It’s now the coming toward the end or the year, and the start of the seasonal events that take place during those last eight or so weeks left on the 2020 calendar. It’s the period where anything could happen, yet nobody appears to agree just how that “anything” is going to work out!
First and foremost, we are giving our headline “Black November” as the period where many businesses, both big(er) and small(er), starts showing a profit of some form. This terms comes from “being in the black”–reviled through their bookkeeping that their income has extended beyond their expenses, usually noted from writing their figures on to their paper spreadsheets in black ink. If there was some form of loss, it would be noted in red ink, thus the meaning of “bring in the red” verses “being in the black’! (Obviously, these terms were created when bookkeeping was done by hand and not through some kind of electronic spreadsheet app.)
But the term “black” also means other things. It’s a term describing a race of people–something that’s been in the media spotlight for the past few months. It also describes a term that may be of a tragic or uncertain nature. Halloween has just past where events were scary in a fun and amusing way. The week of this same issue also features Election Day where things can also be just as frightening, not necessarily in a fun and amusing way. And then there are the upcoming times of the season for the month of November at least.
In last week’s issue (Vol. 25-No. 43 to be precise), this writer went through those times of the year giving our analysis on how they are going to pan out. Granted, we were just presenting our opinions as playing armchair quarterback. We don’t necessarily know how those events will play out. Yes, they will exist. No, they won’t exist as they have done so in the past. However, there has been a lot of forms of what’s known as rising to the occasion. This is the notion (or perhaps an “art”) of adapting through the circumstances of a physical or emotional surrounding where one can rise to the surface, go with the flow, or some other descriptive methods of getting on to how things are, perhaps with that element that this is how it’s going to be right now, even if that “right now” will wind up as a “forever”.
But let’s get into the “black” for the moment. The seasonal shopping period has already begun. Many stores and retailers have began to kick off the deals that shoppers love to know about, starting around middle October. In was on October 13th and 14th that Amazon, the be-all-to-end-all portal to obtain almost anything including the kitchen sink, had their Prime Days, where subscribers to their premium service called Amazon Prime can take advantage of deals over selected goods. Physical retailers such as Target and Walmart, who for many years was known as the main be-all-to-end-all place to shop, also had their own version of Prime Day. Because this writer isn’t a subscriber to Amazon Prime, I can’t say what items were being sold at discounted prices. All that I do know that many of these items were available with free shipping. Also, if one wanted to take advantage of electronic devices created by and sold through Amazon, they would be available as well.
But Amazon isn’t the only game in town. There’s been a lot of notion of taking advantage of the smaller and independent retailers who had been struggling to be in the black while facing these black-esque times. Recently, a group of independent bookstores has their own campaign of sorts advising possible shoppers to shop in their stores loaded with real people offing their suggestions on what books to read and cherish through personal choice rather than by way of a “creepy algorithm” where a robot picks the choices for you! And there is Small Business Day, usually held around Thanksgiving weekend where the campaign totes to remember (and to shop) the friendly neighborhood retailer that exists in..well..your friendly neighborhood! This day was established a number of years ago when those Black Friday days would have those physical big-box retailers open in the early morning hours (some as early as 5:00 AM) to offer deals on goods that people may want to purchase, even if the purchase wasn’t meant to be as a “holiday gift”. It was made for the buyer. And the goods offered weren’t anything of a practical nature. There was nothing offered such as toothpaste, masking tape, or standard groceries. It was goods that one would make for a single time such as electronic devices (big screen TV sets, etc.) or other goods that just may not really be needed or desired. It was just purchased because it was such a great deal. After all as the notion could suggest, when will you get such a deal as the ones offered ever again? Surprisingly, it would be a lot sooner than one would realize!
But as of right now, everything won’t be as black as it could mean. (Black here refers to being as described as a of state of misery.) There is a lot of positivity in the works. Things will get back to where they were. It may not be for a while, and may not even be in the state as they once were. But they will happen! How do we know? Actually, this writer doesn’t know. He (the person’s proper pronoun by the way) is just stating this fact because that is the method of journalism that Accessibly Live Off-Line subscribes to. We’ve been at it for almost a quarter of a century, so we must be doing something right!
Right…?
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