oh so not true!! People need to understand how to do black Friday shopping right and the right way to do it is online scouting first. There's Black Thursday/online black Friday Black Friday-Which is in store, and then If you're still going strong then cyber Monday which won't have as many deals as online on Thanksgiving day. I got all of my black Friday shopping done online and it's based on availability and since most people don't shop online on thanksgiving it's like being in the store by yourself and there are some exclusives. I was done by 10pm and made it to bed while others were getting ready to go camp out *tsk *tsk. The bargains I got-18" laptop, 42" LCD, 16 pairs of jeans/pants from american eagle, 123 tops 6 prs of sunglasses from charlotte Russe, 13 hoodies 10 Shirts from Aeropostale, Two New totes From JCP, and 15 pairs of shoes from 6PM. Grand Total about $3,000. THANK YOU, Best Friday is and always will be my favorite day now that I don't do in-store shopping and can get all the ads categorized online.

Indeed. Calling it "Black Friday" is pathetic and disgraceful. I slept in until 10. Let the morons stand in the cold, stand in line, argue with each other, get into fender benders, and otherwise be morons. And I'm a hard core capitalist. Line up like sheep and you shall be shorn.

It's not rolling in debt if you can use your debit card. Christmas is about family time and some imaginary guy. I don't have a family and don't have need for that weird guy. So why is it bad to save money?? You're getting BARGAINS and you do need to upgrade eventually as far as technology goes. So my only guess is that maybe disgusted because...

Buy now, Pay later. What are you saving when you get hit with the monthly payments on your credit card with the high interest? My wife does her Christmas shopping throughout the year and uses cash. She buys a little bit at a time and what she does not buy, she makes. So by this time of the year she has her shopping all done and no big credit card bills to worry about after the first of the new year. Works pretty good. Today we will stay home while everyone else goes crazy looking for the "bargains".

This message is directed at the truly middle class workers out there. You know who you are. You've managed to evade unemployment (My apologizes for those of you who are out of work but have rainy day funds enough to get by. You've left the "middle class" and joined the ranks of the poor, your wallet just doesn't know it yet.) You drive a car that could be repossessed at a moment's notice if you missed a payment, and you live in a house that is likely worth quite a bit less than you paid for it.

Now I want you all to consider the consequences of what you may or may not be doing this holiday season. Because if you are planning to acquiesce to the "spirit of the season" and go out and spend money you don't have, on things neither you or your family need when you could very well have some financial emergency to tend to in 2010, please think again. The financial leaders of this nation need a good loud wake-up call. The stock market is already inflating a brand new asset bubble and it needs to be popped before things get much further out of hand. The ONLY way this will happen is if you and the rest of those who are tenuously holding on to a slippery spot on the great southerly moving ice burgh that is middle class America snap your wallet shut and just say "no." No to the "doorbusters", no to the"sales," no to the silly jewelry commercials, and no to the "bargain" big screen TV.

I know, some of you are thinking, "but the little ones, it's Xmas!" Fine, grab a few cheap toys off the shelves at Big Lots (didn't we used to call these stores the "5 & dime"?) and put'em under the tree if you must. If your kids are old enough to complain about this, then they are old enough to remember that you've probably given them anything they want or need over the course of the year anyway. Hell, if you really think about it, Xmas hasn't been a big deal for kid's personal economy since the first Starbucks opened up in your neighborhood.

The fact is, its time to scare the manure out of the hedge fund managers and the rest of the elite investment community in this country. Let them know that unemployment of 10.2% (20% if you omit the fuzzy math used by Washington) means no profits (holiday or otherwise) for ANYONE. They need to realize very quickly that they have pushed the economic tachometer so far into the red that they had better do some preemptive hiring to keep the whole thing from blowing up. BUSINESS NEEDS EMPLOYED CUSTOMERS. And they need to understand that right now. And I mean THIS YEAR. Because if we passively go about our usual routine spending money we don't have and "making the best of the holidays", they'll have bridge-profits to last until the Chinese middle class really gets moving. Once that happens, they won't need you at all. They won't need you or ANY middle class American consumer at all. After all, why pander to an American workforce who wants outrageous things like health care, a living wage, overtime, OSHA protections and all the rest of those worker benefits, when they can have CHINESE MIDDLE CLASS CONSUMERS who will still be cowering under the fear of their government but willing to buy cars and TV's and iPODS from the big multinational companies that really own this world.

Now some of you are going to say, "but without consumer spending even more jobs will be lost!" But the reality is that once the people who control the finances of the world take a step to the edge of economic collapse and look into its ugly gaping maw, they'll pull back. Hedge fund managers are COWARDS. Bankers are COWARDS. Hey if you don't believe me just try to get a mortgage or any other kind of credit today. They'll take one look at the prospect of no big bonus, or worse yet, a stock market loss and say "can't let THAT happen. No way!

