The first is a celebration of family and thankfulness; the second is of commerce, consumerism and, just maybe, economic salvation.
Black Friday is the bellwether for the entire Holiday retail season, when sellers will begin securing their year's profits, or reconciling their losses. Black Friday will be their first indication of which way our economic winds are blowing.
Unfortunately, it's also turned into a strange and self-destructive competition among retailers; with earlier and earlier openings, longer hours and ridiculously under-priced loss leaders.
Hints of backlash, even resistance, are starting to appear. Hopefully that means that all of us, retailers and consumers alike, are beginning to regain our Black Friday sanity.
And hopefully we can spend a bit more time on Thursday being thankful for all our blessings, including economic recovery, and a more prosperous, less hectic, Holiday season for all.
