Black Friday, Cyber Monday Buy Nothing Day etc...

Here's what Black Friday means

If I ever end up shopping on Black Friday it's just for daily stuff like milk and cat food - if you're out of the essentials, you have to shop no matter the day. I'm with Bacchus - there is nothing enticing about these massive sales. If I need something, I buy it. I avoid buying stuff just because it's on sale and if I can wait till these events to buy something, I probably didn't really need it.

I thought that Black Friday is an American tradition.

That's exactly the other thing that bothers me about this, pookie. It makes sense for the US to have Black Friday at this time because it coincides with a holiday they celebrate. Here in Canada our tradition is Boxing Day. The only reason this became a thing in Canada was that retailers started promoting the idea. The worst thing is seeing ads and coverage in our media of Canadians going to the US to spend their dollars outside of the country and undermine our businesses. Isn't that borderline treasonous?

Misfit wrote:

Aristotleded24 wrote:

That's exactly the other thing that bothers me about this, pookie. It makes sense for the US to have Black Friday at this time because it coincides with a holiday they celebrate. Here in Canada our tradition is Boxing Day. The only reason this became a thing in Canada was that retailers started promoting the idea. The worst thing is seeing ads and coverage in our media of Canadians going to the US to spend their dollars outside of the country and undermine our businesses. Isn't that borderline treasonous?

Treasonous expresses many people's feelings about it, but it is an extreme word. Thoughtless, selfish, inconsiderate, rude, ignorant, obnoxious, hurtful, disloyal, all fit the description as far as I am concerned.

I suggested that word, particularly on the part of the media, because that actively promotes the economy in another country while undermining (what's left of) our own businesses.

I don't remember reading anything about spending a required amount of money in Canada when I studied for my citizenship exam, but I'm sure Jason Kenney's planning to add it one of these days. It's funny how businesspeople who rave about the glories of the free market when they're making money are so fragile when people freely take their business elsewhere. If I had to make a list of threats the United States poses to Canada, cross-border shopping wouldn't crack the top 10. I'm also guessing that every single Babbler posts here using something with parts made in China. If we want to talk about the tragedy of dollars leaving the country, maybe we should focus on the corporate world, not the customers.

It's not about setting a percentage of income that you have to spend in a particular area, or taking an absolutist hard line position against spending any money outside of Canada. Overall, if you encourage large amounts of shopping outside of your local economy, your economy will collapse, plain and simple. Say, for example, the Brandon Sun runs ads in the paper encouraging people to shop in Minot. Brandon businesses will collapse and have no money to put in the paper.

I agree that corporate behaviour is the main culprit, but I think it's a cop-out to blame that exclusively and to discount the power of individual decision making. Why do advertisers spend millions of dollars even though people say they hate advertisements? Because the advertisers have figured out how to manipulate human psychology to get people to do what the businesses want. What if people simply ignored the advertisers and just did what they wanted? If people start making different decisions about where they spend their dollars (maybe even opening up other business opportunities), that can influence corporate behaviour.

Then again, since I've essentially ignored Christmas for the last number of years, this is mostly a theoretical discussion for me.

Misfit wrote:

Ari is correct on this.

And Quiz, where you live it makes sense to buy in Alberta. You are a three hour drive from PG and just an hour from an Alberta city.

That's true, Misfit. I always wonder about people who think they are saving more money by shopping to the US, when at least part of the savings would be offset by the cost of gas, even if you buy the gas in the US where it is cheaper. As for shopping in different jurisdictions, there is a similar dynamic in play in southeastern Saskatchewan. It is far easier for many people there to shop in Brandon rather than go to Regina. Those centres would have more of what people need than Yorkton, Weyburn, or Estevan.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

 Say, for example, the Brandon Sun runs ads in the paper encouraging people to shop in Minot. Brandon businesses will collapse and have no money to put in the paper.

The Brandon Sun wouldn't "run ads" encouraging people to shop in Minot. That would be Minot businesses paying for those ads, right? And Brandon businesses wouldn't be buying ads of their own? I don't understand the connection you're positing between Brandon businesses and the Brandon Sun. The name?