I HATE shopping! When my son and daughter came to me before Christmas one year and asked if they could have just one gift and a hundred dollars, my husband and I looked at each other and quietly said yes. After Christmas, my kids and I spent their vacation, shopping for things they wanted and we got great bargains. Everything was marked down and their was no rush. My kids still talk about those Christmas vacations and have fond memories. Having lunch and going to movies and being a family. By the way, before they came to us with their grand scheme, we spent $500.00 to $600.00 on each of them. It was never the money, it was the memories we made.

So much for over the river and through the woods from Grandmothers house we go..

Every year I am amused at how increasingly frantic the Black Friday shoppers get. Camping out on sidewalks, watching the lemminglike charge when the doors finally open. Really sets the tone for the meaning of Christmas, doesn't it? I always think of a Playboy cartoon I saw in 1970. It showed two young boys on the living room floor by the tree with toys, boxes, and wrapping scattered all around. One boy was saying to the other, "The thing that bothers me is knowing that thirty years from now, I'm going to be slaving away at some lousy job so I can afford to buy my kids a bunch of crap like this."

One new dark trend this year was extending the shopping mania into Thursday. I know retailers try to cram as much profit as they can during this period. But they shouldn't ruin their employee's Thanksgiving with their greed. And shame on all the shoppers who went along with this scheme by patronizing these stores on Thanksgiving.

Of course the retailers hope the nut bags will bring their credit cards/debit cards and check books. Of course they hope the idiots will spend like there is no tomorrow. All retailers care about is emptying their shelves of stock. They don't care that the economy is in the $hitter. just spend what you got and what you pretend to have.

I remain optimistic about this Holiday shopping season. More than likely anyone who has managed their money decently throughout the year may have some gift money to spend in a dire straits economy. The 1%-ers easily could lift the bar, so to speak, during this Holiday season by humanitarian spending. Many food banks, clothing shelters, homeless centers and other charity non-for profit agencies really could use a boost in funding. The wealthy in this country always boast about their willingness to give to charities over giving to our Government, so in this slow moving economy it will be an easy track-able trend to see or not see.

Personally, the average Holiday season for my wife and I is around 1200$, so minus the 10% to charities, we will spend a grand on our close net circle of family and friends. I believe, after looking back during the first part of the year, that this Holiday shopping season will be about unexpected rises in consumer spending rather the latter. Happy Holidays America, and continue the push for Banking reforms by becoming a member of a Credit Union......Just sayin...

when will people understand that the more they buy, the more wealth they ship to.... China. they don't buy "America made" products but the China junks. idiots.

I don't do Black Friday shopping. A lot of my family and friends skip it as well. If retail is hurting for customers, it means retail is too large at the moment.

Retailers pray you’ll be shopping. Here is why. At least that is the headline. Our Marxist NON God Believing moron in the white house in his Thanksgiving speech NEVER mentions God at least once. Either he does NOT know what thanksgiving is all about or he does not believe in a higher power. Either way we as Americans lose. Time to vote this personal OUT in 2012.

The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment.
Herbert Marcuse

When we try in good faith to believe in materialism, in the exclusive reality of the physical, we are asking our selves to step aside; we are disavowing the very realm where we exist and where all things precious are kept -- the realm of emotion and conscience, of memory and intention and sensation.
John Updike

“The best things in life aren't things.”
Art Buchwald Quotes

This whole retail system is poorly conceived and poorly executed. We, the consumers, are led like cattle into a coral and then, in the last 6 weeks of our calender year, turned loose to stampede in a mindless and violent frenzy to purchase goods that we could have purchased at any time during the preceding months without all the mania.

Of course the whole idea is to excite us emotionally, reduce our capacity to think logically so that, in our artificially induced frenzied state, we will buy impulsively and in excess for the sake of profiteering executives and stockholders.

All together now, everybody "Mooooooooooooooooooooo............" and don't forget to follow the one with the bell!

Dontcha just love WalMart?

I am not buying a single thing this year. Nothing. Our family (all grown ups) has decided China has enough of our money, and big box retailers treat workers like trash. So let them all eat cake. Those stores don't care about my bottom line, I don't care about theirs. You can't spend your way out of a recession.

This message is directed at the truly middle class workers out there. You know who you are. You've managed to evade unemployment. You drive a car that could be repossessed at a moment's notice if you missed a payment, and you live in a house that is likely worth much less than you paid for it.

Now I want you all to consider the consequences of what you may or may not be doing this holiday season. Because if you are planning to acquiesce to the "spirit of the season" and go out and spend money you don't have, on things neither you or your family need when you could very well have some financial emergency to tend to in 2012, please think again. The financial leaders of this nation need a good loud wake-up call. The stock market is already inflating a brand new asset bubble and it needs to be popped before things get much further out of hand. The ONLY way this will happen is if you and the rest of us tenuously holding on to a slippery spot on the great southerly moving iceberg that is middle class America snap your wallet shut and just say "no." No to the "doorbusters", no to the "sales," no to the silly jewelry commercials, and no to the "bargain" big screen TV.

