Black Monday today? I'm already sick of sales

By Dian Vujovich

Don’t know about you, but I’ve become sick and tired of opening the newspaper and day after day after day reading about sales advertising discounts of 30, 40, 50 percent and more off goods at retailers.

Don’t retailers know that too many sales at the same store eventually makes shoppers feel as though they’ve been getting ska-rude? I mean, why would anyone pay retail again when they know that there’s a pretty good chance the item is likely to be on sale sometime soon? Lost-leader or not (that’s what these discount sales are called), sooner or later shoppers are going to catch on and look at more than just the sales price.

A good friend of mine gave me her two-cents worth on the subject adding that not only is everything on sale these days but the quality isn’t what it used to be either. Two examples she pointed to were the clothes at T.J.Max and Marshalls. Have to admit, she makes a good point.

Guess all of this is representative of fallout from the Great Recession: Stores gotta sell; shoppers gotta buy; but too many sales don’t fly. Particularly once shoppers begin adding two-plus-two and figuring out that 50 percent off still leaves the retailer with a good margin, but maybe not the shopper.

It’s also a little early to start selling Christmas stuff don’t ya think? Costco has had holiday merchandise for sale since before Halloween as have a number of other stores. Absurd.

I’m guessing that the notion of a Black Monday had to be the result of some ad genius’ early Halloween sugar high that they had in July when they thought pushing Thanksgiving’s Black Friday to the day after Halloween made sense. Highs often do that– make some things appear to make sense that really don’t.

Remember when there were back-to-school sales, followed by goodies for Halloween immediately followed by Thanksgiving stuff? Back in those days, Christmas and Hanukah didn’t find their way onto the scene until late November and we all managed just fine. Gifts got purchased. Presents got sent and smiles got made.

It was a better world then. People anticipated things and looked forward to stuff. Today, stuff is rammed down everyone’s throats way too soon by that dirty little four-letter word “s-a-l-e” that cons us into thinking we need stuff we really don’t. Or that the price of something is too good to pass up.

What fools we all can be.