Black Friday Thoughts: Cyber Monday Edition

J.C. Penney, Lines of a Layman, 1956

To be clear, much as I like Mr. Penney, and much as I admire the company he founded, I am no fan of JCPenney these days. JCPenney, circa 2011, is the antithesis of 

That first little store I called "The Golden Rule."*

I've claimed that Mr. Penney would not approve of "Black Friday." By that I mean both the term, and the practices thereof. How do I know this?

p.74

Do these words sound like they've been written by a man who would ask thousands of his associates to be at work at 3am on the day after Thanksgiving? I think not.

~~

*Do not get me started on that other retail empire begun by a liar, thief and former JCPenney associate, Sam Walton.

"Black Friday Thoughts": Part 1

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This is from Lines of a Layman: The Golden Rule in Every Day Living, published in 1956 by WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO. Grand Rapids     Michigan.

The author is a guy named James Cash Penney. For real, he's the son of a preacher. He goes by J. C. Penney.

Those of us watching television this weekend are being assaulted by the company that bears his name. 

I was in a Penney's just the other day. I saw that the store was going to open at 4am, and I commented on this to the lady on the other side of the counter. She had to be there at 3. 

I said I'd never met James Cash Penney, but I'd known people who had. And that I thought he would be turning over in his grave if he saw what was going on.

I know my dad is.