Friday, November 23, 2012

Today is Black Friday - Only 32 Shopping Days Till Christmas


Let’s see what this Christmas Season holds forth.

Today is Black Friday, which symbolically has lost its meaning. As far as Lego is concerned, today is Brick Day. Forget the traditional 6:00AM, 5:00 AM, or even 12:01AM store openings.  Walmart and Kmart jump started Black Friday by opening at 8:00PM Thursday, followed by Target at 9:00PM.

Most large retailers offer their Black Friday specials online as well as at stores. If you missed the pre-Black Friday and Black Friday internet specials, there’s still Cyber Monday, which offers more of the same, not to mention Green Monday, Super Saturday, Free Shipping Day, and January bills.

The stores offered pre-Black Friday specials, which were often the same as the Black Friday specials. Do not fret if you missed out on these specials since most be will be perpetually on sale through Christmas into the post-Christmas sales.

The Grinch arrived early this year in the form of two unions. The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union played chicken with Hostess management – not a tasty proposition. 18,500 workers lost their jobs before Thanksgiving while Americans are, at least temporarily, deprived of their sugar highs from Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and cupcakes.

No Ho Ho Ho’s for the workers and their families this holiday season.

The SEIU was chagrined that 500 members, working for a subcontractor at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), voted to decertify the union. The employees felt the employer offered them more than they would receive through SEIU’s collective bargaining.

Five other contracts are up for renewal with the risks that these workers will also ditch the SEIU.

The purple clad SEIU members threw a hissy fit on Wednesday afternoon, during the peak airline travel period, by mounting a demonstration on Century Blvd. leading into LAX. They shut down access into LAX for 90 minutes. They were the true Thanksgiving turkeys.

Other grinches will steal from Salvation Army kettles. At least one department store Santa will be accused of inappropriate behavior.

LA Radio station KOCE doesn’t even wait until Thanksgiving. It began playing Christmas Music 24/7 on November 20. Stan Freberg is still Dreaming of a Green Christmas.

The networks will offer the standard fare of Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Miracle On 34th Street, and It’s a Wonderful Life, interrupted by college football and basketball games. The Clapper and Chia Pet ads will reappear.

Let us partake of our usual ginger bread, fruitcake, rum cakes, and candy canes, while leaving milk and cookies out for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, unless we are still shopping the night before Christmas. Chick Fil-A, if you are part of the 50% of America who will patronize Chick Fil-A, offers a splendid Peppermint Shake.

We can expect the usual litigation over Nativity scenes and crèches in public places. Santa Monica said “A Pox on all displays” by banning all unattended displays in public parks, thereby depriving lawyers of a seasonal source of income..

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, following the earlier lead of Berkeley and San Jose, gave the world a great Christmas present last Tuesday by banning public nudity, subject to a few exceptions. The sight of corpulent middle-aged men prancing nude through the Streets of San Francisco constitutes visual pollution.

Remember, only 32 shopping Days until Christmas.

Also, only 32 shoplifting days until Christmas.

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