Thoughts on Black Friday
by What is it about the day after Thanksgiving Day that turns the American consumer stark raving mad? Black Friday, even the name has a sinister ring to it. I’ve worked in retail most of my adult life and have seen more than enough of these Super-saving Sale Days. Let me tell you about Black Friday…
The economy is about as low as it can go and not be dead in the water. The plan…Get the consumer in the store. Offer them sale prices they can’t pass up. Get them to buy, buy, buy. It worked, well sort of but there is a catch to it.
Most of the buyers buy on plastic, not the real stuff, not money you can use upfront, just a promise and the weakened economy is too weak to support all that plastic when the ball bounces; there is no money to back it up. The banks pay you and the people pay the bank but there is a problem. If the people have no money to put in the bank to pay their credit cards, the bank has no money to pay you and the banks crash. The banks lock their doors and you can’t get any money, not even a little billion dollar loan and your creditors want their money. It is a vicious cycle.
People don’t carry cash around with them much any more. It is too dangerous, but they have plastic, that promise to pay. They know they haven’t got the money but Christmas is coming. How are they going to explain to the kids that Santa and his elves are all out of work and Christmas ain’t happening? They take the risk. After all the government is saying it isn’t as bad as it looks and we got a plan. It will be okay. Go ahead. Have a Merry Christmas.
Companies, to stay afloat, have to downsize and cut corners; that means major layoffs, no money to pay the credit card debt. You’ve just laid off your best customers, the people who work for you, believed in you. The consumer made a promise he can’t keep because he just lost his job.
Big Companies are begging for money from good old Uncle Sam to bail them out of the mess they got themselves into. Good old Uncle Sam says okay, and prints more money…inflation happens when there is too much green stuff floating around and the government doesn’t have anything to back it up with other than promises, the same type of promise you are making to your creditors and your customer is making to you. Uncle Sam prints more money to bail you out and the dollar is worth a whole lot less than it used to be.
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