Yup, back to 3CM's lazy default mode for an SNLC this evening (and in absentee mode at that, to compound his cosmic loserness), namely the semi-regular appearance of the Post-Black Friday poll in SNLC, the 4th such poll diary in the history of SNLC (such as that is). Since SNLC has been on DK since 2006, it thus hasn't been every year. Some things, however, that self does seem not to have changed with the years. More below the flip.....
Not that it means much, but I certainly didn't hit the mall or the big box stores yesterday, which is par for the course. Instead, stopped by The Loop, first for lunch, which was actually from a mass mailing coupon for a Noodles and Company chain location. The coupon expired today, so obviously not much time left to use it hence lunch yesterday. It was for a free bowl of noodles, but I bought a side soup and a soda bottle to at least pay something for the visit, and not totally cheap out with the coupon. Soup and the noodles were pretty good. Did visit one used record/CD store and used up a credit voucher on 2 CDs that I don't have time to listen to, but at least were of interest to me. Their classical selection is far from the best, but then not every indie record/CD store, or at least those that remain, can't be Academy Records (NYC) or Amoeba Records (CA, 2 locations - I think, still). So not a whole lot there, regarding shopping or nominally stimulating the local economy with nominal spending of cash.
Of course, it says something of how naive and bubble-confined 3CM is that until a few days ago, he wasn't even aware of the phenomenon known as Gray Thursday, i.e. retail stores opening on Thanksgiving Day itself, such as reported on APM's Marketplace here and NPR's Morning Edition here. Just in concept, Black Friday is crazy enough with shoppers flooding the stores, but to extend the shopping madness on to Thanksgiving Day seems ridiculous.
However, I do remember hearing on one of these public radio stories (can't remember which), regarding Gray Thursday, that other businesses are open on Thanksgiving Day, like:
* Restaurants - serving Thanksgiving Day meals (natch)
* Gas stations - people have to drive to get over to friends and family for various bouts of over-eating, besides being with friends & family (the most important aspect of it)
* Movie theaters - start of the holiday movie season, and some folks will want to get out of the house
So in principle, it shouldn't be that objectionable in principle for retailers to be open on Thanksgiving Day. Just speaking intuitively, though, it doesn't make sense to me, at least, since those people who shop on Thanksgiving Day will shop on Black Friday or that weekend anyway, Perhaps my "zero-sum" thinking doesn't make sense (no big surprise there), but there it is.
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week, once you've voted in the poll, of course......