OK, this "Black Friday" crap has gone completely stupid.!

[Brigid]

Some stores are opening at midnight. Worse, others are opening at 8pm on Thanksgiving. This forces store employees to work these ridiculous hours. Time to boycott stores during these insane times. Christmas shopping before the dishes from Thanksgiving dinner are even done? Really?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. One of our stores here had Black Saturday this past weekend.

That's getting a head start!

[Bjorn Against]

2. This could however be the first Black Friday worth celebrating if Wal-Mart employees go on strike

Make sure to join any striking workers in your community on the picket line.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I will, not on the picket

With camera, notepad and press.

[Marie Marie]

3. They are opening because they know people will show up with credit cards in hand.

Shame on them and shame on us. Give these underpaid workers their Thanksgiving back by NOT shopping at these stores. Yea, that'll happen.

[BlueMan Votes]

4. we always eat mid-afternoon.

by 8pm- the dishes are done and the leftovers put away.

[Victor_c3]

23. By 8 pm I'm already on my way for leftovers! n/t

[FSogol]

37. Same here. We like cold turkey sandwiches and root beer in the late evening.

[Tx4obama]

5. Shoppers Already In Line For Black Friday. article from 3 days ago below

Black Friday Shoppers 2012: Best Buy Shoppers Line Up Early In California
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/black-friday-shoppers-2012_n_2146691.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

[Raine]

21. I actually saw these people lined up outside of Best Buys

at first I thought they were lined up for something for the next morning but realized they had lined up awhole week ahead of time!

[JI7]

7. it feels like there is more mention of Black Friday than Thanksgiving

like Thanksgiving is more about black friday now.

[Victor_c3]

24. You can thank FDR for that

FDR moved thanksgiving to it's current date during the great depression in a move to extend the Chri$tma$ shopping season in 1939. Thank$giving is all about the money.

[Honeycombe8]

8. I will NOT shop at stores on Thanksgiving! That is ridiculous.

Besides, I'm going to be so fat and happy and sleepy, I can't imagine going out to stores.

Geez...this consumerism craze is getting out of hand.

[Butterbean]

9. I never shop on Black Friday, anywhere, ever.

[sarcasmo]

10. Greedy corporations screwing labor by making them work right after Thanksgiving dinner.

[Day And Night]

13. Depends

It honestly depends on your frame of reference. I used to work retail. It wasn't too bad working Black Fri weekends right after thanksgiving dinner. I'd just slip on my white Nikes, smoke a clip and then I'm on the way. It's my favorite time of the year when I did retail. The days went by in the blink of an eye and there was green -- in more ways than one.

[trixie]

26. I like the way you think

[Brigid]

16. There is only one answer to this:

Consumers refusing to hit the stores until at least a decent hour on Friday. These greedy retailers greedy retailers would get the message when they see empty stores.

[Booster]

11. Here in L.A. people started camping out at the stores on Monday. How stupid is that.

[Raine]

20. Yup, Sunday night I drove passed Best Buy and parking lot was full people in a line outside

the store. I thought they were waiting for some special in the morning but they are in line for Black Friday ... JESUS CHRIST!

[goclark]

28. In Los Angeles people reported

that they could not find a parking space at Target.

It was packed all day.

[Day And Night]

12. Normally..

Normally, I guess I would agree. I hate shopping. I just want to get in and out. I work 3 jobs, it pays the bills and I'm paying down my student loan debt in as big of chunks as possible. The few hours of free time I do have, I relax by playing on my 360. I've had it for 5 years since it came out. It's on life support now. Last legs and whatnot. Walmart has a black Friday special where I can get a 360 console for 150. If you know of a deal like that anywhere else but Walmart.. I'll take my cash there.

But I'm afraid that.. Capital (cash) rules everything around me. CREAM

[justice1]

17. Ask your friends what stores in your area honor other stores early bird specials.

I'm going to miss my small town Pamida, which is now a Shopko. Everyone in town would get up early and go to the burbs and city. I walked in at 9:00 a.m., with other stores ads, and they price matched everything. Best of all, I was the only person at the register.

[musical_soul]

14. I agree.

People shouldn't be opening on Thanksgiving Day. That's wrong.

It went crazy when people started running over each other at the Wal-Mart and other stores.

Tis the season to run over your neighbor for a tv.

Falalalalala!

Uh, no.

