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| Valdez post office bulletin board is a good starting point for information about Black Friday events |
I kicked off my Black Friday on the sofa with a hot cup of
coffee while the rising sun painted the clouds pink. I booted up my laptop, opened my email, and
found thirteen new promotional messages.
Since it was the biggest shopping day of the year, I decided to actually
review the ads instead of trashing them immediately. While I was reading through the fine print on Backcountry.com’s 50% offer, Matt piped
up from the other side of the living room.
“50% off hoodies at Ibex,” he
reported. He was reading his email too.
After sifting through email advertisements, I thought I
should take a quick look at other websites in case there was a deal too good to
pass up. REI was offering 50% off store label clothing, but I didn’t find
any Black Friday markdowns at either Title
Nine or Athleta (women’s athletic
apparel).
I finished my coffee and stepped out onto the porch to
gage the weather conditions. It was
sunny and a slight breeze pushed the cottonwood crowns back and forth. In past years, I’ve braved Black Friday
throngs in Anchorage in foot-deep slush.
The weather this year was much more pleasant and I invited Matt to join
me on a stroll through town to participate in the Valdez retail
experience. The Associated Press had
reported that morning that some national retailers were losing so much money by
slashing prices during Black Friday sales that this year they were foregoing massive cuts
and instead were launching high end, full priced goods. I hadn’t noticed much local
advertising, but I thought we’d check out the shops and see what their approach
was to this day-of-all-shopping-days.
Our first stop was at Second
Time Around, a thrift shop operated by a local non-profit organization. I perused recent paperback book arrivals
while Matt checked out gear and housewares.
I fortuitously ran into Fran, the framer, who I’d been meaning to call
to consult on a project I was pondering.
We headed on down the road to Southcentral Hardware where
the owner’s daughter was standing on a ladder stocking a top shelf with Christmas
decorations. We discussed carpets and
storage devices, then moved on to the town’s hub: the post office. There, Matt checked our mail and I studied
the flyers posted on the bulletin board outside. I found only two flyers promoting Black
Friday events: the museum store and the
Valdez Office Supply. We didn’t
particularly need office supplies, so we charted our course for the museum
store on the next block.
At the Valdez
Museum Store, we looked at the collection of new Alaskana book titles and Matt
exchanged information with curator Faith Revell about a pair of ancient wooden bush
plane skis that were recently acquired and put on exhibit. We bought our first purchase of the day – a book
– and renewed our membership.
Neither of us had been to the Rogue’s Garden health food store for a few weeks, so we headed
there next. I checked out the high end
cookware and Matt picked out organic apples and bulk roasted almonds.
After a stop at Safeway
for a couple of sodas, we headed back home having determined that local
retailers and local consumers were taking a similar approach to the day. Stores had opened at normal hours and, for
the most part, held firm on prices. The
few shoppers that were out and about were civilized and did not battle each
other in long lines. We found what we
always find when we stroll through town:
encounters with acquaintances, random exchanges, and a reminder of how
outsized the culture of consumerism really is.
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