I Was Thinking... Buy It Now

This is a very busy time of year. Christmas concerts, Christmas craft shows, cookie exchanges, appearances of Santa, and each town having a special Christmas celebration to draw people into local businesses. For many businesses, this is the make it or break it time of the year. To be successful, they must convince consumers that it is almost Un-American if they don’t spend an extraordinary amount on Christmas gifts.
While Christmas is a Christian celebration, the merchandising aspect has often blurred the reason behind the holiday. Each year, the sales pitches begin earlier and earlier to convince shoppers to get into gear.
In the past, this started sometime after Thanksgiving with retailers reminding shoppers of the number of shopping days left before Christmas. Now, soon after Halloween, stores are already putting up Christmas displays. The kick-off for this silly season of buying now has its own label, Black Friday. I’m not sure where the phrase came from, but for some people, if they fall into this buying frenzy as stores hope they do, it will be the last time you are in the black for some time. But this was not always the case.
When I was growing up, I never realized we were poor. Now don’t get me wrong, we always had enough to eat, plenty of clothes for our needs, and a nice enough house with all the normal features. But money was tight. You didn’t buy anything you couldn’t afford.
Dad farmed and did custom work for other farmers to bring in extra money. Mom gardened, canned, and even did some baking for special holidays for a little extra cash. But when there was extra money, it was put away.
As children, we each had our piggy bank, that we put money in to save for the future. When this got full, we actually took it to the bank and opened a savings account. Saving was considered virtuous. Many financial institutions even gave away gifts to customers who deposited money into their savings. My mother always started a “Christmas Club” account at the bank early in the year. The idea was, you put in a little every week or month and when you got to Christmas, you had accumulated enough money to buy gifts.
This whole system was based on delayed gratification. You didn’t get what you wanted right now. Another similar system used by stores was called “Lay-Away.” If mom wanted a new dress but couldn’t afford it right now, she would have the store “lay it away” at the store and she would pay so much down and continued to pay on it until she paid the full price and could take it home. But that was then, and this is now.
Somewhere along the way, we have been convinced that we must have whatever we want right now, and we will pay for it later. The advent of credit cards changed our mentality toward buying. We don’t have to save and wait until we have the money, we will buy it now and pay for it with some future money we hope comes along. In college, when I opened a savings account,I received a piece of glassware. With each deposit of a certain amount, I received another piece. Despite my meager earnings during college, I still was able to get a full set of glassware by the time I graduated.
Today, I can also earn premiums and rewards, but for a different reason. Many credit cards “pay you back” when you use them. o now, you have to spend to save. And it is so easy.
Recently I received a notice from one credit card I own that I hadn’t used it lately and had $8,000 worth of credit at my disposal. Even if I do overextend myself and make more purchases than I can pay for, the credit card company understands and says I can pay just a minimum. While it looks good, they don’t mention the 21.5% interest they will be charging me on the unpaid balance.
Maybe that is behind the reason for the Christmas colors. If you spend too much green you will end up in the red.
Did You Ever Wonder? — Why do we play in recitals and recite in plays?