Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving and has earned the reputation of being the busiest shopping day of the year. The name was adopted from an accounting term - red ink denotes a negative profit margin, whereas "in the black" denotes a positive profit margin. Many retailers make or break their sales goals between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so they named the season’s kick-off "Black Friday", in the hopes that it is prophetic.
With the need to sell you something, so that their season remains in the black, businesses will do all sorts of things to get you to buy. Because they are sometimes sneaky in their tactics here are just a few bits of advice to keep you from getting sold a bill of goods.
Some stores will advertise that they have a limited time offer. Be aware that if they can make you feel it’s urgent and if they can convince you that you might lose out, you will be more likely to make a purchase.
Retailers will advertise a really popular item at a really cheap price, but may only have a few in stock. This is because they figure once they get you into their store that you won’t want to have wasted the trip and won’t want to leave empty handed. Try leaving a few stores empty handed.
Companies have learned that if they list an item at $5.99 instead of $ 6.00 you’re more likely to buy it. This is called the left-digit effect. Because your brain reads left to right and reads 5 instead of 6 you will be more likely to purchase something at $5.99 even if you thought $6.00 was too expensive. Also, if they leave off the dollar sign you are less likely to think about the purchase in monetary terms and you are more likely to purchase the product.
To overcome the “I can’t afford it” objection, a salesman may break down a figure into daily amounts to minimize the appearance of the overall cost of larger items. They may say something like, “you can afford an extra $100 a month…it comes to only $3 a day, same as a Starbucks coffee. Remember it’s still $1100 a year.
Be careful when making side-by-side comparisons; one of the items might be a decoy. Often retailers will place a high-priced decoy on the shelf next to popular items. This item will be ticketed at a much higher price and it will help make you feel good about picking the second highest priced product even if previously you would have been perfectly happy with less expensive model.
The biggest shopping day of the year is in two days and everyone is trying to sell us something. They lower the price, up the shine and put the pretty stuff all out front. And it works. Most of us are suckers for a 40% off sign, we love a “buy one get one” and product placement gets me every time. I don’t even really like gum but I almost always grab a pack at the checkout line because it just looks so fruity and accessible.
We’re all more likely to buy if there’s a good pitch and to be honest during my lifetime I’ve watched the church become increasingly savvy in its own efforts to persuade people to come into the building and purchase what we’re selling. Often we have lowered the price and told people it’s a limited time offer and we have put all the shiny stuff out front.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Cor. 4:17
The apostle Paul says that actually we’re not meant to market the gospel. We have this treasure in jars of clay so that no one will think we sold them a bill of goods. In fact as followers of Jesus it’s dangerous for us walk around in shiny vessels with slick tactics because it makes people purchase us rather than commit to God. Paul says that polish in this life can actually hinder the gospel, not because polish is bad in and of itself, but because pride follows around polish like a pesky little brother. And once our polished lives experience a little bit of success it becomes easy to believe that the kingdom is advancing because we’re smart, funny, rich, influential and witty. As a result of such a prideful assessment we buff up our jars of clay all the more and begin to believe that God needs the polish to market the gospel.
It is no surprise that the power of the gospel begins to decrease as our efforts increase. What’s even more tragic than the power decrease is that when the church begins to fear failure, rather than repenting of its shiny tactics and pursing God’s power so often we seek after other tools for success. And soon it becomes about who can spin the good news the best, who can make a service more seamless, who can woo in the crowds with the best deal, and who can draw dozens in the door with the most culturally relevant message, the most charismatic pastor, and the next big thing in Christianity.
Perhaps it’s time we remember that we’re actually not supposed to use wise and persuasive words, or a slick and savvy sales pitch. In fact, the apostle Paul says repeatedly that we are not to trick people, please people, flatter people or seek praise from them in return. Rather we set forth the truth plainly in simple clay pots, confident that the good news is so good that we don’t need decoys, limited time offers or persuasive pricing tactics.