However, if we let them think that this country has adapted to their "new normal" of sky-high unemployment and frozen or falling wages and benefits, then that as they say, will pretty much be that for middle class America. Your employer will own you even more than they already do. And you won't make so much as a peep if your company raises your health insurance premiums, cuts your wages or eliminates your 401k matching. In fact, you'll happily do the work of three people while humming the company jingle. Because you will just be happy to have a job. And that will be your legacy, and the legacy of your children for as far as the eye can see.

So put away that cash, you're going to need it next year for sure anyway. And remember, Xmas may come but once a year, but economic tyranny can last a lifetime.

"It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it"

HARRY

A DEBIT card means my checking account!! The only form of financing I have in my life is a car and that is not hurting me. WHY is everyone being brainwashed into believing that people aren't able to keep money in their bank accounts?! Good for you and your wife. I don't own a credit card. People it's okay, not everyone you see is supposedly living through interest and hating the corporate world. I think maybe all of you want to believe that anything that can be bought is a ripoff and all things commercial/retail hurts everybody. People get your heads out of your asses. Do the math and see how it rounds out and that this time of the year is actually quite enjoyable for some of us.

got to love reading about the women saying she is struggling with her hours cut from 40 to 25 a week yet she still came up with $175 for a camera which is certainly not a necessity!

Ben Richard - not everyone has their head up their a$$ in debt. I dont have any debt and I'm sure thousands of americans are the same way. We who are intelligent with money and spending enjoy days like this when there are deep price cuts. I have been taking advantage of all the sales this past year and I'm still not in debt. I just wait till I can buy what I want with out putting in on a credit card. Its simple. Oh and by the way i only make about 40k a year. So know I dont make grossly amount of money.

Its called live within your means.

I do hope the people going out and buying this christmas are not just digging themselves farther into a hole. America wont get back on its feet till most americans are out of debt.

For real bargains, try thrift shops, yard sales, and (my personal favorite) Freecycle. If you live in the right kind of neighborhood, there's also that neighborhood Freecycle called "the side of the road on garbage night." You won't get the very latest gadgets this way, but you WILL get what you need, even TVs, DVD players, furniture, etc. For instance, last night we put down a perfectly nice freecycled carpet in my son's room. With what you save via these methods, you can afford those online deals. I don't have to ruin my favorite holiday by getting up at 4 am the next morning or risk getting trampled to death to make use of any of these wonderful ways to save money AND the environment.

To #1 - very few people act like 'idiots'; haven't you ever been shopping on Best Friday or are you just parroting what you see on the news? We had fun conversations with people in line (we waited sinced 3:30 a.m.) and everyone was polite. We didn't get things for Christmas - we got things that we needed now (so there goes your humbug Christmas theory). Target was great! & thanks for the reusable shopping bags!

Its kinda dumb standing in line in the cold for hours to save a few $$, then charge on a credit card. You will end up paying more than its really worth.

Besides, if you know where to look, the stores have been having crazy sales but not advertised all year. And being spoiled by all these deals all this year, this black friday deals are just plain weak. Its not worth the gas to try to buy them.

And also, my time is valuable so to me, waiting in line for hours before the store opens and then wait even longer to get checked out is time wasted when I could be doing other things. And not everyone likes to go shopping all day to buy those few items.

Judging by the crowds, it appears that the recession is over, or there never was one in the first place.

Either way, people have lots of cash or credit to spend! And either way, Main Street isn't saving.

I am waiting til Cyber Monday to do my shopping- lots of companies have huge deals online and the quantities dont run out as quickly. I use http://www.gopromocodes.com cause there are coupons too, saved $112! and no ads and junk all over the site...

Folks, you can bash the commercialism of the season all you want and I won't disagree, but the reality is the next five weeks make or break some retailers' years, especially smaller ones.

We created this reality, only we can "un" create it.

Having said that, this of all years is probably the worst one to decide you're going "stick it to d'man" by NOT shopping. Because you're not sticking it to d'man, you're sticking it to those retailers. D'man ain't gonna notice for several weeks, if he ever does, but that local retailer will and their doors may be shut on Jan. 1. D'man has millions elsewhere to rely on, the small retailer doesn't.

If the commercialism pisses you off, don't buy into it. Stay out of the Targets and WalMarts and Sears - I did. Go local. Pay a few bucks more to help keep the local hardware store in busines, NOT Home Depot. Get gift ceritificates for a local restauraunt. The chain, department and big boxes will be fine, even if this year's holiday momentum doesn't continue. They local guy won't be fine.

Smartest comment yet. I always patronize local merchants whenever possible.

Well..it appears SOMEBODY has some money!!! According to this story, even laid-off people were doing the waiting-in-line-for-store-to-open thing. Look, either there is a recession or there isn't. People either have money or they don't. Judging by the reaction thus far, it's definitely not the latter. People were apparently out spending like drunken sailors, as usual, and to think there was just a story a week or so ago about how bad people were doing after having lost three cars, their house, their job and are going back to school to learn a new trade, living in a college dorm and yet, a week or so later, the story is "early reports indicate a better than expected shopping turn-out, definitely better than the previous year"...woohoo..let the shopping begin!!!!!

