I got a bone to pick with you Yanks!!

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 6:53 pm

Please let me say first that I am quite fond of our fine neighbours.

However who was the idiot who changed your Thanksgiving into Black Friday. It sounds like the memorial name for a massacre. Couldn't all those high priced admen come up with a gentler and thankful name? I hope you are appalled to learn it has been exported to Canada with a zeal that baffles geezers like me.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 6:59 pm

FWIU "Black Friday" got its name because it was once the first day of the Retail Year when Retailers actually "came out of the Red" and "went into the Black"... i.e. they stopped operating at a Net Loss and started actually making a profit for the year.

While I think that that is no longer accurate, the name stuck, if only for the Black Mood it puts people in as they try to grasp for the "deals" during the "trample granny while busting down doors sales".

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 7:16 pm

Old Ironsights wrote: … the name stuck, if only for the Black Mood it puts people in as they try to grasp for the "deals" during the "trample granny while busting down doors sales".

.

Kinda says it all!

piller · Post by **piller** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 7:19 pm

I refused to participate in the disorganized skirmish.

Pete44ru · Post by **Pete44ru** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 7:24 pm

.

The real abomination are those CEO's who have their stores open for Thanksgiving DAY !

Which means, of course, that their employees MUST work - or receive sanctions - while the fatcats chow down with their families.

.

earlmck · Post by **earlmck** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 7:31 pm

Canuck Bob wrote: who was the idiot who changed your Thanksgiving into Black Friday. It sounds like the memorial name for a massacre.

Sheeesh, Bob. I think you are being nice to us "southerners". As incredibly stooopid things go, Black Friday isn't even in our top 100.

wecsoger · Post by **wecsoger** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 7:39 pm

I do apologize for the dumassery of our marketing folks, perhaps doubly so. First, for them coming up with the idea, and second for the zombified idiots who persist in showing up to buy cheap stuff.

I do not like the direction your neighbor to the south is going but I'm afraid more and more of it is being exported. I have a co-worker who winters in Calgary and summers down here. (long story, it's complicated) When he processed through Customs this spring he was appalled and dismayed the CAN agents at the crossing were actually carrying guns. He wasn't blaming me personally for it, but did let me know that this was _not_ A Good Thing(tm).

Of course the agents on our side were dressed for full battle, he said.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 8:01 pm

Canuk Bob,
Please accept my apologies for our outlandish corporate behaviour.
As you can see from the responses, virtually none of us agree with this nonsense.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 8:01 pm

Canuk Bob,
Please accept my apologies for our outlandish corporate behaviour.
As you can see from the responses, virtually none of us agree with this nonsense.

pshort · Post by **pshort** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 8:56 pm

Hi y'all,
I was waiting for Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton to make some sort of a mess of it!

Paul

44shooter · Post by **44shooter** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:37 pm

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. It is not a holiday but a media and corporate word for the big sales retailers have that day. It's done because the vast majority of the American populace is off that day,have their minds on Christmas shopping, and are not at grandma's eating any more. I find the camping out to shop thing pretty silly but there are bargains out there for the consumer. I try to avoid it, but to each their own. This is still a free country, for now.

ollogger · Post by **ollogger** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:43 pm

Canuck Bob wrote:Please let me say first that I am quite fond of our fine neighbours.

However who was the idiot who changed your Thanksgiving into Black Friday. It sounds like the memorial name for a massacre. Couldn't all those high priced admen come up with a gentler and thankful name? I hope you are appalled to learn it has been exported to Canada with a zeal that baffles geezers like me.

Bob, your thanksgiving is in Oct. does that mean you have to put up with all that zeal
twice as long as us?

no it seems to be crazy in places & im sorry it migrated north

ollogger

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 11:01 pm

OI pegged it - this has become a make-it-or-break-it day for retailers.

As much as I understand that - it disgusts me no end. Worse this year with so many open on Thanksgiving. I am going to send letters to all of them letting them know that any retailer open on Thanksgiving Day will not see any of my holiday shopping cash ANYTIME this Christmas season.

There needs to be a price for this greed - taking people away from their families on this special holiday. Only cost that they care about is losing the almighty dollar!

Mike Armstrong · Post by **Mike Armstrong** » Sun Dec 01, 2013 11:30 pm

I'm generally not ashamed of "American culture." But these institutionalized feeding frenzies we call holidays make me sick. Thanksgiving is for....giving thanks. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ. Almost nothing to do with materialism, except sharing a decent meal with folks.

