Just continuing a personal tradition here in which every year on Thanksgiving or the Friday after I vent about Black Friday on the Internet. When I was a kid it was just the "After Thanksgiving Sale" and some stores opened early and had a few sales. However today it's not even Black Friday anymore it's Black Thanksgiving Day or Thank You For Shopping Day as it has spilled over into Thanksgiving Day itself. I'm sure most people around the world are aware of Black Friday in America but if you aren't just go to Youtube and look up Black Friday 2014 and see Americans at their "finest."
We still have Thanksgiving at my families house but people leave that evening to go shopping. I worry about them too. Every year you hear about people getting in car accidents, being mugged, attacked in the store over the last of item X or trampled as people run over each other in an attempt to get a hold of that cheap TV or gaming system. It's an American tradition that needs to end. People lose their minds and stop thinking clearly. They do things that any other day of the year would make them cringe. One year a sixty something year old man had his arm broken as he was repeatedly shoved into a wall as people ran past him to get to what ever items they wanted. Another year a woman pepper sprayed someone over the last Xbox. As American we should be ashamed of ourselves for having created such a nasty tradition and let it go...but we probably never will.
One of my coworkers said that last year a woman said to him, "it's sad you have to work today." He replied, "you're shopping aren't you?" The disconnect is staggering.
It's far too profitable to be stopped. Even if they changed the name or change the date, there's always going to be that big day for x-mas shopping.