I know, some of you are thinking, "but the little ones, it's Xmas!" Fine, grab a few cheap toys off the shelves at Big Lots (didn't we used to call these stores the "5 & dime"?) and put'em under the tree if you must. If they are old enough to complain about these cheap gifts, then they are old enough to remember that you've probably given them everything they want or need over the course of the year anyway. Hell, if you really think about it, Xmas hasn't been a big deal for most kid's personal economy since the first Starbucks opened up in your neighborhood.

The fact is, its time to scare the poop out of the hedge fund managers and the rest of the elite investment community in this country. Let them know that unemployment of 9.1% (20% if you omit the fuzzy math used by Washington) means no profits (holiday or otherwise) for ANYONE. They need to realize very quickly that they have pushed the economic tachometer so far into the red that they had better do some preemptive hiring to keep the whole thing from blowing up. BUSINESS NEEDS EMPLOYED CUSTOMERS! They need to understand that right now. And I mean THIS YEAR. Because if we passively go about our usual routine spending money we don't have and "making the best of the holidays", they'll have all the profits they nee to last until the Chinese middle class really gets moving. Once that happens, they won't need you at all. They won't need you or ANY middle class American consumer at all. Heck, why pander to an American workforce who wants outrageous things like health care, a living wage, overtime, OSHA protections and all the rest of those worker benefits, when they can have CHINESE MIDDLE CLASS CONSUMERS. People who will still be cowering under the fear of their government but, will be more than willing to buy cars and TV's and iPhones from the big multinational companies that really own this world.

Now some of you are going to say, "but without consumer spending even more jobs will be lost!" But the reality is that once the people who control the finances of the world take a step to the edge of economic collapse and look into its ugly gaping maw, they'll HAVE TO pull back. Hedge fund managers are COWARDS. Bankers are COWARDS. Hey if you don't believe me just try to get a mortgage or any other kind of credit today. They'll take one look at the prospect of no big bonus, or worse yet, a stock market loss and say "no way!

However, if we let them think that this country has adapted to their "new normal" of sky-high unemployment and frozen or falling wages and benefits, then that as they say will pretty much be that for middle class America. Your employer will own you even more than they already do. You won't make so much as a peep if your company raises your health insurance premiums, cuts your wages or eliminates your 401k matching. In fact, you'll happily do the work of three people while humming the company jingle. Because you will just be happy to have a job. And that will be your legacy, and the legacy of your children for as far as the eye can see.

So put away that cash, you're going to need it next year anyway. And remember, Xmas may come but once a year, but economic tyranny can last a lifetime.

"They call it the American Dream, because you've got to be asleep to believe it!"

they can have CHINESE MIDDLE CLASS CONSUMERS. People who will still be cowering under the fear of their government but, will be more than willing to buy cars and TV's and iPhones from the big multinational companies that really own this world.

In diplomatic relations, it is in the best interests of the U.S. not to be placed in a position as such. Civil War will ultimately start here on our soil during which anyone whom will venture to prosper off the backs of another nation's population. Laws ultimately will be changed in favor of the middle class as their numbers far out exceed that with a stroking pen in their hands at the voting booths. Look for laws to change to give more power to the people and their government in this country where we can actually vote someone out of their office in their tenure and replace them. We would love to do this to congress right now.

Huh, it appears that the "99%" still has plenty of money to blow on Christmas shopping. The media outlets are full of pictures of people hauling away gigantic HD flat screens, ipads, Xboxs, etc. No wonder Occupy protesters were calling for boycotts on Black Friday - which were obviously completely ignored. All of this conspicuous consumption kind of undermines their message of the poor, down-trodden, barely-making-ends meet 99%.

And I thought the economy was bad, people had no money and couldnt pay their bills !............When the stock market goes to 1000, theres no lines at 3am at these stores and the stores DO NOT do 400 billion dollars in sales for the holidays, I'll believe the economy is bad

Retail has turned society into a bunch of zombies willing to camp out in front of a store for 2 days just to save $50 on a tv set. Wow, we have nothing better to do with our lives that we resort to this low.

The violence surrounding the Black Friday shopping events is a sad statement and reflection of humanity and what our society is becoming.

Not everyone "camps out" anymore. Lots of deals online. I was pushing 5GB of ram just opening Black Friday deals. LOL And I even closed many of the tabs and browsers that I did research with. If I kept those "comparison materials" up, I would prolly use more than 8GB of RAM, which is the max on my computer. rofl!

I refuse to be a sheeple and play into this bull. No shopping from thanksgiving until monday!!!

This just goes to show that we need to get away from helping the super rich and large corporations and start helping regular consumers (70% the economy) get their purchasing power back and get the economy going.

Just watched Good Morning America report on Black Friday, 2011.

Up until this time I'd thought that Americans were some of the most civilized people in the world.

What barbarians!!!

What lunacy!!!