans in ages because for some reason, people give me clothes. They come from various sources but somebody is always handing me a pair of jeans or some T-shirts they got from somewhere. And like them, I pass things on to my friends if I have something that I don’t wear anymore or it goes into the annual Condo yard sale of off to Haiti. I’m also big on resale shops and the Salvation Army and Good Will. When I worked with the penguins at the Cincinnati Zoo, I refused to go out and buy brand new pants just to get penguin poop and fish slime all over them. So I went to the Salvation Army Store and got some great deals on brand new khakis with the tags still on them.
That is one of the reasons I detest Black Friday. Another reason is the fact that my days at work are spent crammed into an aluminum tube with hundreds of people a day. I’m hip-deep with people when I work. Why would I want to be around so many when I’m not?
So for me, Black Friday is a “No-Go Item.” I’ve done the research and it seems that the sale prices on the items available are going to stick around, so why bother getting up and out at midnight for something you can do at a leisurely pace next week when all of the frenzy dies down?
Oh, Good God…
I hate the commercialism, the frenzy and the crap that comes with such a commercialized event. I just don’t care enough to buy a bunch of stuff I don’t give a damn about and can’t afford with money I don’t have.
This is Florida, people. Tennis shoes with socks works just fine…
So today, in protest of Black Friday and the mayhem it brings over saving five bucks on a “My Little Pony,” I am going to occupy my living room. I don’t understand it. Don’t most of these people work? And if they don’t work, how can they afford this stuff they’re buying? I’m not being snarky, I simply don’t understand.
Wouldn’t be caught dead in one of these…
Where is all of this money coming from that people are spending on Black Friday? Because I certainly don’t have that kind of money. A couple of years ago, I wanted to make some extra money at Christmas, so I baked homemade dog treats. They were very popular among my Flight Attendant friends and the packaging was nauseatingly adorable. I actually did pretty well. I also made some batches of Holiday Walnuts that people asked me to cook up for them. Those went over pretty well too. It was a lot of work, but it was fun and sure as hell beat sitting on a lawn chair in front of a Best Buy for four days.
If I need extra money, I work. I don’t camp out in front of Wal Mart to “save” that very money.
I simply have no words…
But of course this flies in the face of the “Occupy Movement.” I don’t understand; you can camp out in front of Wal-Mart, but not on Wall Street.
Oh, I get it. I think I see the logic. It’s okay to occupy the front of a Toys ‘R Us for a week before black Friday because you’re going to spend money on a “My Little Pony.” But if you park your butt somewhere else to make a statement about the fact that you have to park your butt in front of a Toys ‘R Us for a week in order afford the damned My Little Pony, you get maced.
Now this place looks like an interesting store. I wonder what kind of Black Friday deals they have here:
November 25, 2011 at 12:08 pm
I love resale shops! It’s black friday everyday there minus the crazy people.
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November 25, 2011 at 9:19 pm
I’m partial to Goodwill Super Stores. Great Stuff!
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November 25, 2011 at 1:34 pm
I swear we were separated at birth.
I’m enjoying at quiet day at home avoiding the Black Friday frenzy. I am not a shopper. I am don’t go to the mall. I don’t go to stores with the purpose of browsing either & I most certainly don’t gather up my closest girlfriends & make a day out of shopping. If I need something – I try first to buy it from Amazon.com & save myself both time & the hassle of going to a physical store.
I find that I save the most money & get the best deals when I don’t spend my money to begin with. That’s the best “sale” there is.
You ask 10 people what they got for Christmas for the past few Christmas’s & I bet the majority of them cannot recall what the got anymore. But either guilt rabid consumerism, “tradition” or perceived expectations send people off the deep end come the holidays & while some gifts are truly decent gifts – I would not be the least bit surprised to find that the majority of gifts given are neither wanted or needed.
I also wonder how many of the Black Friday shoppers are simply buying shit for themselves. Yeah they live in a rented single-wide & are living off state funds but they NEED that 70″ plasma screen. Or they live in a 4600 sq ft traditional brick in a gated seaside community & simply had to get Brad & Muffy a Snuggy.
I live in coastal South Carolina – it doesn’t get that cold here in the winter & when it does – it’s not for long. Yet I know folks who buy a new winter coat every year. I have the same LLBean winter parka I bought in the late 1980’s. It still works. I wear it a total of 10 days (maybe) every winter.
…and don’t get me started on pink.
