Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Money doesn't grow on trees!

(Kendall Jenner) "Yes it does, it's made of paper!"

Still in these financial times everyone is truly on a budget except the super wealthy who are also scaling back so as not to seem insensitive, I'm sure. In the past I've joked that I would buy all my gifts during the after Christmas sales because that 1 day difference would mean loads of bucks saved, just a lot of ill will from those die hard Christmas-ites who insist on receiving their presents on Christmas Day. Still, I do purchase things for myself after Christmas - I've bought the best decorations doing this, they were just used a year later.

Seems lots of folks actually indulged in my fantasy of making most purchases after Christmas, with news media calling Dec. 26th The New Black Friday. Dec. 26th has always been great for deeply discounted Christmas gear, so it's not new information, what's new this year is retailers significantly marking down holiday stuff, and regular merchandise and big ticket items. I guess desperate economies require desperate measures so retailers tried to make up for lackluster sales with deep discounts. But it also begs the question of what is reasonable profit, what the consumer is willing to pay or a socially responsible amount. An overseas friend of mine constantly complains about the retail mark up in the U.S. and the quality of what's available for purchase. If retailers are willing to slash prices this dramatically maybe we've been paying too much in the first place. Of course this is precisely how retailers don't want us to think but one can't help doing so.