Retailers Want Your Wallet; Santa Wants A List

We trace Black Friday from an 1869 gold market crash to a modern retail machine, then share a simple plan to avoid debt while keeping the season joyful and meaningful. Lists, budgets, fewer gimmicks, and a return to purpose make the holidays lighter on money and heavier on love.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Show Framing
• 1:04 The Original Black Friday: Gold Crash
• 2:45 How Retail Turned Red To Black
• 4:32 Philadelphia’s Chaos And The Name
• 6:05 Why Black Friday Feels Predatory
• 8:19 Plan Early: Lists And Expectations
• 10:56 Budgeting And Year-Round Shopping

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast or website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of a Queen's opinion. Any content provided by our bloggers or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

Welcome to a Queen's Opinion. My name is Queen. My boy, my opinion, and your listening ears. I was curious about how this name started in history. I took a little time to check out the history of this phrase Black Friday. So I went to the history.com website. This is where I found out that Black Friday had nothing to do with shopping. This term came about during 1869 regarding the crash of the U.S. gold market. Back then, two wealthy men worked together to buy as much of the nation's gold as they could so they could drive up the price of gold. Then, of course, they turned around and tried to sell it for more profit. This smart idea of the two wealthy men caused the stock market to crash and hurt fellow Wall Street millionaires and the little people like farmers. Black Friday is not a new term, but the term is now related to retail instead of gold. The term now represents retailers taking advantage of consumers. According to the History.com website, retailers were in the red, which means they were losing money. Profit. Retailers knew that consumers were going to be spending crazy money for the upcoming holiday like Thanksgiving and Christmas. So they created promotions and discounts on merchandise to get the consumers into their stores. This plan worked, and it put the retailers in the black, meaning increasing their profits. So, what is the real history as it relates to Black Friday in today's time? Well, according to history.com in Philadelphia around 1950, the police started using the term to express the chaos of the city the day after Thanksgiving. They described traffic issues, a flood of people in the city watching the football game, shoplifting rates were up, and there were long working shifts for the police. I can only imagine working as a police officer or working in a retail store dealing with these types of issues. Not much has changed. We still have some of the same issues, if not worse. I think Black Friday is a negative term. When I think about Black Friday, I think here comes the retailers trying to rip everybody off. Retailers charm us to put ourselves in debt. They play on the emotions of the children, our desires and wants for merchandise. So we spend money we don't have because they know we want to give our children and our loved ones whatever they want for Christmas. So we dip into our pocketbooks and pull out debt. We don't have the money. We start charging on those credit cards, and the next thing you know is the new year is here. We are broke. We are beyond broke. We are digging out of a hole for the next 10 to 12 months. And then we start our cycle back over again. Well, this year, I hope you won't go into debt once you listen to this episode. Are you tired of being in the red? Your answer should be yes. If you answer yes, then you should have a plan for the holiday gift giving. I know people who start their Christmas list in January, and some of them even start shopping for Christmas in June. Sounds a little familiar. We should incorporate a little process from Santa Claus, which is to make a list and see if we have nice or naughty people on the list by June. Well, as a mother, I thought I'll let you in on little Christmas tips that will help you save a little money, time, and not have to pull out those credit cards. Here are a few tips. Number one, make a Christmas list early in the year. It's okay to ask your children, your friends, your family members what they would like for Christmas. Now, of course, your children are going to give you an extraordinarily lengthy list. Your friends are going to say, I don't want anything because I'm unable to give you something. It's not about receiving a gift from your friends. It's supposed to be an expression of love and kindness to the other person. So if you get a gift, that's great. That's awesome. But if you don't receive a gift, it's okay. We are grown people. We don't need gifts to express or show our friendship or love. Make the list early so you will have the time to save the money to get the perfect gift the person wants or needs. Number two, review the list that you have made. Make sure you give the children a number of gifts they can have from Santa Claus. Let them know that Santa must ensure all the kids in the world receive some type of gift. So they need to choose wisely. I would say the number of gifts the kids would receive are between five and seven. Then you add two, which would be a gift from mama and daddy. Then add another gift, which would represent a gift from their sibling. At the end of the Christmas list for the children, they are going to end up with a minimum of 10 to 15 gifts. Number three, set a budget for the holiday. Some of you out there may be thinking the budget should have been first, but I chose to make it number three because once I have made a Christmas list, then I would price those gifts on the list or set a limit for the people on the list. If they were friends, coworkers, or neighbors, I would set a gift limit of$30 per person. However, when it comes to the children, depending on what they have listed on their Santa Claus list, I would price each item and see if it was reasonable in the price and budget. Then I would add up all those items from family and friends to produce my total Christmas budget. Now that I have set the budget, it's a matter of sticking to the budget and putting money aside throughout the entire year, starting in January. I would purchase gifts throughout the year. If I save money because an item on the list is on sale at the unusual time during the year, I will purchase it and put it aside until the holiday. Number four, stop buying all this wrapping paper. If we stopped buying wrapping paper, you could have bought an extra gift for somebody. All the children are going to do is wake up that morning and rip through the paper to get to their gift that Santa left them. I'm going to sound a little bit like Scrooge, but when my children were small and Christmas came around, I did not wrap gifts. I did not wrap gifts for anybody. When my children woke up on Christmas morning, all their toys were laid out around the room, some under the Christmas tree, some lying on the sofas. I do not buy wrapping paper to wrap all these gifts up so I could throw my money in the trash can. The kids don't care about the wrapping paper. What is important to them is what's on the other side of the wrapping paper. So I save myself a little money. Number five, stop buying extra food for one day. Stop buying extra food for one day. Yes, we want to have a beautiful meal for the holiday, but we buy too much. We spend too much money on food. We prepare four to five meats, 10 to 15 side dishes, five to seven desserts, five to seven different drinks, all this food for one day. I was guilty of over-preparing for a family of four. I had enough food for at least 20 people. I suggest you plan a beautiful Sunday dinner for the family because if you think about it, very little eating is going to happen on this day. The children are going to be too busy playing with toys, games, and talking to friends. They are sharing what Santa Claus brought them and talking about how to play all those new games online. Food is the least of their worries on this day. The children are going to be happy with a beautiful Sunday dinner menu. Are you tired of being in the red? If you are tired of being in the red, don't get twisted in the retail marketing gimmicks. Be wise this holiday season. Let's try to be financially healthier and smarter with our hard-earned money. In the end, we must remember Christmas is a holy day. We need to remember the purpose of Christmas and why we even celebrate this holy day. It's not about gifts, but it represents a day of love. It's about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And there is no better gift than Him. So if you want to give a gift, wrap it with love and give Jesus your heart and soul. No purchase necessary, no credit card required. A Queen's Opinion is a podcast that allows people, especially women, to think out loud about life situations and seek an opinion without being judged. This podcast is supposed to lift you up, encourage you to be the best person you can be, to inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and into your queen zone. I didn't say my opinion will solve your problems. I am not saying that I am right. But what I am saying is I'm going to give you another view of the situation from a distance. No more thinking or questioning a situation by yourself. Ask the queen. Go to our website, www.aceensopinion.com. And click on get in touch to leave your feedback or leave a question for the queen. Don't forget to like us wherever you get your podcast. Thank you for taking time out of your day. I hope you join me for my next episode. Until then, goodbye.