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By Roz Rogoff

About this blog: In January 2002 I started writing my own online "newspaper" titled "The San Ramon Observer." I reported on City Council meetings and other happenings in San Ramon. I tried to be objective in my coverage of meetings and events, and...  (More)

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Holidays, non-Holidays, and shopping days

Uploaded: Feb 2, 2015

It seems that every month there is at least one or two holidays that encourage people to shop. I stopped by the Nob Hill Market Sunday afternoon around 3 pm to pick up some cat food and a bag of onions. I didn't expect it to be crowded, but the checkout lines were all busy with people, mostly men, buying beer and/or chips and/or salsa. Ooo I remembered it is Superbowl Sunday. Party Time!

Let's see we just had New Year's Eve and Day, Christmas, and Chanukah which has been elevated from a minor Jewish holiday to an important holiday for Jewish shoppers.

Today is Groundhog Day, which Woodchuck Cider has renamed Woodchuck Day. It's time to buy Cider.

February 14th is Valentine's Day. Romance, candles, greeting cards, wine, perfume, expensive gifts, hotel reservations. I'm sure I left out some ways to spend, er celebrate, this artificially romantic occasion.

For feminists who deplore the often sexist aspects of Valentine's Day, it is followed on Sunday by Susan B. Anthony Day to celebrate women's suffrage. If you are hoping for a woman President in 2016, possibly Hilary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Sara Palin, or Ma Kettle, February 16th is Presidents' Day.

This is just scrolling through my digital planner for February. This is what Congress does best, next to naming Post Offices, naming days of the year for something or someone that gives retailers, restaurants, hoteliers, florists, and other clever marketers an excuse to have a sale or a special or another way to exploit whoever or whatever is being celebrated that day.

Am I being too cynical about it? Probably, but I'm getting a little tired of the constant promotion of every day to throw a party, hold a barbecue, buy a card or a gift. I wrote a similar blog two years ago about the commercialization of Thanksgiving. I quoted President Calvin Coolidge who famously said, "After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world." He made this perceptive observation 90 years ago.

President Coolidge was the original conservative. He was President from 1923 to 1929, just before the crash which was blamed on his successor, President Herbert Hoover. Who knows how much of Coolidge's less government is best philosophy lead to the Great Depression, or maybe it wouldn't have happened if his policies had continued. I'll leave that to historians and economists to sort out, but the American economy runs on shopping and if every day is a holiday then a-shopping we shall go.
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Comments

Posted by mloliver, a resident of San Ramon,
on Feb 2, 2015 at 2:27 pm

I'm the world's worst shopper and I dislike shopping with a passion. My computer died which required a trip to the Stoneridge Apple Store. While there I got a text from my daughter with a question that I couldn't answer because the information was at home, so I responded that I was at the mall. She answered with, "Did hell freeze over?" When I do need something, I try to shop in San Ramon, but the local economy had better not count on me for economic support.


Posted by Rachil, a resident of California Reflections,
on Feb 3, 2015 at 12:08 am

If you live outside India then also you have the facility to send gifts to India by using the gifting leader Indian Gift Guru. You can also wish your brother by sending his birthday gifts.


Posted by Ed, a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on Feb 5, 2015 at 2:07 pm

I know it's been said before but my wife and I are so different when it comes to shopping. I am a buyer, she is a grazer.
For me I know what I want, I know where to get it and about how much it should cost, so when I get to the store/mall I make a beeline to my destination, acquire the target ( like in the military), then pay and exit ASAP.
My wife on the other hand likes to go into this store and that one, looking for the best price, then she might see something else that she originally hadn't thought about but now wants, then on to another store to see if they have it in a different color/size, etc, etc.
We've gone to the mall countless times for one item, only to spend double or triple the time wandering around going into other stores.
She knows I don't like this, and I know she does, so I either stay home if she's going shopping, or I take a seat somewhere at the mall with some coffee while she goes around. We agree to disagree and leave it at that.

After almost 21 years of marriage we've figured out how to go to bed happy each night!


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