Perpetual Ruminations

Friday

Let's try this again. I had a good start, but accidently closed the browser. I'm trying out my new notebook, and sitting in the vehicle to boot. It's cold here, so I have a ton of cloths on, too. In other words, I'm cramped, bundled to the point of being restricted, and trying to get used to this little keypad. It's proving a bit difficult, but do-able.

It's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving; what a way t destroy a holiday. Not that I anything against sales. No, that's great everyone enjoys saving money. It's how they do the sales, that I don't like.

It would be bad enough with the rush of shoppers trying t get to the items before they sell out, but the stores make it even worse. They only put out a few items, so shoppers will rush to buy, then when the item is gone, they bring out more. They purposely only purchase a limited quantity of a high end item, put it on sale for a terrific low price, just to get shoppers into the store. They advertise this, and then announce in the store as well, when they will put a few2 more out.

All in all, it makes people rude, pushy, and in a bad mood. Since many places open the night before, they are also tired and upset by how much they are spending. But will they go home and get some sleep and save their money? Not while th3e sale is going on.

And the sad part is, except for a few items, everything will be back on sale for Christmas, without the store created shortage, for the same low price, or within a few dollars of it. In fact, I have watched item prices climb all summer, so that these super deals are not all that great 9f a deal anyway. Only a few items are really marked down as low as it sounds.

For example, this spring I purchased an electronic picture frame that was pretty nice for abut thirty dollars. By mid summer, this item was about thirty five dollars. By early fall, it was forty dollars. A month ago, it jumped to fifty dollars, and last wee, they were on sale for fifty-nine, ninety-nine.

Today they are on sale for -- thirty nine dollars and ninety nine cents. And the wine glasses are down to eight bucks from twelve. Yeah, the ones I was going to by last spring for four dollars. So, as you can see, most of it's a big rip off. Not all, but a lot of it is.

Back home now for a while. Rhonda and I had come in together, and she waited assisted during my shift, then I waited and assisted during hers. The next guard was pretty busy when her shift started, so Rhonda assisted for a while, before clocking out. I stayed and helped after Rhonda left to clock out, and by the time she returned, things had slowed down a lot.

I don't think it was very busy this afternoon, once the sale was done. I was surprised how many people showed up for regular construction items today. It's been very slow for any of the construction type items for a while now. Not today, for some reason these people showed up to get big orders filled. Of course they have to know the stores are swamped and everyone is busy, so I assume they do it intentionally just because.

Oh well, no different for me, or the yard workers, we can only do so much and then someone has to wait. Today, the sales guests received first priority over deliveries, freight, and non sale purchases. It's just got to be that way, to keep traffic moving smooth. So, some of these large orders took three or more hours to get loaded.

I'm just glad the day is over, it was a trying day. Not bad for working, just busy. That in itself makes the time go by quickly, but it's tiring, especially when it's cold and windy like today. Most of the guests were in high spirits and very pleasant, which also makes the day pass nicely. So, not a bad day at all, but trying only because I'm feeling very run down and wore out.

So, time for me to retire to some reading and then -- sleep.