Business & Tech

Black Friday Repression Syndrome: Do You Suffer?

Maybe you've missed the ads — it's a big shopping day next Friday. Do you care? Share your thoughts on Black Friday madness.

Back when Mervyn’s was a shopping option, they had a commercial with a young woman outside the closed store, chanting “open, open, open." I did not identify with her.

I suffer from BFRS. That's Black Friday Repression Syndrome — a complex I made up without benefit of a psych degree. BFRS is the fear of setting foot in a retail establishment on the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 23 this year).

It's the sudden, urgent need to stay home and do anything else. The aversion to the tinkling of holiday music and faux snow scenes on display windows. A lack of fervor for items marked 20 percent off, today only.

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Do you have a family tradition of a shopping boycott on Black Friday? Tell us about it in the comments.


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