Black Friday The Friday After Thanksgiving Learning Objectives: Consider the occurrence of Black Friday Research and debate the idea that Americans are programmed to shop. Opening Bell Work: Reply to quote in discussion for individual: Red Hat
Mad Magazine Quote 2 The only reason a great many American families don t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments. Expand the conversation to the phenomenon of Black Friday
Relating to Black Friday 3 How does this statement make sense in the context of Black Friday? Why do you think would someone would get up at 5 AM to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving? Have you ever shopped on Black Friday? Why or why not? What are your observations or experiences with this shopping day? What dominant images come to your mind when you think of this day? Red Hat: Explain hunches, feelings, gut senses
Black Friday Beginning 4 Not an official holiday, but many have the day off Increases the number of potential shoppers First shopping day after Thanksgiving Served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 White Hat: Objective; information
Black Friday Term 5 Originated in Philadelphia in 1965 reference to the heavy traffic Day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army Navy Game More recently, refers to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red to being in the black i.e., turning a profit White Hat: Objective; information
Busiest Shopping Day? 6 News media frequently refers to Black Friday as the busiest retail shopping day of the year Did the media create Black Friday? Read Media and Retailers Both Built Black Friday Discuss Red hat: hunches, feelings Orange hat: judgment
Busiest Shopping Day? 7 The busiest retail shopping day of the year in the United States In terms of both sales and customer traffic Usually has been the Saturday before Christmas Open article Top 10 Shopping Days White hat-facts
A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment 8 Read article Discuss
A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment What iconic images or scenes of the past century does the writer evoke in his description of Black Friday? What is the purpose? Who does the author say is responsible for the phenomenon of Black Friday? Does he think it s a positive or negative aspect of American culture? Why? Looking for facts (White) Hunches & feelings (red) 9
A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment What special significance did the 2008 Black Friday hold for shoppers, businesses and even policy makers? To what does the author compare the American economy? Do you agree or disagree with this simile? What has the government s position been on spending in recent years? Why do you think the article s headline includes a reference to the Picasso painting Guernica? What does that suggest? Use Google Looking for facts (White) + hunches & feelings (red) + offering possibilities (green) 10
Debate: Thoughts by Peter S. Goodman From Article 11 For decades, Americans have been effectively programmed to shop. China, Japan and other foreign powers have provided the wherewithal to purchase their goods by buying staggering quantities of American debt.
Debate: Thoughts by Peter S. Goodman from article 12 Financial institutions have scattered credit card offers as if they were takeout menus and turned our houses into A.T.M. s. Hollywood and Madison Avenue have excelled at persuading us that the holiday season is a time to spend lavishly or risk being found insufficiently appreciative of our loved ones.
Are we effectively programmed to shop? Contemplate consumer culture and buying habits in the context of the current recession. Focusing on how and why we shop as a culture. Considering Needs (food, clothing, etc.) Desires (luxury and other unnecessary items) How people generally split their actual purchases along these lines How much do we buy necessities versus indulgences? Do ads and other cultural forces convince people that a want is actually a need? 13 Green hat: creativity to present argument Yellow/orange hats: as present pros/cons
Read Other Articles for Information Retailers use social media to advertise deals 11/13/2009 Consider Is this another form of programming? Or good marketing that takes advantage of current trends? Cyber Monday: A Gimmick Becomes a Real Trend Consider Gimmick? Just good for e-commerce? Black Friday Predicted to Be None More Black Consider Does economy matter? When? How? To who? 14
15 Debate Directions Need two groups. One side the pro position Other the con position Approximately 20 minutes to devise a plan collecting evidence for or against the idea Nominate a spokesperson Begin with a 60-90 second statement Start with a quote that summarizes the argument Use Buy Buy Holidays to prepare Turn in one copy per group
After Debate Thoughts 16 How have your views on holiday shopping and Black Friday have changed or stayed the same? Blue-thinking: Organize thoughts; summarize
Black Friday, Buy Nothing or Make 17 Something? Read the article This post asks consumers to consider the merits of buying local and/or D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) holiday gifts, given the recent deadly Black Friday and the current recession. Answer the questions completely. Print & turn in for a grade. Yellow hat-show optimism about new ideas Blue hat: thinking
BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND HOMEWORK Write about your Black Friday experiences by using your own words plus covering the following areas. What did you do on Black Friday? What did your parents/guardians do? Did you hear any stories from friends/other relatives? If so, share them. What was the best deal you got or heard someone else getting? What was the worst experience you had or heard about someone else having? 18
BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND HOMEWORK Do this at the Black Friday Discussion Group link. You must read the other posts & respond to at least one other post. You may not post an answer until Friday, 11/27/2009 after 7:00 PM. You must post by Monday, 11/30/2009 at 8:15 AM. Posts after that will be considered late will lose a substantial amount of points. 19 Red, yellow, blue
Bell Work on Cyber Monday 20 Will be short questionnaire on information White-facts