Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 130 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope all of you are doing well and I hope that your ears are ready for another listening session.
Hopefully your English learning is going great and and you're enjoying this podcast and I hope you're benefiting from it.
Today, in this episode, I'm going to talk about a topic that I don't like.
This won't be the funnest episode for me.
However, I'm sure a lot of you will like this episode, because a lot of you will actually like this topic, which is Black Friday.
So I'm not a fan of Black Friday and I'll talk a little bit about my relationship with shopping later on in the episode.
But I definitely don't like shopping, so Black Friday is not necessarily my favorite time of the year.
However, if you're listening to this episode around the time when it's released, that means that Black Friday was just a week ago, or a couple weeks ago maybe, depending on when you listen to this episode.
Maybe it was only a few days ago.
But this episode will be released around the time that we have Black Friday.
And so it's relevant and I want to talk about it.
So hopefully this will be interesting for you.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about Black Friday.
So what is Black Friday?
This is the day after Thanksgiving.
It happens after Thanksgiving every year.
So there's no specific date because there's no specific date that is always Thanksgiving.
It's different every year of November every year, because Thanksgiving is the last Thursday.
I think I might be wrong about that, but it's usually the last Thursday of every November, and so Black Friday is the day after that, and And this is the day when all the stores around the country release a lot of sales and discounts and promotions.
And they encourage you to go shopping at their store.
So that's Black Friday in a nutshell.
The phrase in a nutshell means in summary, right?
In a few words.
So that's Black Friday in a nutshell.
It's the day after Thanksgiving when everyone is supposed to go shopping, because you find the best deals and the lowest prices at a bunch of different stores.
So what is the origin of Black Friday?
Why does this exist in the U.S.?
?
Well, I don't know for sure, but from what I found online, a lot of people think that people started to use this phrase Black Friday in relation to the day after Thanksgiving, because that this started in the early 1960s.
Maybe because the police at that time would complain about the chaos of all of these suburban tourists that would come to the city to begin their holiday shopping right after Thanksgiving.
And they would also come for sporting events and other things.
So they called it Black Friday.
It was not a positive term.
So why the day after Thanksgiving?
Well, the tradition here is that the day after Thanksgiving is kind of the beginning of the Christmas season or the holiday season.
So after Thanksgiving, people look forward to Christmas.
So a lot of people will do their Christmas shopping on during that period.
So it makes sense that a lot of people would come to the city after Thanksgiving because it was time for them to buy all of the different Christmas gifts that they needed to buy.
And maybe the decorations or whatever.
So that makes sense.
I can see how that started.
And nowadays, Black Friday is a phenomenon that...
Everyone knows about here.
And it's become one of the biggest, if not the biggest, shopping day of the year.
So that's Black Friday.
And this day is associated with Thanksgiving now.
And it kind of interferes with Thanksgiving a little bit.
You might have heard stories of this before how that a lot of stores encourage their customers to start shopping or to start lining up outside the business on Thanksgiving hours before midnight, for example.
By the way, the phrase line up means that you get in line to go somewhere or enter someplace.
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So people are encouraged to line up hours before stores open at midnight.
Or maybe they open on Thanksgiving and start the deals on Thanksgiving, actually.
I think that's common at some stores now.
So people might stop celebrating Thanksgiving early. and then go and get ready to go shopping.
I don't know about how common that is now in 2023.
However, years ago when I was a teenager or a young adult, I remember that that was still a thing.
I don't do anything on Black Friday.
I don't participate nowadays, so I can't really tell you what it's like today.
But in the past, my friends invited me to go Black Friday shopping with them a couple years.
I remember doing that.
And we had to go at night on Thanksgiving.
So I remember that that was a thing back then.
I don't know if it still is nowadays.
But yeah, because of that, Thanksgiving is kind of affected by Black Friday.
And a lot of people criticize this because you shouldn't have to be stressed during Thanksgiving about the fact that you need to leave, because you want to be one of the first people in line to enter some store and get the best deals.
It's not something that most people want to think about when they're celebrating Thanksgiving.
So a lot of people criticize that aspect of Black Friday because it kind of ruins Thanksgiving a little bit.
So some people are not happy about that.
But a lot of people want these deals.
And so a lot of people are willing to sacrifice part of their Thanksgiving in order to get these deals.
So yeah.
And how about my experience with Black Friday?
I've already mentioned that I don't like shopping.
But I also mentioned that I've been Black Friday shopping a couple times.
This was a long time ago, maybe a decade ago or more.
And I went with friends because I would never do this alone.
But I was convinced, I was persuaded to go with some other people.
By the way, the word persuade just means to convince.
So my friends persuaded me to go with them to go shopping on Black Friday.
And I remember going one year with a few friends of mine and we went to this store called Urban Outfitters and we got there I think around 9 or 10 pm.
Maybe this was on Thanksgiving and and the doors were gonna open around midnight, so we were just in line for two or three hours and there were a ton of people there, and then finally the doors opened and then they allowed a certain number of people to enter at a time.
So we couldn't all go in at the same time.
There were too many people in line.
However, they let in groups of people at a time and people were kind of running around the store trying to find the best deals on the clothes that they wanted.
And it was pretty chaotic, to be honest.
I did not like it.
I kind of just watched. everyone else do that.
I was just there for the social aspect because my friends invited me.
But they went shopping and I kind of just watched them and observed everyone else trying to find these deals.
And that was one of my classic Black Friday experiences of lining up outside of a store hours before midnight and then going inside at midnight and saying Getting home really late, of course, and it definitely wasn't fun.
But like I said, I was there for the social aspect.
I was there because my friends went.
