I used to love waking up at 3am to go with my brother to all the big retail stores and waiting on lines to get a bunch of cheap stuff. Lots of times, I wouldn’t even get anything at all. I didn’t go for the cheap stuff, I went for the adventure. But over the past few years, retailers have killed Black Friday.
Opening up stores on Thanksgiving Thursday at 6pm took the fun out of the adventure. While it is true that some people want to sit with their families rather than shop on Thanksgiving, that wasn’t really what killed it for me. For me, I can go to a retail store at 6pm any day of the year. What is the fun in that? The fun was that stores were open at 4 or 5am and people were half asleep and yet still excited. It took real dedication to get up super early to go shopping. But prying yourself away from annoying family members…
On the plus side, these days I see more atheists on Black Friday because for many atheists, shopping for deals is a great excuse to avoid those annoying overly religious family members at the Thanksgiving table.
These days, the Black Friday deals aren’t even that good and since they are usually spread out over two days, it is often cheaper and more convenient to just buy stuff online. Many stores now have Black Friday deals online anyway.
If you are going to be doing your Black Friday shopping online, I am going to ask you for a favor. Please use my Amazon Affiliate link: http://www.amazon.com/?&tag=dangtalk-20
Also, if you are looking for great books for atheist friends or family, check out the Dangerous Talk Bookstore. There are some of the popular atheist books, like The God Delusion and God Is Not Great, but there are also some lesser known books that are really worth checking out like, How “God” Works and Doubt.
Plus, you can pre-order some books that aren’t even out yet like Fighting God, The Illusion of God’s Presence, and Why Liberals Win The Culture Wars. I can tell you that I have received advanced copies of the latter two and they are both pretty amazing.
I add new books to the bookstore as soon as I hear about them, which can sometimes even be before they are released. So if you are looking for the very latest atheist books, the Dangerous Talk Bookstore is a great place to find them. If you see an atheist book not in my bookstore, let me know and I’ll gladly add it.
As for shopping the Black Friday Thursday madness, I haven’t decided yet if I will be doing that this year. What about you? Are you planning on shopping the Black Friday deals this year? Or are you going to buy your cheap stuff online? Leave you stories and/or comments below and remember to add yourself to the Dangerous Talk e-mail list at the top of the sidebar.
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- There Is An Atheist Community (skepticink.com)