[WCGreen]

15. I remember when people started to gather on the day after Thanksgiving....

And go shopping. It usually was when kids came home from College, most for the first time, and went to the malls to hang out and see if anyone else was hanging around.

One of my friends and I would head up to the top of the town restaurant in Cleveland and drink Martini's and then smoke a couple hits off a joint and then float through the crowds...

Now, i haven't had a drink since 1983 and smoked a joint or anything illegal since about 1982 so that is how long ago it was.

We had a lot of fun as we ran into a lot of people we knew and then headed out to the bars where we hung out when we first graduated from high school.

Now, I wait for the reunions to take a trip down memory lane.

Still, we never really went for the bargains but to try and bridge that gap between high school and real life.

That is what i remember.

[JI7]

18. i think that's what it has usually been about , of course there would be sales

but i think it was more relaxing before. more about spending time with people , especially those you no longer regularly see.

[GeorgeGist]

19. All part of the Christmas War.

[Tx4obama]

22. I can't image that any Turkey cooks will be out shopping.

By the time I've cooked Thanksgiving Dinner, get it all on the table, put away the leftovers, and do up the dishes - my back and legs hurt so much that all I want to do is SIT DOWN and not get up! I can't imagine going shopping for at least a couple days after turkey day.

[xfundy]

27. Why aren't the men there helping you?

Geez! I grew up in an environment where the women did all the work and the men watched football, both at Thanksgiving and Xmas.

I could never understand why anyone would watch football, let alone golf.

When I was a kid I'd go into the kitchen and try to help out, but would often get asked why I wasn't watching football. Cuz it was boring?

Of course, when I grew up I understood the homoerotic value of watching sweaty "mens" all slappin' each other on the butt. But still, cooking is something that all enjoy, and I love to do my time in the kitchen.

Except for the clean-up ... I didn't get that gene. Nor the decorating one. Sniff.

[Brigid]

31. That these soldiers are in a combat zone instead of with their families is a damned shame.

But that is not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the stupidity of people camping out for days (don't they have jobs?) in front of Wal-Mart or Best Buy or some damn place to get a deal on a cheap Chinese-made TV or something else that will soon be broken, discarded, and forgotten, instead of spending time with their families, which is what the holiday is supposed to be about. And these stupid, greedy retailers encourage this--as if people wouldn't just do their shopping on another day. The whole thing just makes no sense to me.

I've gotten so I dislike almost any kind of shopping anymore, and find retailers among the most annoying entities around. You can't make a simple purchase without being plied with "offers" for other crap you have no interest in, which the retailers require that the clerks make (and, in many cases, "rate" them on how much "upselling" they do), which makes any transaction take twice as long as it should; the demand e-mail addresses so they can bombard you with spam, looking at you funny if you won't give them one; and send junk mail by the pound. It makes purchasing anything an exercise in frustration.

[PavePusher]

35. Which is why I don't go anywhere near any retail that weekend.....

if I can avoid it (and I'm not deployed).

My point is that anyone with a job, even at WalMart, that isn't in a combat zone, does not have my sympathy if they complain about having to work on a holiday.

This year I'm not deployed, but I'm always on-call, and have things coming up that I'll still be preparing for. Parents are coming down from Utah on Saturday, I still don't have the house cleaned up because the last two weekends were spent packing up the house of a comrade dying of cancer. So yeah, sympathy, out-of-stock, on perpetual back-order. TFB.

[2ndAmForComputers]

39. Heh. Shooting fish in a barrel IS fun!

[LittlestStar]

29. I actually am shopping Black Friday because what my daughter wants will sell out.

But that store doesn't open until 5am. Lucky me.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

30. Friday after Thanksgiving is a great football day!

So I will not be anywhere near a mall.

[funkhowser1]

33. Best Buy's in Tampa

Saw story on local news ... people have been camping out since Sunday. Best Buy provides electrical connections and PortaLets. Sad part was the 5 year old boy that has spent each of his 5 birthdays (Nov. 23) in a Best Buy parking lot with his parents waiting for the bargins.

[kairos12]

34. That is Child Abuse

[Carolina]

32. Thanksgiving

used to be food, family, fun and The Wizard of Oz!

Oh, the good old days... when Christmas decorations debuted after Thanksgiving, not before Halloween

[Archae]

36. Wal-Mart is bad, K-Mart is worse.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021856749

[cbdo2007]

38. You don't like buying cheap stuff for you and your family??

We easily save hundreds of $$$ on everyday items on black friday and Thanksgiving sales.