Black Friday: A Holiday Itself by Delia Brengel

            Despite the few who stayed home as they feared for their lives and their wallets, many people did go out and brave the crowded parking lots, long lines, dehydration, and all other perils that come along with the dreaded Black Friday shopping.

For some, though, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a holiday itself.  People see it as a challenge to be the first person at the mall or outlets, lining up as early as they can, even the night before, just to get in and score the best deals as fast as they can.  In fact, I myself went for the first time and found the rush of nabbing the perfect item at a low price exhilarating.

Joanne Ardizzone, a local mother of four, trekked to Best Buy and P.C. Richard & Son in search for good deals on Christmas gifts.  “Best Buy was very crowded and P.C. Richard was very crowded [as well],” the avid shopper relayed, “Best Buy was worth it [tolerating the crowds], but P.C. Richard was not.”

This year, people seemed to have embraced the sales and coupons and decided to loosen their budgets slightly.  The International Council of Shopping Centers’ Index (ICSC) reported an increase of 5.8% in profits of stores open for at least one year compared to last November.  According to the LI Press, Macy’s CEO, Terry Lundgren released that there were 7,000 people waiting in line Friday morning for the 4:00 a.m. opening of the Macy’s in New York City, compared to only 5,000 people in 2009.  Hopefully this means that the recession is making a u-turn and that there is now more money in people’s pockets, since they were more willing to spend it.

Even with the suddenly cheerful wintry air weaving between frantic bargain hunters, a whisper of grief could still be heard.  Just two years ago in 2008, a careless tragedy occurred when a stampede of shoppers charged into a Valley Stream Walmart store and killed one worker who was attempting to manage the extreme line of people.  Due to stricter security of stores, no casualties occurred this past Black Friday.

Whether you’re going for the great deals or just to burn off all those extra Thanksgiving calories, Black Friday is definitely the biggest shopping day of the year, but who wants to deal with crazy people and aggravatingly long lines? So the question is: to shop or not to shop?