Black Friday is pointless!

I am from the Netherlands and yesterday I experienced a Black Friday like no other, all the shops were going crazy with discounts that were borderline absurd. But it is actually a pointless fad, think about it, Black Friday has been created after thanksgiving to get rid of leftover stock. Most Americans buy gifts for thanksgiving in advance and that is why Black Friday is the day after and not the day before.

But here in the Netherlands (and many other countries) we don't celebrate thanksgiving in any way, shape or form, so there is no leftover stock for the shops and it has no meaning to us what so all.

Black Friday is bad for the economy!

On 5 december there is a national holiday called Sinterklaas that we celebrate and for that holiday parents buy loads of gifts for their children. Black Friday does not stimulate them to buy more stuff because the Dutch were already planning to buy those items for "pakjesavond". That means that we have never complained about the "regular" prices and that the retailers are compromising their profits by giving extra discount on a day that normally would have just as much traffic without the discount.

Globalisation is everywhere, mostly it results in a positive result but sometimes it just doesn't work in a particular nation's favour. There is no way back now for retailers, if they discontinue Black Friday they will lose out to internet shops (located abroad) and possibly have an angry mob at their doors who want the crazy discounts that the retailers have been stuffing down their consumerist
throats.

Having had my rant (it's the consumerism and brainless crowds that hurt my tender soul), let me be sober in my end calculations; once you start to crunch numbers, and make some careful comparisons, you'll soon discover you will be more out of pocket than you had hoped to be (for you will have bought more stuff you never wanted in the first place) while the actual savings you make are in fact peanuts (prices will have gradually been ramped up over the preceding months). So what really sucks, end of the day, is your grandmother on eggs.

St. Nicolaas drukte bij Vroom en Dreesmann 12-1995 (not black friday)