"Black Friday" is to go fishing after work. I'm retired, so I went all morning. The only thing I "consumed" was a pile of mussels for bait and four fat Barred Surf Perch and a small Flounder in beer batter. Standing in the surf on a beautiful California dawn, I did a little thanksgiving, too.

gamekeeper · Post by **gamekeeper** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 3:43 am

I'd never heard of it till a few days ago, now it's over here ! I think Walmart, who own one of our big supermarkets (Asda) started it in the UK.....

7.62 Precision · Post by **7.62 Precision** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 4:11 am

If it makes you think of a massacre, then I suppose it is aptly named.

It has turned into a mess. Why do I have customers leaving messages all day long on and all night too on Thanksgiving, and all through the weekend, cussing us out because no one answered the phone? I'm supposed to answer at 3AM on a holiday morning and at 3pm, too?

What gives customers the right to email a company and tell them what discount they are going to give or else they will do their best to destroy their reputation online? I have had enough of hearing people whine and complain and bash companies because they would not sell an AR lower for $50 or a "MIL-SPEC" barrel for under $100, or only offered a 25% discount, whatever. I know what some of these companies pay for their stuff, and people are irate at them for not selling under cost.

We live in the age of the consumer bully.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 4:41 am

I went at it pretty hard with madman .45-.70 in the dicker hard thread.
This type of behaviour is unacceptable in my opinion.
Individuals, have a reasonable expectation to privacy, and non-excursion into personal space.
If you want to excert your buying power, do it with someone else; leave me alone.

Ji in Hawaii · Post by **Ji in Hawaii** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 5:03 am

We refer to Black Friday as "No-Thanks-Taking" day.

Larkbill · Post by **Larkbill** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 8:34 am

I never go near a store of any kind on Black Friday, however my wife has and claims that it's not that bad. Reminds me of a blind date one of my buds went on back in my Navy days. When asked how she was he replied "not hideous". Talk about damning by faint praise.

I expect to work on Thanksgiving. I drive 18 wheelers for a small private fleet and am on call 24/7. That said I wouldn't consider shopping on Thanksgiving Day if I happened to be home.

However, this Thanksgiving Day I was doing my 10 hour rest in a Walmart lot. I was grateful they were open, 24 hour stores never changed their schedule, to have a bathroom and fresh breakfast choices. I happened to talk to the cashier supervisor for a couple minutes. She said everyone at that store working that day were volunteers who wanted the extra pay. The only department not staffed was photo process where no one wanted to work and the store manager decided they could do without it. You can argue that they need the extra money because W'mart doesn't pay well, but I don't know anyone who is forced to work there.

GonnePhishin · Post by **GonnePhishin** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 8:40 am

Canuck Bob,
Just looking at some of the u-tube video taken in some of the stores is enough to make me want to lose my lunch. A great many people in our once proud nation have become nothing but a bunch of screaming, selfish, immature, boorish, ignorant, self-serving, and childish punks who would sell their birthright for a bowl of oops, for a poor quality $200 dollar 50 inch idiot box. There I said it

I'd be thinking about moving up north if it wasn't for your crummy gun laws.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:52 am

So, as you can see; in the land of it's origin, the whole thing is universally loathed.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:52 am

So, as you can see; in the land of it's origin, the whole thing is universally loathed.

92&94 · Post by **92&94** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:19 am

It's a day for all those people who haven't learned what really matters. Those who have stay home and hang around their favorite gun forums

Even Wednesday was pretty crazy, I had an errand to run in LC on the way home, and just driving a little in town was enough to make be grumpy the rest of the trip. Of course sharing US54 with the breakneck morons who never drive single lane highways any more didn't help either

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:35 am

earlmck wrote:
Canuck Bob wrote: who was the idiot who changed your Thanksgiving into Black Friday. It sounds like the memorial name for a massacre.
Sheeesh, Bob. I think you are being nice to us "southerners". As incredibly stooopid things go, Black Friday isn't even in our top 100.

Canada is no stranger to stupid. Our Toronto mayor has ramped up our idiot image a bit lately. It is the exporting of stupidity I'm shamelessly complaining about.

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:51 am

I'll share a quick story. We were blessed to adopt two Chinese girls. Yes, even my kids are made in China!! My second daughter arrived dressed like Santa!

We travelled to China in mid Dec. and returned after Christmas both times. I got to watch the Chinese retailers in Bejing pushing Christmas!!!! Of course no baby Jesus just the standard retailer stuff. Watching a group of very pretty young women modestly dressed as Santa's Elves and singing Jingle Bells in Chinese while doing a hip-hop dance will never leave me.

