Thanksgiving Day in USA is synonymous with Black Friday shopping. It is the harbinger of the holiday season, which culminates on Christmas day.
Traditionally these 4 weeks between the Thanksgiving and Christmas day are the most profitable phase for all retailers. Whatever loss they might accrued in the last 11 months, they end up recouping in the final month of the peak shopping season.
In accounting, red ink shows a loss on the balance sheet, whereas black ink is used to indicates profit. Hence the name - "Black Friday", as the retailers go black or profitable from the Friday following Thanksgiving.
Now a days it should rather be called "Black Thursday", because stores are open on the Thanksgiving Day itself, rather than the Friday, the day following. With plan to buy a luggage on sale in my mind, I arrived 15 minutes before the 3 PM opening at the local J C Penny store in Chicago suburb.
The line was pretty long, it felt longer while standing for quarter of an hour flushed by a windchill factor of subzero temperature. The conspicuous heavy presence of DESIS (a slang used for Persons of Indian origin in US), nearly half of the crowd surprised me.
Soon I found out the reason. They store was offering $10 coupons per person, a major attraction for freebie loving Desis. A four member family can fetch $40 in free coupons. So buy something for $45 and end up paying only $5.
It reminded me of the huge crowd waiting for KANGALA BHOJANA (food offering for the miserables) on Puri BADADANDA (Broadway). The difference - a different kind of jacket and overcoat clad KANGALAs were standing for cheap products as DAANA (gift) with $10 as DAKHINA (additional tip) in a faraway land.
Inside the store there was no space for mustard seeds to reach the ground, meaning so big was the crowd that even the tiny mustard seed couldn't be accomodated (transliterated from the Odia saying SORISA PAKEIBAKU JAGA NATHILA).
My warm comfort inside the store was short lived, as I was trampled on my feet by a Desi bhai's (brother) trolley and a Desi Behen's (sister) stilletolike shoes. I jostled my way towards the luggage section, tip toeing carefully to avoid any further collison.
A bunch of Travellers luggages were on sale at a corner. Sensing some privacy, a Desi bhai was scratching his private parts in public. It didn't escape my prying eyes. When our eyes met, he appears like a fox caught on headlight. He grimaced back, returning a half baked smile while shaking off and straightening his legs.
I grabbed my share of KANGALA BHOJANA. Combine that with my "Made in China" 5 piece luggage set of which only few were left, the final price came to 32 bucks. Not bad, huh. As I kept rolling on with my just acquired luggage set towards the checkout counter, near the kickenware section, I saw another Desi bhai picking his nose, sticking it to the back of a Toaster and looked around with a "Not I" look on his face. I would like to raise a toast to the guy who bought this nasal toaster.
The next stop was Best Buy, the popular electronics store which opened at 5 PM. It wasn't offering any free coupons. No freebies on menu, no freebies seekers - which explains why unlike the previous store there weren't many Desi bros and sis on the line. Us constitute 1% of US population. In freebie lines we constitute 50%. More later...
Traditionally these 4 weeks between the Thanksgiving and Christmas day are the most profitable phase for all retailers. Whatever loss they might accrued in the last 11 months, they end up recouping in the final month of the peak shopping season.
In accounting, red ink shows a loss on the balance sheet, whereas black ink is used to indicates profit. Hence the name - "Black Friday", as the retailers go black or profitable from the Friday following Thanksgiving.
Now a days it should rather be called "Black Thursday", because stores are open on the Thanksgiving Day itself, rather than the Friday, the day following. With plan to buy a luggage on sale in my mind, I arrived 15 minutes before the 3 PM opening at the local J C Penny store in Chicago suburb.
The line was pretty long, it felt longer while standing for quarter of an hour flushed by a windchill factor of subzero temperature. The conspicuous heavy presence of DESIS (a slang used for Persons of Indian origin in US), nearly half of the crowd surprised me.
Soon I found out the reason. They store was offering $10 coupons per person, a major attraction for freebie loving Desis. A four member family can fetch $40 in free coupons. So buy something for $45 and end up paying only $5.
It reminded me of the huge crowd waiting for KANGALA BHOJANA (food offering for the miserables) on Puri BADADANDA (Broadway). The difference - a different kind of jacket and overcoat clad KANGALAs were standing for cheap products as DAANA (gift) with $10 as DAKHINA (additional tip) in a faraway land.
Inside the store there was no space for mustard seeds to reach the ground, meaning so big was the crowd that even the tiny mustard seed couldn't be accomodated (transliterated from the Odia saying SORISA PAKEIBAKU JAGA NATHILA).
My warm comfort inside the store was short lived, as I was trampled on my feet by a Desi bhai's (brother) trolley and a Desi Behen's (sister) stilletolike shoes. I jostled my way towards the luggage section, tip toeing carefully to avoid any further collison.
A bunch of Travellers luggages were on sale at a corner. Sensing some privacy, a Desi bhai was scratching his private parts in public. It didn't escape my prying eyes. When our eyes met, he appears like a fox caught on headlight. He grimaced back, returning a half baked smile while shaking off and straightening his legs.
I grabbed my share of KANGALA BHOJANA. Combine that with my "Made in China" 5 piece luggage set of which only few were left, the final price came to 32 bucks. Not bad, huh. As I kept rolling on with my just acquired luggage set towards the checkout counter, near the kickenware section, I saw another Desi bhai picking his nose, sticking it to the back of a Toaster and looked around with a "Not I" look on his face. I would like to raise a toast to the guy who bought this nasal toaster.
The next stop was Best Buy, the popular electronics store which opened at 5 PM. It wasn't offering any free coupons. No freebies on menu, no freebies seekers - which explains why unlike the previous store there weren't many Desi bros and sis on the line. Us constitute 1% of US population. In freebie lines we constitute 50%. More later...
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