I have to admit I didn't see it coming. And I should have - because it makes perfect sense. Just when we were all completely conditioned to expect the best deals on EVERYTHING on Black Friday, there it was - Cyber Monday!! Well - after all - why not? Like I said it makes perfect sense. Why actually drive over to the store at 4:00 am Friday (and spend all that money on gas!) when you can buy it on line on Monday for less!! (Of course, it would have been great to know that at 3:00 am on Friday.)

Finding the lowest price has turned into a sort of gambling activity; sort of like the lottery. The customer is never really quite sure that they are really getting the real really best deal out of all of the really best deals.

Even the "lowest price guarantee" doesn't actually help you because (in case you didn't notice) all of these stores carry different brands! So the chances of you finding the same brand at the competing discount store is pretty slim.

Add in iPhone Apps like Red Laser (scans a barcode and finds prices for that item in stores in your vicinity) and the "Finding The Lowest Price" game takes on a whole new dimension. I seriously doubt that anyone has done an analysis of how much it costs to actually find and buy the item at the lowest price. I suspect that after you add in the gas and the time spent going from store to store, you wind up paying more than if you had just bought it at the first place you went to.

Anyway, there are over two weeks yet to go before the BIG day, so I am SURE we can come with a special sale day name for each and every day between now and then. Wait!! Perhaps we can use the 12 days of Christmas!! "Turtle Doves Tuesday", "French Hens Friday", "Swans a Swimming Saturday" - you get the idea. The jewelry stores will love "Gold Rings Sunday"!!! And I am sure that somewhere we can throw in a tent sale ("National Tent Sale Day") because we all know that things are cheaper when they are sold from a tent.

Not to shift gears too much, but if you celebrate Hanukah (as we do by lighting candles), sorry - the game is just about up. Only two days left for Hanukah. (For those who might not know, Hanukah is eight days. When we were kids we got a gift every night. One or two big things and then little stuff).

But this does bring up an interesting point. I grew up in New York and our neighborhood was split pretty much 50/50 Jewish and Roman Catholic. So when you went to the mall this time of year you not only saw tons of Christmas decorations but tons of Hanukah decorations. This is what I grew up with.

Even when I moved to Dallas (which is the Bible Belt for sure) there were Hanukah decorations in all the department stores. It wasn't until I moved to Sacramento that I experienced an interesting effect. My first Hanukah in Sacramento, I realized that I had left a menorah (a 9 candle candelabra that holds the Hanukah candles) in Los Angeles. Rather than drive down and get it (ha) I decided to go and buy a new one. Little did I suspect. First stop was the Macy's home section at the local mall. This is where it gets interesting. I walk into Macy's and I realize I do not see a single Hanukah decoration. Not a one! Hanukah clearly does not exist at this Macy's. I find a sales person and tell her I am looking for a menorah. OK - she has no idea what that is. I tell her it's a candle holder used for celebrating Hanukah. Hanukah? I could have been speaking Martian. Clearly, as far as this girl was concerned, I was a Martian. Hanukah? Not a clue.

To make a long story short, I go to five different places and no menorah. No one knows what I am talking about. It probably would have been faster to go to LA and find the one I left there. However, I did finally find one at a Hallmark store. They had two and I grabbed one of them. (The next year my daughter made a magnificent ceramic menorah with a hand-glazed picture of zebras at a watering hole for me. It's quite spectacular.)

But again, this is another example of the power of retail. An entire religion was omitted from the seasonal decorations. If that's what you grow up with, it gives you the idea that that's all there is. Now when you run into something else (like Hanukah) you see Martians. Wouldn't it be far better to have decorations that represent all the religions celebrating holidays and grow up with that? I think it would definitely promote religious tolerance and we could sure use more of that these days.

In fact, here's a list of religious and ethnic holidays for December. If you celebrate any of these, I hope you have a very happy holiday. If I left anyone out - my sincere apologies.

Hanukah (Jewish)
St. Nicholas Day (Christian)
Hijira (Islam)
Bodhi Day (Buddhist)
Immaculate Conception of Mary (Catholic, Christian)
Our Lady Of Guadalupe (Catholic, Christian)
Ashura (Islam)
Las Posadas (Hispanic Catholic)
Winter Solstice (aka Yule) (Wicca, Pagan, Christian)
Christmas (Christian, Roman Catholic)
Feast of the Holy Family (Catholic, Christian)
Death of Prophet Zarathustra (Zoroastrian)
Kwanzaa (African-American)

Malcolm