The dismayed looks on the older locals faces was priceless. No doubt their opinion of Western culture lowered a bit. The college aged kids were all gaga for our culture, good or bad. It was also a welcome sight to see KFC, Burger King, and McDonalds for me. I was convinced the local food squirmed a bit on the plate.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:08 pm

Wait a sec there Bob... you're sayin' that you're upset at us because your mindless drones of the Advert world have followed our almost mindless drones of the Advert world (I say "almost" cause ours did think it up first), and the even more mindless masses fall for it just as badly as our mindless masses? I beg to differ, mindless masses is a univeral condition.

But then, I attended a private elementary school, when & where "no child left behind" was a futuristic concept so lacking in believeability as to be laughable. And even the Lutheran and Anglican churches Sunday School teachings were somewhat encouraging of secular education and independent thought, encouraging questions, as they believed they had the answers.

If you're going to place blame... put it where it belongs... on Dr. B. Spock. A dynamic, well educated, idiot.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:29 pm

Yep,
North of Alamo 54 turns into a take your life into your hands affair.

GonnePhishin · Post by **GonnePhishin** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:39 pm

Canuck Bob said in part:

Of course no baby Jesus just the standard retailer stuff.

There's no baby Jesus here in the states either. While the intention of Christmas might have once been centered around the birth of Jesus (and I have my doubts on this as well), it is no longer. It's about Santa Claus and getting presents; its just about materialism and greed and another orgy of self-indulgence on the past of the ignorant and uninformed who wouldn't know anything holy if it bit 'em on the neck.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.....

By the way, what other name can you spell out with the word santa????

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 2:18 pm

Griff wrote:If you're going to place blame... put it where it belongs... on Dr. B. Spock. A dynamic, well educated, idiot.

May I respectfully note another cultural import. Generally our education system is very good here. My wife is a teacher and often enlightens people that her teaching degree turned out to have nothing to do with teaching a classroom of kids! It was all theoretical social engineering based on utopian wishes not reality.

I often wonder if our socialism heavily influenced by England has been a strong and unwelcome influence in your country. We are now influenced by American culture almost exclusively.

Canada has many things to thank the USA for. Our post war success is heavily modelled on American entrepreneurship and our rapid industrialization is as much Henry Ford as anything. We lived under an umbrella of safety during the Cold War and this is never acknowledged properly. An argument can be made for the cultural move from colonialism to sovereign nation in spirit was heavily influenced by our fine neighbours. We are not carbon copies of each other but the similarities are striking.

I place the core problem as the love of money (greed) gone totally immoral and uncontrolled, globalized, and institutionalized.

bdhold · Post by **bdhold** » Tue Dec 03, 2013 11:29 am

sounds like you're talking about my ex

I remember about when the term black friday began - even then it seemed like the most-possible stupid name for the largest-$ shopping day of the year

There are things uglier than the name, like children being stampeded by parents trying to buy cabbage patch dolls.

I also get to claim I have never taken part in it, and it's one of the days you couldn't pay me to go shopping, though in my youth, I did take advantage of after-Christmas sales.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Tue Dec 03, 2013 8:27 pm

I place the core problem as the love of money (greed) gone totally immoral and uncontrolled, globalized, and institutionalized.

Yep. Naked human greed. The shareholders all want one thing:

MORE!

The price of human suffering, environmental or ecological catastrophe
doesn't enter their well-coiffed, pretty little heads.

-Stretch

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 3:20 pm

(Putting on flame suit) Or, is it free market, and capitalism? The poor often count on the specials to save money for something they or their family would like to have....Just sayin'
(You couldn't get me out there on Friday morning for all the savings in the world...I'll just keep putting pennies aside until I can find what I need at another time

)

bdhold · Post by **bdhold** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 9:03 am

Blaine, I think you're right in that there are many hard-working parents who may not have time options for shopping.

SJPrice · Post by **SJPrice** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 11:59 am

BlaineG wrote:(Putting on flame suit) Or, is it free market, and capitalism? The poor often count on the specials to save money for something they or their family would like to have....Just sayin'
(You couldn't get me out there on Friday morning for all the savings in the world...I'll just keep putting pennies aside until I can find what I need at another time )

Very thought provoking... Unless you have walked a mile in the shoes, you can only speculate over the experience.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 12:19 pm

Blaine,
bulldog,
SJPrice,
Thanks, I had not thought of that.
It may be the only for some people to afford what they need/want.

.45colt · Post by **.45colt** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 12:56 pm

Most of Us here are getting old. this stuff is just the "New Normal" in this world. most of the stuff that is bought on black Friday will be broken and in the trash in a year. in the big cities people camp out on the sidewalks for a week or more to be first in line to get the "BIG" deals. No End in Sight.

