In his article “Black Friday… Grey Thursday” Benjamin R. Barber express his thought on how Thanksgiving has become a staging area for Christmas shopping. The Thanksgiving holiday is a part of our American history, slowly but surely it is being forgotten do to the overwhelming need to shop on Black Friday and Thanksgiving.

Barber states that” It is no longer Thanksgiving- Black Friday (as in “in the black, or profitable”)-that is devoted to consumerism, but Thanksgiving Day itself, on which more and more stores are now staying open for pre-Black Friday sales. Call it grey Thursday” (108). Black Friday is an International shopping day around the world, where you can get the best deals on different types of merchandise by shopping on Thanksgiving or the day after. While everyone likes to shop ahead, unfortunately they are forgetting about Thanksgiving and its meaning.

I personally am not a Black Friday participant and to be honest, it is not because I don’t like to shop or get a good deal. It’s because I don’t want to stand in crowded lines in 30-degree temperatures for something that I think I want and don’t need. Barber states” The Thanksgiving weekend comprises four non-working days: that’s ninety-six hours available for nonstop shopping” (109). One can buy many things in that amount of time and make companies plenty of money.

It seems like every time I look at my email or go to my mailbox for my mail I find some sort of material or ad enticing me to spend money on stuff that I don’t need. According to Barber “Where capitalism once produced goods and services to meet real needs and wants, today it produces needs and wants to sell all the goods, wanted or not, it must sell to stay in business” (109). So, the more and more the company markets itself, the more the business makes.

Black Friday is a great example of what corporations do to us with its marketing strategies. Barber says,” the shopping fanaticism we see on Black Friday, and throughout the year, is a supply side phenomenon: the result of corporations “pushing”, not consumers “pulling” (109).” It is to satisfy shareholders, not citizens” (109). Saving money and budgeting is a great skill to have but defining the difference between wants and needs is something that needs to be instilled in our brains, and not letting the retail industry bribe us into making them richer.

. “Black Friday will eat Thursday…” (110) Barber stated, and I couldn’t agree with him more. We are being brainwashed and the need to shop on Black Friday or Thanksgiving is only a lure dangling in front of our faces to make us believe shopping is what we need to do when really we should be with our families.

Works Cited

Barber R., Benjamin. “Black Friday…Gray Thursday.” What Matters in America. Ed.

Gary Goshgarian, 3^rd Ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. (108-110)