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November 25, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Oh please DO go on about pink! I absolutely hate it. I love deep red, (obviously) and so I view pink as a gutless, washed-out red. It has no class, no guts and lacks an opinion. A weird way of looking at it, but that’s the best way I can explain how I feel about it.
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November 25, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Great article, Patricia! I frequent my local Salvation Army when I need something, and even then it’s because I can’t fix something any further. I look realistically at my particular situation: I live with 5 parrots, each of whom will chew a hole in a $40 shirt as easily as they will a 99 cent shirt. I also work in a factory, and anything that manages to escape the house without parrot crap stains and/or holes will get shredded and greasy. The only clothes I buy new are the underwear and socks. All my other clothes (right down to my winter coat, HELLO Nebraska winters!) are secondhand. Once in a while, I even manage to snag a bird cage (the “parakeet sized” ones are good travel cages for conures). As far as groceries go, I’ll pay a few dollars more at a local grocery store than Wal-Mart: I just consider the extra few dollars as paying the no-hassle tax.
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November 25, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Oh my good gravy, you are so spot on! I’m home today on furlough and I would rather be here cleaning my chicken and pigeon coop than putting up with crap from people during the black Friday frenzy.
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November 25, 2011 at 9:11 pm
I’ve cleaned chicken and pigeon coops; I didn’t mind at all. I’d rather do that than K Mart at this point. It’d be far more interesting….
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November 25, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Here…here!! I did the Black Friday thing a number of years ago when people simply stood in a line that formed a few hours before the store opened. Now they’re in line not 4 hours before the opening but 4 days! And the standing morphed into camping? Who lets that happen, anyway? If the big box stores are making so much money that they can pay for off duty police officers to provide the security for all those people in line, why just not buy more product to sell instead? And as I learned from my line experience in previous years at big box retailers, a good number of those people are in that line to get the vouchers for resale, not to save $ on their holiday gifts.
Loved the writing…
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November 25, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Thank you so much. I write what I believe. This was a fun one!
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November 25, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Agree 100% (including the unbearable ickyness of pink)!
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November 25, 2011 at 9:09 pm
It just lacks taste. It reminds me of baby blankets, Pepto Bismol and tacky, cheap underwear worn by exotic dancers.
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November 28, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Heh. I don’t like pink either. I have a few exceptions though: it looks great on Moluccan Cockatoos (and the other pink cockies), and Bourke’s Parakeets!
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November 26, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I Did not. Do any gift shopping yesterday, we just got coffee and Gatorade for the house. I first have to pay the bills, and household expenses, Rx’s and bird food, then if I have any left, I’ll but a couple of gift cards so family can choose their own items. My brother already told me not to get them anything, they have all they need. I want to try Pelletberries on Ginger, she likes the regular ones. That’ll be her gift, a mix of berries.
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November 26, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Curmudgeons of the world, unite! I just don’t get all this shopping “stuff” at all. We “celebrate” a holiday by buying?? What does that prove? Only our greed!
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November 27, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Here you are again, taking pages from my playbook, you wild and crazy shopper! I used to manage a retail women’s clothing store in a mall. Need I say more?? I hate shopping unless I’m manic — then it’s ‘Nelly, Bar the Door!’. I once went on a mad shopping spree, spent all my paycheck on hand-made paper. Still have some of it 15 years later. It made the cut when we moved from a 4-bedroom in Atlanta to a 2 ROOM in South Florida. Needless to say — this place is a long way past the ‘cozy’ stage. Thank the gods for good weather and a courtyard! The most rad thing I bought on a mad spree was a potbellied piglet. She was donated to a farmer in north Georgia after she uprooted our entire back yard and then came in heat. Walmart?? They have nothing on Georgia Flea Markets — Potbellies to Genuine Confederate Reproductions. God I miss those days. Now it’s just ‘go to bed, get up, wait on the parrots — repeat –‘. Who has time to shop?? Love your pink montage. Better you than me!
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November 27, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Freada, I hate shopping! Hate it. All of that stuff in the shots I took, I hate. I rarely shop. I’d rather wear my stuff one more year than go out and get something new.
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November 29, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Thank you for not shopping at the monster and I am so with you on the pink stuff!
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December 14, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Wow, I’ve learned so much today! I had absolutely no idea people resell those vouchers they stand in line for? Goodness! I clothing shop at one store only, because everything matches everything else lol………it’s like garanimals for adults, remember those? No pink though, not my color 🙂
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December 14, 2011 at 5:11 pm
P.S. that hat looks hysterical on you hope you bought it!
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December 14, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Not on your life, Sandy!
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