Holiday deals and hysteria

As Black Friday approached, I could sense myself growing a bit excited as I thought about the chaos that was about to ensue. I don't like to get into the commericalistic culture America has fallen victim to, but sometimes it is fun to go out on Black Friday and see the insanity, and maybe get something you've been wanting relatively cheaply. I am happy to say that this time, however, I took advantage of the ability to sleep in while on break, instead of getting up at unhuman hours to go out and deal with the mess.

It was interesting to see myself growing a little more anxious as it approached, knowing that Black Friday would have these huge deals (I was more interested in all the music store deals), and then there would be the Saturday and Sunday deals, which aren't as good, but still nice, then Cyber Monday. All the commericals were hyping it up and drawing into this culture and trying to arouse this interest of everyone to get them to come out. I liked seeing how easily I tend to fall into the excitement and to be a part of it like everyone else, but with the knowledge I have from my business classes, and Consumer Behavior especially, I rationalized myself out of going.

Now, I will admit, I did take part of Cyber Monday and took advantage of some of the coupons Guitar Center emailed me as a part of it so I could get some gear before my band hits the road christmas break . . . www.facebook.com/saintsofdenial . . . (shameless plug). But I still had to fight off my impulsive buying tendancies. I spoke of this the last time I blogged, how when I go to a guitar store or music store I tend to want to buy at least something. We just finished talking about compulsive buying in class, and while I don't think I am a compulsive buying totally, I definitely fall victim to that at the guitar store. Rationalizing is something I am very good at in these situations. I always tend to find a way for it to make sense for me to buy what I'm about to buy. And even though I almost had talked myself out of buying gear on Cyber Monday, the coupons Guitar Center sent me pushed me over the edge. I bought something I felt I could have waited to buy until later, especially because I have to be careful about how much I spend right now not having a job. There were a few things I figured made more sense to get first, but the savings were going to outweigh any potential liabilites. The other things I wanted weren't there anyway, so I talked myself into by not wanting to waste the coupon. Point being . . . it's funny to watch myself wrestle around with decisions now that I know better why I'm doing it.