.

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:41 pm

This went in a different direction than my early light hearted poke was intending.

The trend here is to have weekend or week long events because we don't have Thanks Giving to contend with. Also it appears that Cyber Monday kicked Black Fridays butt!

My early days we were what folks now call the working poor. I remember how it hurt my parents that they couldn't get all the shiny stuff other kids at church got. I was brought up right, be thankful, always had a decent meal, clean clothes, and no-one ever messed with us twice with my Mom. I never meant to slander folks who need to make every penny squeal.

No need for a flame suit. I suspect most folks are on the same page when considered from that honest perspective. I'd be fighting to be first in line to put out the fire Blaine and I have no doubt it would be a long line!!

Happy Frigid Wednesday.

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 8:50 pm

Try to let it go, Bob.....After all, we forgave you people for burning down the White House...(Heck, could you do it again?

)

handirifle · Post by **handirifle** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 1:32 am

I figure most of the morons in those BF battles were also lined up to vote for the moron in the White House. They go from the freebie line to the black Friday line. Sure glad marketing people have this all figured out. Of course if black Friday were cancelled they would riot and get it free anyway. At least this way the stores make SOME money.

FWiedner · Post by **FWiedner** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:58 am

Thanksgving is not a religious celebration, it is therefore and by strict definition NOT a holiday.

In this nation, Thanksgiving is a day scheduled by the President and the Congress of the United States specifically to designate the opening of a commercial business cycle associated with an actual holiday, namely Christmas, whereupon copious exchanges of commercial goods are known to occur.

Black Friday is an obsolete but catchy commercial buzz-phrase that originated in the 1960's to indicate both the traditional beginning of the annual profit cycle, and the disruption to normal pedestrian and vehicular traffic flow due to an innundation of Christmas shoppers.

The way I see it, any business that wants to be open on any given day of the year should be able to fling their doors open wide.

To the shopping aspect, well... as a big grown up adult you do have the option not to patronize or work for those businesses for which you do not ascribe to their products or business practices.

92&94 · Post by **92&94** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 9:39 am

FWiedner wrote:Thanksgving is not a religious celebration, it is therefore and by strict definition NOT a holiday.

You have to go back several hundred years for that to be linguistically true. But you can certainly define words any way you like these days, Bill Clinton started that modern trend, no reason we should exempt you

FWiedner wrote:In this nation, Thanksgiving is a day scheduled by the President and the Congress of the United States specifically to designate the opening of a commercial business cycle associated with an actual holiday, namely Christmas, whereupon copious exchanges of commercial goods are known to occur.

Well, I guess reality is what you make of it

More likely is the explanation that the tradition of a post harvest festival is as old as agriculture, and that it became enshrined as a national holiday incrementally in the USA for political reasons after the Revolutionary War and during the Civil War and WWII - a convenient way to rouse some patriotism. That it became the "opening" of the Christmas shopping season in the post WWII material age is coincidental, and due more to marketing smarts than Presidential decree. But perhaps I've missed the joke if you're joking

But you are certainly correct that adults are free to stay home and not worry so much about it.

You might even say that the day after Thanksgiving is also the opening of the holiday season tradition of being a grump through January (I am certainly an eager participant in that one

)

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:00 pm

BlaineG wrote:Try to let it go, Bob.....After all, we forgave you people for burning down the White House...(Heck, could you do it again? )

Thanks Blain, just wanted to be sure I didn't insult you. I suspect you got a thick hide.

As far as the White House goes, only if the current administration got a third term. I suspect even the Dems would get out of the way. Oh no did I say that out loud!

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:17 pm

Canuck Bob wrote:
BlaineG wrote:Try to let it go, Bob.....After all, we forgave you people for burning down the White House...(Heck, could you do it again? )
Thanks Blain, just wanted to be sure I didn't insult you. I suspect you got a thick hide.

As far as the White House goes, only if the current administration got a third term. I suspect even the Dems would get out of the way. Oh no did I say that out loud!

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:28 pm

Canuck Bob wrote:
BlaineG wrote:Try to let it go, Bob.....After all, we forgave you people for burning down the White House...(Heck, could you do it again? )
Thanks Blain, just wanted to be sure I didn't insult you. I suspect you got a thick hide.

As far as the White House goes, only if the current administration got a third term. I suspect even the Dems would get out of the way. Oh no did I say that out loud!

Hell, the Mounties DEMANDED I cross the "Top of the World" crossing with a loaded weapon...

How could I NOT do the same for y'all?