Have you seen enough advertisements about discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Me too…
My wish is that we could go back to shopping local and forget all this Cyber Monday, Black Friday shopping for items from businesses that we don’t know.
Did you know that Black Friday has had a few different meanings over the years. The first time was for the gold crash of 1869 when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into a free-fall, and bankrupting everyone from Wall Street barons to farmers.
I grew up during the time when the term “Black Friday” referred to retail stores that were operating in the red (operating at a loss) would offer huge discounts on the Friday after Thanksgiving as that was the start of the holiday shopping season. Shoppers came in in droves, and the business was able to end the year in the black (making a profit).
The thing I’d like to stress today is that back in those days of no cell phones when very few people had home computers, we shopped local. We walked or drove to all our local stores to get Holiday gifts. Amazon didn’t even exist until July of 1994.
There are many areas that offer holiday events where you can stroll down main street, get discounts from stores and restaurants, and even sip hot chocolate or cider supplied by the Chamber of Commerce.
In my area, I found several events of interest:
Main Street at Christmas in Stockbridge
Holiday Shop, Sip and Stroll in Great Barrington
Holiday Open House and Shopping at Wistariahurst
Gasoline Alley Kringle Market in Springfield
Yuletide at Storrowtown Village West Springfield
Check where you live and shop local!
And, if you are looking for a very special gift this year, I’m offering discounts on my most popular services:
Reiki sessions – buy one get one half off!
Kirtan Kriya Meditation (Alzheimer’s prevention)
Personalized Coaching – buy one month, get the second month half off!
Best of Health,
Kathi
And, here are a couple of tools for your post shopping stress relief!
And another!
Best of Health,
Kathi