So that was an experience that I can remember.
And I can also remember my first day on the job of when I worked for a clothing company when I was 17 years old.
My first day on the job was Black Friday, believe it or not.
In english, when we say believe it or not, we're just saying uh, this is true, even though it's hard to believe.
So, believe it or not, my first day on the job was black friday and i had like no training and it was complete chaos.
It was terrible.
I had no idea what I was doing as a worker there.
I wasn't even supposed to start that day.
I think I was going to start the next week, but they needed more workers for Black Friday.
So they told me we need you to come in, even though you haven't had any training and don't know how to do anything.
It's OK.
Just come in and help.
And so that was my first day.
And like I said, it was really chaotic.
There were articles of clothing everywhere on the floor.
Everything was disorganized, all the customers were just battling to find the best deals and people were asking me questions and I had no idea because it was my first day, so I didn't know how to answer their questions and I just kind of tried to organize some of the clothes but I had no idea what I was doing And it was a terrible start to that job, because if you're a worker at one of these stores on Black Friday, it's not fun.
This is definitely not a great experience.
I feel sorry for these workers who have to work on Black Friday at night and deal with all of this chaos.
It's not good.
But that was my first day on the job at a clothing store, a really popular clothing store.
So I have that memory as well.
Nowadays, as I mentioned, I don't participate in Black Friday shopping.
I don't really have much recent experience with this day.
However, I still see advertisements for Black Friday and I'm aware that it's happening the day after Thanksgiving.
However, it's not something that I'm interested in.
And in terms of its importance for businesses.
Black Friday gives companies a chance to attract a lot of customers to their store, of course, and companies know that their competitors are are probably offering some good deals on that day.
And you don't want to miss out on this day and have everyone go to your competitor's store.
So I think there's a lot of pressure for businesses to have deals on this day because your competitors are going to have them.
And you want some of that money.
You want some of those customers to come to your store, of course.
So there's a lot of pressure for businesses to have sales on Black Friday.
And people are expecting this from you if you're a business.
So because people are expecting it, you can get people excited for this day.
You can talk about all the deals weeks beforehand and get people excited for your deals in particular.
So there's a good opportunity there. that a lot of businesses don't want to miss out on.
So it's important for businesses, but I don't know if nowadays it's as important as it was before, because there are a lot of other ways to do deals and to get people excited about sales.
There are other occasions besides Black Friday when you can do this.
So I'm not sure.
I don't know how the importance has changed over the years.
I think it's still very important, but it might not be quite as important as it was in the past.
But I might be mistaken.
I'm not sure.
That's just kind of my opinion about that.
But of course, we all know that this is an important day for businesses, right?
And in other countries besides the U.S., there are different versions of Black Friday.
And for example, in Mexico, there's something that is called El Buen Fin.
And this is...
Kind of like their version of Black Friday, which takes place throughout a weekend, not just on one day.
Right.
So it's a weekend of deals and sales and a lot of people go shopping on that day.
And maybe in your country, there's another version of this.
So the US has exported this tradition to other parts of the world, just like it does with many other things, of course.
And then we also have Cyber Monday.
So on the Monday after Black Friday...
There are a lot of deals that are released online specifically.
So it's like a continuation of Black Friday, but it's more geared towards online deals.
By the way, the phrase geared towards this means that something is aimed towards or it's personalized or customized online.
So it's geared towards or customized for online sales.
So we have this Cyber Monday tradition as well.
So during that whole four day period the Friday, and then the weekend after it and then the Monday following There are a lot of deals, a lot of sales, a lot of opportunities to shop and get good prices.
So that whole period is a big shopping period.
And lastly, let me just mention a little bit about my shopping, my relationship with shopping.
As I've already mentioned multiple times, I don't like shopping.
And I actually feel kind of like I'm suffering when I have to go shopping because I just really loathe this activity.
The word loathe means that you really hate or detest something.
So I loathe shopping.
I feel like I'm suffering through it when I have to do it.
However, sometimes I have to go shopping, right?
Sometimes I have no more shoes left.
For example, my shoes are all ripped or torn and I need new shoes and I have to go shopping.
By the way, if we say that something is ripped or it's torn, this means that it's broken.
We use that a lot for thinner material, like clothing and things like that.
So if my shoes are all ripped and torn, I have to go shopping and buy shoes.
So when I do go shopping...
I like getting good deals.
I like getting discounts and things like that.
So even though I'm not a fan of shopping, I do like getting discounts.
I like when stores have good deals and different sales.
I like that.
However, I don't like being forced to shop on a certain day and find these deals.
I don't like that.
I don't like shopping at any moment on any occasion.
But when I am shopping because it's necessary, then it's nice to find these deals.
It's pleasant when I'm shopping and And I realize I can get a really good price on this pair of shoes, for example.
So I like these deals, but I don't like being forced to go shop on a certain day just for the sake of these deals.
I don't like that.
For the sake of just means for this reason.
Right.
So I don't like Black Friday because I don't like that reason for going shopping.
I go shopping when I need to, when it's necessary.
And at that time, hopefully I can find a deal or two.
So, yeah, that's my relationship with shopping and sales.
All right, that's all for today.
I hope this episode was interesting for you.
Remember to sign up for my US Conversations podcast to help you reach an advanced level of listening where you can understand multiple people talking fast at the same time and interrupting each other, and all of that.
This will be great practice for you so that you can reach that next level of listening.
So make sure to sign up.
The link is in the description below this episode.
That's patreon.com slash us conversations.
And if you want access to my seminars, my listening practice seminars, to get my personalized training to help you listen better, then make sure to sign up for my membership, which is also down below in the description.
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All right, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