Uh...as for me, no thanks!!! I'll be content to sit on the sidelines and leave the propping up of corporate CEOs to the Americans who forget too easily who is really benefiting from outrageous spending especially if indeed over 16 million Americans are jobless and will remain so due to the fact that businesses can still remain open by working to death the few remaining employees they have or is this just another falsehood!!!!!

Cookie: When I had a store in a mall, I got up early, drove in, and kept hearing on the radio that "traffic is backed up anywhere near a mall."

I drove right in. Of course, the anchor stores had their outside doors open, and almost no one was coming into the mall proper. It was actually a very typical day on the whole for anyone not part of Old Navy/Limited/Gap or the jewelry conglomerate that owns 80% of the mall jewelry stores, or Sears or Macy's.

People say "Happy Turkey Day" and discuss how much money they're going to spend for the holidays. As an agnostic, I thought Thanksgiving was supposed to be borderline religious, and I know Christmas is supposed to be.

It's an excuse to make money from morons. How can you spot the morons? They're in line and stressing. I'm going to sit here and enjoy a late brunch, and laugh.

Cookie..I have not heard anyone say shop and you will be a good christian. Nor a good American come to think of it..

Cookie..are you making things up or do you have too many nuts in your dough....?

Yea, I got a flyer on my door step yesterday that had an LCD TV for $499 that was normally $1000. I said to myself, man! Im getting that! Then, I read underneath it in little bitty words said they only had 5. ;( WTF?! I'm not getting up at 3am to go stand outside with a bunch of highly motivated nut cases!

Cookie...If that is what you are getting, you sound pretty simple minded...

I'm not getting that at all. Ergo, they do not have me..

Also alot of the flat screens that was on sale on black friday are garbage. Alot of the low ends tend to have only 90 day warranty and usually breaks before the 1 yr mark. If they going to spend that much on tvs mind as well get a good quality ones from reliable manufacturers. My friend finally got the hint after going through 2 tvs, kept buying the cheap ones.

But a new TV (or a TV at all) isn't a need.

And if it cost just $1,000 then it isn't a good one, and even at half price, $499, that's throwing money out the window.

Double whammy. $499 for a poor quality TV, and $499 out the window that could have made part of a mortgage payment that you want taxpayers to make for you.

Elizabeth - I feel for you. For years, I've had to spend Christmas Eve with people I only see once a year to give gifts that are practically graded by everyone because there's this whole production over opening stuff. By the time we're done, it's usually 1 in the morning and I'm out around $1,000. This year, we've finally drawing names and I'm buying for my kids, husband, and parents - that's it. Yes, Christmas has become commercialized, but often family obligations and expectations contribute to the madness.

13 gifts?!? Unless you have 13 minor children or grandchildren, I cannot see this. The adults in your life don't need store bought gifts! If buying cookies seems tacky for some, bake them some or knit a scarf or something. For your parents or in-laws, if they're local, offer "coupons" to do things for them like cut their grass or care for their pets when they go on vacation. Any of these would mean more than yet another tacky scarf or tie.

So why do you let your sister in law dictate for the whole family? Grow a back bone and say "No", I"M not shopping for junk made in China this year. Then do what you feel like. That's much better than doing for others so begrudgingly. The worse thing you can do is be resentful at Christmas time when you have an opportunity to give in some way.

I don't buy any gifts for anyone. Period.

I do spend the day with family, and the rest of the family spends and spends and spends on gifts, and then the next day I wake up with no bills to pay and everyone else whines about how much Christmas costs.

Guess who, exactly, has the very best day-after-Christmas?

Don't be silly. Mister 0bama would never give out corporate welfare to megacorps. He CARES about common Americans.

You forgot to mention that is would be two weeks later "on a late Friday afternoon or evening". MSNBC would never do anything to upset the great one

I'm with you. If I cannot buy it online with free shipping...They don't need it....

Yes but it is not Cratchit's fault and it is Scrooge's responsibility to pay him a fair wage. Scrooge has much more than he needs.

Since we don't know exactly what Cratchit's salary was, how can you say he wasn't being paid a fair wage? Why should his employer be responsible because ol' Bob couldn't keep it in his pants?

Um, I hate to tell you this, but both Cratchit and Scrooge were fictional characters, and Dickens was trying to make a larger point anyway. Cratchit is basically just a foil; Scrooge is the main character and the story is all about how he screwed up his OWN life, not that of his nephew. I suppose Cratchit could have found another job.

Sure they were fictional, and I agree with you about Dickens' larger point. My original post was focusing on one aspect of the story. BTW, Scrooge's nephew was Fred, and his life didn't appear to be screwed up at all.

Thank you "StoneCold" for mentioning Scrooge's nephew who was generous, warm in spirit and heart.

Fred had his priorities in place!