When Black Friday Comes...

This year I'm actually very curious to see how retail spending fares over the holiday season. Never, ever would have thought I'd have said (typed) that sentence.

There are so many articles saying that consumers will be less likely to shell out big bucks due to the unstable world economy. That's probably going to be the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if buyers turned out en masse and brought a slight percentage profit over last year's numbers. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons.

One, retailers are panicking and are going to offer decent deals, especially on electronics. Hard to resist when you have a little cash squirreled away from the past few months of stock-market stress (that's two).

Also, the populace also tends to spend when times are tough. Sort of an emotional pick-me-up wrapped with a bow.

I can tell you that with my fledgling family, I'm not planning on spending any outrageous sums. There's a house for sale in our town that's basically a steal for the price they're asking...and we're just to wary of the economy to go deeper in debt. We're looking at a replacement cars, and that in itself is daunting...even thought the loan would be 3-5 years and not 30. I suppose I could ride a bike to work, but I won't even think about that until my new life-insurance policy goes through. People around here drive like lunatics.

While looking at cars, I find myself glancing at GM dealers as I drive by. Whether they get this bailout from the government or not, it's quite a good bit of free advertising. I never would have considered buying a GM...and hard pressed to buy from the other big two as well. Especially if I'm going for something small and cheap yet well-built and reliable: a concept long lost on American automobile companies. Yet, here I am looking through papers for good deals on GMs while having Consumer Reports as my guide & reference. And you know? I've yet to hear about any deals. Not a one.

Whatever.

You know, if there was a proposition for the government to bailout the citizens of this nation with that same $700 billion, do you think it would pass? Me neither.