On the first Thanksgiving, "The Pilgrims had dinner with the Native Americans, and then they all left and got in line at Best Buy." Or at least thats what Ellen DeGeneres told me. And... she has a point. Thanksgiving is often cut short by the anxiousness people have for those Black Friday sales that kick off at midnight, or better yet, 9pm Thanksgiving night. But when the large, dominating retail stores open at 9pm and receive free promoting from all major news outlets, how is it possible for small businesses to compete and survive?
In looking for some of the best Black Friday deals, I haven't seen beyond the names of 'WalMart,' 'Best Buy,' 'Kohls,' and many other the other dominating names in the retail industry. Even here on Lauren Conrad's blog she has the best "Deals & Steals: The Best Black Friday Sales," which include Best Buy, H&M, and an online boutique, Boutiquetoyou.com. What about the others, though?
My point is that it's not just in news that we see the big dogs outrunning the individuals or smaller outlets; we see it in retail as the system gets more and more monopolized. Black Friday means bitter competition in the retail industry, and for small businesses, this requires larger promotions, deals and an extra day devoted to reeling in customers: Small Business Saturday. This is a day, similar to Cyber Monday, where the attention is on small business owners.
So, moral of the story: don't forget about the small businesses because once they go down, corporate conglomerates will continue to monopolize this country. For the economies sake and for our sake, lets do what we can to keep that from happening.
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