A raucous Black Friday

Black Friday apparently got off to as raucous a start in Warrenton as it did elsewhere across the nation, with a parking lot at Walmart that began filling to overflow in the hours after Thanksgiving dinner and reaching a fever pitch with the start of the sales of deeply discounted electronics and other items that got underway at midnight.

Despite our continued worries about the security of our jobs and the stability of our economy, Americans are out there spending. Nationwide, retail sales on Black Friday were up sharply from a year ago, according to preliminary reports, which, we have noticed in the past, sometimes seem designed to hype the mood rather than reflect the reality. The figures are often revised downward in the days following the shopping extravaganza.

We don’t have any reliable local figures to spell out how Small-Business Saturday went. That’s the day after Black Friday when you are supposed to spend your shopping dollars with Mom and Pop down on Main Street.

Anecdotally, it appears that the relatively new shopping opportunity went well, though no shoppers appeared to get carried away around these parts.

Perhaps folks were saving their money to keep the food bank afloat?

Or not.

Since the food bank’s financial woes began with disappearing state support about a month of so ago, our local community has raised just $33,000 toward solving those problems. The need is for another $117,000 for this fiscal year.

We are, frankly, a little surprised at these results, though other money has been promised and businesses continue to work at fundraising for the food bank.

We are in the season of giving. We should, all of us, do so.