Fever Pitch

Of course, no public holiday would be complete these days without the obligatory sales to go with them and over here in the US is no exception to the rule. Cue the so-called "Black Friday" - the day after Thanksgiving (also a holiday as i have mentioned) and when the shops traditionally wheel out their 'huge, price-busting bargains (TM)'. Now, as you can imagine, this is the perfect opportunity for most people to spend some of their hard earned cash on Christmas present for their nearest and dearest - all those things that they have been going on about for so long have suddenly been slashed in price. Of course, in doing this, there is also the great risk that the person in question may have taken advantage of the sales themselves and bought the thing as well, but hey, isn't it like that will all Christmas presents anyway? As you can guess, this day is also a boon for the shops and is considered a good indicator as to how well the financial year is going to be for them - quite how one day is extrapolated to an entire year is beyond me, but i bet involves some interesting maths along the way.

From talking to my American colleagues here in the lab, it's clear that a lot of the folks on this side of the pond take sales shopping very seriously - more so than back home it would seem. The tales of relatives, sibling and parents rising at 5 am merely to go and queue in the cold (yes, it is getting that way now!) in the hopes of grabbing that must have bargain or, as is more the norm, being able to tell friends and other relatives that they were 'first in line at so, and so...'. Why is it that, when it comes to the Sales, there always seems to be that one upmanship going on? Anyway, I decided to spend Black Friday steering clear of the downtown area (and shopping malls out of town). When I did venture into one of the malls on Saturday (more on this later), it was purely a matter 'go in, get what i want, come out'. The crowds were pretty hefty though. Looks like Black Friday may not have been so 'black' for the stores.