Why We Go Crazy? The Truth About Black Friday Shopping

Why We Go Crazy? The Truth About Black Friday Shopping

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

Happy Black Friday morning to you, as I’m recording the podcast today, chances are you are now driving, and you’re starting your Black Friday shopping. Or maybe you were awake all night, celebrated an incredible Thanksgiving, and had a great dinner with friends and family. And then you spent all night shopping. And chances are you may be listening to this podcast while driving back home. Maybe don’t know, or maybe you’re listening to this, but you know has nothing to do with Black Friday, you’re listening to this at your own leisure on a different day doesn’t matter. Black Friday is an incredible day, it kind of sets the tone for a lot of things. It’s not about getting a good deal. And, all that which is true. To a large extent, that’s true. It’s all about, you know getting value for your money, and all that. But it also sets the tone for what’s happening with the economy going forward. And all that.


So that kind of becomes a predictor, it’s an indicator of what’s going to happen going forward. So 2021 was very interesting, over 155 million Americans shopped during the Black Friday of 2020 155 million people. This number is a little bit better than 2020 2019 or 2020. For that matter, I don’t think this is any bigger than 2019 2019 was big, that really big and 2020 COVID happened. So 2019 was huge. Now here’s an interesting fact, on average, every individual spent about $300 On an average. So, if you are shopping right now, or you saw already you are going to the store right now, that means you are going to spend on average about $300 today. So 300, is the bare minimum you will be spending maybe more. But 300 is where the numbers are $272 billion of sales are expected to happen. Today, I’m not buying anything, because I have already bought whatever I have to because most of my purchases are online, and most of my stuff has to do with software. And so the sale started over like seven, eight days ago. It’s happening. So it’s not like somebody’s opening the shopping cart, like exactly midnight, of Black Friday or anything like that. So So sales are happening, and a majority of the sales have already happened.


So I’m here comfortable is, you know, situated, and not going out. And not looking for any deals because all my deals are done. And all good. So but I’m eagerly waiting to see what the number saw these $272 billion worth of sales happening today. That number I want to see whether we can better that number. I want to see how different institutions who do analysis on all the data, all the consumer data will come back maybe in a week or two when they do come back in a week or two or three. And they want to report on all these numbers. I want to see what the reports are going to be and what their analysis is going to show. Because based on this, I’m going to see I’m going to measure or at least I’m going to study they mature the depth of the health of the economy, and using this I plan on doing a few things in the year 2023. Now I have a question for you. If everything is available online and everything has started, the sale factually started five or 10 days prior to Thanksgiving and prior to Black Friday. And you had the option to buy stuff online. And I’m assuming that you are buying stuff online, everybody buys online. So my question to you is why are you now going to the store? If you went to the store, or if you’re going to the store, why did you go to the store? Why did you go on Black Friday into a store to buy stuff? It’s not that COVID has completely gone away. still around. There is a weird flu season going on here. So there are some health risks involved or going into crowded places. That’s part of why you are going there. You went there and you bought stuff. years ago, many many years ago, I read an article on Black Friday sales very interesting article. It’s not about getting deals. Because if some good buyers, like somebody who has done their research somebody who has prepared themselves, they can find great deals anywhere. It has nothing to do with the Black Friday sale. So if it has nothing to do with the Black Friday sale, then why people will go crazy about this? Well, there are apparently some secondary motives for going to a Black Friday shopping or engaging in Black Friday shopping. And that has to do with stories. So you go, you buy, and you have an experience with your friends and family.


Now that experience is unique that can only happen once during this time of the year. And you want to share your experience with a bunch of people around. So on a Friday, well, Friday evening, when everything is done and dusted. You call a friend or a family member and ask them hey, how much did you spend on your Black Friday shopping? And they’ll say, Oh, I bought a TV, and I bought this. I bought that I spent like $5,000 Wow, okay, you did that much. Ah, I spent about $1,000 Oh, wow, what did you get? $4,000. Like, what did you buy? Well, I bought, you know, some stuff from the office, you know, whatever, right for my car, whatever. Right? And you start comparing the exchange notes of your activities. Where did you go? Well, I went to Macy’s. Oh, I went to Kohls. Wow, no, I did not go anywhere I just bought online, you start extending notes. Now that gives enough amount of data for a conversation. Good conversation. And you’re measuring also you’re measuring your flight, Black Friday, and shopping status. Some people say Oh, I drove all the waste 35 miles outside of the city to the outlet store. Yeah. That’s the story. I’ve heard so many stories about Black Friday, Black Friday, shopping, and all that good stories, I heard some really terrible stories also heard a friend of mine who almost lost his entire family. Because whoever was driving the car kind of fell asleep.
On the wheels are all kinds of stories. But here is something that I want you to think through seriously. At the moment, any purchase gives a tremendous amount of happiness, you get a good deal, you feel good, and you feel great. And you shouldn’t be buying stuff on credit cards. You shouldn’t be in debt, buying stuff. You shouldn’t be borrowing money from your future, to buy things that will make you happy in the present. This is a message that I have been trying to convey. And I have conveyed multiple times on this podcast. For months together, I’ve been talking about this. Be careful how you manage your money, because we do not know how this is going to shape up. This economy is going to shape up in the next 567 months do not know exactly five weeks from now, when the year 2023 comes in or starts. Do not know how the first two weeks are going to be maybe there’s gonna be some excitement anyway. But then what happens in the middle of January? When everything comes back to its pre-existing engagement. Then what happens? Who knows how this economy is going to look? Some people are saying it’s going to be a bad year. I do not know this. I have no idea. But for you to prepare yourself to be good in a bad year. You need to take control of your finances. You need to take control of your expenses you need to take control of everything, whatever.


So taking the Black Friday excuse I’m conveying this message to you that please Don’t drive yourself bankrupt buying stuff that does not need the second day onwards, filling up your closets filling up your car your houses with stuff that you really don’t value or the stuff has no shelf value has no forget about any tangible value but has no intangible value either. no value at all forget about tangibles intangibles all that no value at all. Why buy stuff? Why do you want to associate your identity with stuff? What is this stuff going to do to you ask these questions, and do some introspection on this? I was recently at a party just a few days ago. And I was talking to a few people. And each one of them said, interestingly, each one of them almost is one of them, like six, seven people I met. They’re like, they’re complaining about the interest rates, and what the credit card companies are doing to them to the balances, and how they’ve taken money on the credit cards and put that money somewhere. And one individual told me that bought crypto using credit cards. It’s a weird thing.


You know, we are in this complex where we want to achieve everything in our lives. Everything. Unfortunately, the rule of life is you cannot get to the second step. Unless you are firmly situated on the first step. You cannot get to the third step unless you are firmly situated on the second step. It’s a step by step by step game. You can’t fly, you can’t jump to the peak doesn’t work that way. That’s all though. That’s the message I wanted to convey. I still, you know, I’m happy to enjoy your Black Friday, you know, shopping. There is, of course, you know, if you’ve been out with your friends and family and had a good time, great.


Now, those are good memories that you’re creating. Awesome, good. But then we can be aware and be prepared. That’s all for now. Wherever you are, be safe, and I’ll catch up with you as early as tomorrow. Thank you.

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