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it's that time of year again companies
are slashing prices cutting back costs
and we buy in by the masses all in the
name of a good deal
retailers opening their doors earlier
than ever to a crush of frenzied
shoppers Lord by seductive doorbuster
deals but these manic scenes of shoppers
stampeding into big-box stores on Black
Friday is something we see less of each
year as retailers have spread out sales
in an effort to increase profits and
likely decrease flat-screen TV related
injuries there's less of a mad rush you
know not every store is getting those
frantic and crazy crowds like they used
to yeah take a look at this video a news
crew set up inside a store ready to
capture the mad rush the doors open and
it's just one guy that's it
but it's hard to imagine that we ever
got so low as to fight over TVs hair
straighteners and furbies like some
fight for access to clean water they're
gonna beat me inside that mop and keep
me from getting my kids Christmas
presents
while the crowds have dispersed Black
Friday spending has remained consistent
historically the weekend after
Thanksgiving marked the unofficial start
to the holiday shopping season there's a
common myth out there that the term
Black Friday is used to describe the
time when companies go from being in the
red or unprofitable to being in the
black or profitable but this isn't true
the first time we see being used is in
the 1960s by police officers in
Philadelphia talking about the increased
traffic to the city it wasn't until the
early 2000s that retailers borrowed the
term to help promote their sales and
turn holiday shopping into a holiday
itself only Macy's could give America
parade on Thanksgiving and the biggest
sale of the year on Black Friday the
not-so-secret strategy used by marketers
to promote Black Friday Cyber Monday or
prime day sales they get you in the door
by drastically reducing prices on a few
desirable items like tech gadgets or
electronics but they hope you'll leave
with much more than you planned a filled
shopping basket
target CEO Brian Cornell says what I've
been most interested in is what's in the
basket you look at the people who you
know came out for a specific but then
they've actually taken the time to shop
for other categories which is really
important the fear here is seeing
baskets or carts with one item unlike
Brian's anxiety of shoppers coming into
a store and buying exactly what they
came for
my fear is that people are going to be
going further into credit card debt
buying [ __ ] that they don't need the
average consumer in America
already has over $15,000 worth of credit
card debt and it's only getting worse my
hunch is that most of the shoppers this
Black Friday are also among the 80
percent of the country living paycheck
to paycheck
I am racking up those credit-card bills
but who can resist Black Friday deals
the ones that aren't struggling are big
businesses and they've been using that
money to spend on marketing meetings
consumer analysts and data researchers
and it's been paying off
very few shopping carts leave stores or
online checkouts with just one item in
it walk into a thoughtfully designed
store and you're fighting against a
difficult tide culturally it's become
known as the target effect the result of
going into a store intending to buy a
few things and leaving with much more as
strong as the in-store techniques have
gotten that doesn't compare to the
litany of approaches used by their
online counterparts among them brands
track your every move and strategically
serve you ads leading up to their peak
shopping season they offer free shipping
on orders over thirty to a hundred
dollars influencing you to make one or
two more purchases to reach the sale
limit and as social media sites work to
make advertisers happy they're reducing
friction to sales by implementing tags
with direct links to products and that
doesn't even skim the surface but most
consumers don't care in fact they're
asking for it how else in the world
could you explain 1.6 million people
opting to follow Old Navy on Instagram
if the world ever needed a support group
I know 1.6 million people who could use
it
shopping has become a pastime I recently
came across a genre of video on YouTube
called shopping halls where people sit
down and share all the things they
purchased that day it's usually a lot
today's video is there's nothing like
this black reddit hall I go hard on
Black Friday it's primitive in a way
scouring malls like hunters and
gatherers biologically they must
experience the same feeling our
ancestors got hunting through the jungle
fighting for their lives and hauling
back a lion to their village okay maybe
not
here's the thing these companies care
more about their bottom line than yours
and while I wish they apply more ethical
practices to the way they made and sold
their products that's likely not gonna
happen any time soon so we need to take
responsibility over our own purchases
their job is to make more money to keep
their investors and board members happy
but you don't have to buy in by being
more intentional with our purchases we
can put more value on the few items we
do decide to buy this holiday season we
can embrace what Juliet Shore calls
true materialism we are too
materialistic in the everyday sense of
the word and we are not at all
materialistic enough in the true sense
of the word so I use the term true
materialism we need to be true
materialists like really care about the
materiality of goods in the fast fashion
world we buy and throw out we don't care
about the actual materiality of the
goods what matters is their symbolic
meaning that's why we discard them so
rapidly because they lose social value
now I'm not suggesting that we cancel
the holidays and entirely get rid of
gift-giving but I do think that we can
rethink the status quo here are a few
tips that might help this holiday season
instead of buying gifts for everyone in
your family suggest doing a secret santa
coming from a family with seven siblings
yes I grew up Catholic this is a great
way to make sure we weren't just buying
a bunch of crap for our family we were
being really intentional and buying one
specific gift for one specific person it
saved us money it saved us time and it
also create
a really memorable gift-giving
experience gift experiences instead of
things have a conversation with your
partner about how you want to exchange
gifts now and I have this conversation
every year about whether we're gonna be
giving gifts to each other or not some
years we do some years we don't this
year since we're going to Sydney twice
we've got a lot of travel we've got so
much going on it just feels like extra
stress that we don't need because we
have everything that we need we have
everything that we want already so
giving a gift would just be to continue
a tradition that we're not really that
into so instead of giving gifts what
we're doing is setting aside a day for
each of us to take each other out to
dinner
or make each other a home-cooked meal if
you're trying to save money this holiday
season and you've got some extra time
you can make something create homemade
candles or batch make cookies I'll never
forget one year NAT made me a scarf I
should say that she tried to make me a
scarf because what she ended up giving
me was a ball of yarn and a half made
scarf and to this day it's one of the
favorite gifts that I've ever gotten not
that I kept it but it made me way
happier than any present she could have
purchased at the store it's easy to get
swept up with the onslaught of
advertising this time of year brands
will have you believe that you will
never see another deal like this hurry
up it's a limited time offer only while
supplies last up to 60 70 even 80
percent off but the truth is that these
things won't provide sustainable
happiness and the best deal you'll ever
get this Black Friday is not buying into
the hype
people have asked me quite a bit why I
don't do advertising on this channel and
the reason is videos like this I want to
be able to criticize the status quo
advertising and continue to make fun of
Old Navy and while it might not make the
biggest difference in your day to not
have to sit through a fifteen or thirty
second it makes me really happy to know
that thousands and thousands of ads
haven't been served because I've decided
to take a different path if you want to
support my channel I've set up a patreon
account but I'm not just asking for your
money I've created tears that get you
access to content like my patreon only
AM a podcast and I also make videos on
minimalism filmmaking and business learn
things like how to grow an audience or
how to tell a great story through film
when I started this YouTube channel over
a year ago I never could have imagined
that it would have taken me here seeing
you guys in the comments every Monday
when I post a video seeing the
positivity the discussion around how to
live a meaningful life has truly and
honestly blown me away and it drives me
to make videos to put everything I have
into these videos every single week so
there's no material item no gifts that
could have been greater than that so I
want to thank you guys so much for being
on this journey with me and I look
forward to continuing to tell stories
and have this conversation with you for
the next Monday's to come
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