Some of you returning from the break might notice some new pieces of furniture or electronics lining your room. You ask your roommate the obvious:

“Black Friday?”

The day after Thanksgiving in the United States has almost universally been accepted as the day for the best sales all year, being the first day for Christmas shopping and part of a long weekend, for many this comes as no surprise. 

Beyond sales what purpose does this “holiday” serve?

None. Absolutely none.

It’s purely for the benefit of stores, yet we act like these sales somehow benefit us.

In what way? Because you got something you never would have bought “cheaper?” It is not a bargain to buy something you never would have bought, you are not saving money if you never would have spent that money otherwise.

Of course, some people go out and buy things that their family actually requested for Christmas, there is no problem in that. However, according to Andrea Pizzolo of The Cougar, more and more chains have begun making cheaper inferior products for specific sales on Black Friday to save cost, then switching back when the sales are over. You are not saving money, you are getting a lower quality product than you would have on any other day.

Speaking of days, we are not even referring to a single day when we say Black Friday anymore. Many stores now start their sales on Thanksgiving itself, others ending them late into the Saturday after.

This surely doesn’t benefits the employees being forced to work on these days rather than being with their families. What benefit is there to be had by feeling the need to go out shopping instead of, once again, being with your family?

There is not a single benefit.

At the end of Black Friday all we have is a bunch of stuff that we won’t even care about very soon. It will all break or be obsolete.

We put such high value on material objects that we don’t realize that we could be happy right where we are.

You can get a new flat screen TV, but does that match up to seeing your newly born nephew for the first time?

You can buy a new furniture set, but does that stack up to eating with your great grandfather that might not see another Thanksgiving?

You can get all the new things you want, but in the end it won’t match up to the memories of the people you love.