Shopping Gone Wild!

The Thanksgiving holiday marks the beginning of Shoppers Gone Wild, the annual rite of consumerism that begins with Black Friday and only ends with the after-Christmas sales. Whether or not you become part of the American retail engine that engages this weekend, its history and elements are intriguing. Time magazine runs down the history of Black Friday in this article, explaining how the term originally referred to a nineteenth-century economic crash. Only later did "black" assume a more positive meaning, referring to a retailers being "in the black" of profit rather than the "red ink" of loss. Black Friday has found its online corollary in Cyber Monday, the bane of employers everywhere. Paste Magazine offers this brief history of the quasi-official start to the online shopping season.

Most Wanted 

No discussion of holiday shopping would be complete without a look back at the "it" toy of Christmases past. Buysight Insights provides a picture of all of the most popular toys from 1960 through 2008 while Forbes offers some information about popular toys from the last 100 years.  To get an in-depth view of some of the most popular toys of all time, check out the National Toy Hall of Fame, where you can find out about individual inductees, like 2010's game of Life and the Deck of Cards. Hubpages offers up its core list of 2010's most wanted gifts as well as some specialized lists as well. And Listverse offers some cautionary advice with a list of the Top 10 Most Returned Gifts.

Dark Side of Shopping

But for many people, shopping seems to have a dark side. Although it has yet to be officially recognized by the American Psychological Association (it has been recognized by the comparable German organization (Deutsche Gesellschaft Zwangserkrankungen), Compulsive Buying Disorder is certainly receiving more attention as purchasing becomes easier and easier using electronic methods.  This article in World Psychiatry is just an example. Think you or someone you know may have problems with shopping? Here's a great list of warning signs and behavioral patterns of people who shop in unhealthy ways.

Choosing to Not Shop

Not everyone opts to participate in the annual shopping fest, and some choose to go so far as to actively protest it by participating in an event called Buy Nothing Day. Buying nothing, as the organization's site makes clear, is harder than you think when you include those little unnoticed purchases like interest accrual. Here's Adbusters recommended carnivalesque alternatives to shopping on Friday. But Buy Nothing has generated criticism, much of it from the political left.

Whether you buy or don't buy, have a great beginning to the holiday season!