Journal #36

It's true, Black Friday isn't at all what it used to be. Today me and my sister went out to shop around and I only bought myself the first NGE omnibus and an LPS Iguana from Five Below and neither were on sale. In fact, NGE costed me $27 and would've been cheaper online after applying a discount. Though shipping would've ran me a bit. 

I guess it's led me to being down about next year. Sure I'm graduating which is fortunate because Uni is the only thing tying me to my home in the US, but the state of the country is going to shift dramatically come next presidential term. I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone how frightening the change might be and I'm sure no one wants to think about it. I'm fortunate to live in California, but I'm afraid the cost of living is going to remain the same or skyrocket due to the tariffs and what not they want to introduce. I won't pretend to be a genius and claim I understand completely how those work, but I can tell you that if it costs more to ship something, then that something will sell for higher to match the cost of putting it on a shelf. Of course, I also worry about those who live in red states that might face the brunt of dehumanization. My little sister will still be in Uni by the time the four years are coming to a close and I want her to be able to graduate and find work as much I want to find work and build something for myself. I want her to have someplace to explore freely and for her to not be cooped up in this city like I was. I hope I'm just overreacting about it.

Anyway, back to my main point. Black Friday sales both in person and online are incredibly underwhelming. I remember before the pandemic when Hot Topic had super sales on their T-shirts and you could nab things for more than 50% off at the mall. Online too! Barely anything on my Christmas list went on sale this year on Amazon and the Hot Topic site showed nothing was in stock. At the Hot Topic itself, the only sale they were having was a buy 1 get one 50% off, but with everything being either $20 or $50, that sale wasn't very good. Nor is there anything really worth getting at HT anymore except maybe earrings. Barnes and Nobles restricted sales to the books they laid out on little tables at the entrance, but none of the manga they offered were on sale and I could only find one of the books I set out to find. Given, I did arrive late and Dandadan is super popular right now. So I bought the Neon Genesis Evangelion omnibus because it's been on my wish list for a while now and only because I had the funds for it, not because it was on sale. Nothing at five below was on sale either, though that's not a surprise to me. It's basically a dollar store and my LPS Iguana disco set was only $5 so I can't really complain.