It turns out we’re not so slowly killing Black Friday.
Fewer Americans plan to shop on Black Friday this year than in previous years, as consumers grow accustomed to deep discounts year-round. Thirty-five percent of consumers who plan to shop during Thanksgiving week say they will do so on Black Friday, down from 51 percent last year and 59 percent the year before, according to consumer markets research from PwC, the professional services giant. “Black Friday has lost its significance,” said Steven J. Barr, consumer markets leader for PwC. “Retailers have conditioned the consumer to believe everything’s on sale every day, which means the deals on Black Friday are not significantly different from any other time.” The shift comes as retailers — and shoppers — treat the holiday shopping season as more of a weeks-long marathon than a one-day sprint. Seasonal discounts have become more spread out, both in stores and online, as consumers demand lower prices and greater convenience, which means the Black Friday frenzy isn’t nearly as pronounced as it once was. “More holidays year-round — including some that are retailer-generated — mean more opportunities for discounts and promotions,” the PwC report said. “Consequently, the decline of Black Friday is hardly news at all. Especially from its glory days heralding the start of the in-store holiday shopping season.” Barr added that retailers are slashing prices throughout the year. Take, for example, Amazon’s much-hyped Prime Day this summer, in which the company says it generated more money than during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year. The company did not offer specifics, but said “tens of millions” of its Prime members, who pay a $99 annual fee for the loyalty program, made a purchase on that day. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.) In all, Americans are expected to spend about $680 billion this holiday season, marking a 3.6 percent to 4 percent increase from last year’s $655.8 billion, according to estimates released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation. Those figures are in line with last year’s 3.6 percent growth in holiday spending. “The combination of job creation, improved wages, tame inflation and an increase in net worth all provide the capacity and the confidence to spend,” Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the lobbying group, said in a statement. Americans are expected to spend an average of $1,189 this holiday season. © David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Americans are expected to spend an average of $1,189 this holiday season. Even as consumers spend more, Black Friday turnout has steadily declined in stores and online. Last year, for example, 154 million Americans shopped during Thanksgiving weekend, marking a 32 percent decline from 2011, according to the National Retail Federation. “The consumer has learned that even if they don’t get a deal on Black Friday, they’ll still get that deal in the weeks to come,” Barr said. “There is no urgency anymore.” And even those who are chasing deals are increasingly doing it from the comfort of their homes. Among those who plan to shop on Black Friday, about 30 percent say they will shop exclusively online, compared to 19 percent who plan to shop in stores, according to PwC data. As a result, a number of major retailers, including Home Depot, IKEA and Office Depot, say they will remain closed on Thanksgiving day. Others, like REI, have gone a step further by closing stores on Black Friday. “While the rest of the world is fighting it out in the aisles, we hope to see you in the great outdoors,” the company said in announcing its new policy in 2015.
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Of course, that means that certain rude behaviors have become commonplace because people think that proper etiquette is all about knowing how to set a dinner table and stand up straight. But proper etiquette doesn't always mean knowing what to do with your napkin at a formal dinner party, standing up when a lady walks into the room, or saying please and thank you. Sometimes, being a proper person is as easy as being on time, knowing when (and when not to) check your cell phone, and remembering to be honest with your friends. Read more: www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/15-ways-you-didn%E2%80%99t-know-you-were-being-rude/ss-AApjlqm?li=BBnb7Kz
Your home is a place of refuge, somewhere to relax and recharge after yet another long day at work. Unfortunately, for many of us, it’s also full of potential hazards. According to the National Safety Council, more than 18,000 Americans die from accidents in the home every year, and tens of thousands are critically injured. While, short of living in a bubble, you can’t avoid every danger, knowing all the deadly things in your home can help keep you safer in the long run. Don’t let the risks inside your home weigh too heavily on your mind, though—the 30 Ways to Fight Stress will have you breathing easy again in no time!. Read more: www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/home-and-garden/the-50-deadliest-items-in-your-home/ss-AAufiTs?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1
Although Thanksgiving is a North American holiday and a recent invention in the grand scheme of things, the tradition of breaking the wishbone comes from Europe, and is thousands of years older.
A bird’s wishbone is technically known as the furcula. It’s formed by the fusion of two clavicles, and is important to flight because of its elasticity and the tendons that attach to it. Clavicles, fused or not, aren’t unique to birds. You and I have unfused clavicles, also known as collarbones, and wishbones have been found in most branches of the dinosaur family tree. MORE FROM MENTAL FLOSS STUDIOS The custom of snapping these bones in two after dinner came to us from the English, who got it from the Romans, who got it from the Etruscans, an ancient Italian civilization. As far as historians and archaeologists can tell, the Etruscans were really into their chickens, and believed that the birds were oracles and could predict the future. They exploited the chickens' supposed gifts by turning them into walking ouija boards with a bizarre ritual known as alectryomancy or “rooster divination.” They would draw a circle on the ground and divide it into wedges representing the letters of the Etruscan alphabet (which played a role in the formation of our own). Bits of food were scattered on each wedge and a chicken was placed in the center of the circle. As the bird snacked, scribes would note the sequence of letters that it pecked at, and the local priests would use the resulting messages to divine the future and answer the city’s most pressing questions. When a chicken was killed, the furcula was laid out in the sun to dry so that it could be preserved and so that people would still have access to the oracle's power even after eating it. (Why the wishbone, specifically—and not, say, the femur or the ulna—is a detail that seems to be lost to history.) People would pick up the bone, stroke it, and make wishes on it, hence its modern name. As the Romans crossed paths with the Etruscans, they adopted some of their customs, including alectryomancy and making wishes on the furcula. According to legend, the Romans went from merely petting the bones to breaking them because of supply and demand. There weren't enough bones to go around for everyone to wish on, so two people would wish on the same bone and then break it to see who got the bigger piece and their wish. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me—Were there really that few chickens being slaughtered in Rome? If a resource is already scarce, why would you break what supply you do have into pieces?—but I can’t find much more than this about the bone-breaking aspect of the tradition. Anyway, as the Romans traipsed around Europe, they left their cultural mark in many different places, including the British Isles. People living in England at the time adopted the wishbone custom, and it eventually came to the New World with English settlers, who began using the turkey’s wishbone as well as the chicken’s. BY MATT SONIAK NOVEMBER 14, 2017 Sex therapists set the rumors straight about what you can expect, when you might want to see them—and what you can do to improve your sex life.
You may have heard rumors that you'll have to show, rather than tell, your problem in sex therapy. And if you've watched the series Masters of Sex, that's definitely what happened there—along with sex surrogate therapy, in which the researchers or their staff engaged in sexual contact to help patients.But sex therapists say that they won't be watching—or participating—in your sexual activities: They'll just be helping you recover that loving feeling. (Good thing: There are real health benefits to an active sex life.) 'Professional therapy never includes sex, touching, or removal of clothing,' says Shannon Chavez, PsyD, CST, a licensed clinical psychologist and AASECT certified sex therapist in Beverly Hills, California. 'It is similar to traditional therapy, other than dealing primarily with sexual health, solution-focused and short-term. I describe my therapy approach as talk therapy with an eclectic use of coaching, adult sex education, and behavioral approaches and exercises. We are learning tools for mindfulness, stress management, and self-care.' Read more: www.msn.com/en-us/health/sexualhealth/12-things-sex-therapists-wish-you-knew/ss-AAp1QrM?li=BBnba9O#image=1 |
AuthorKeith Kelly currently lives in Rio Rancho New Mexico. Archives
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