Sequel to Bar Harbor Pajama Sale

After reading the papers about Black Friday sales, it made me think of our own Pajama Sale in another light. As I read about people waiting outside stores for hours to wildly rush in and grab whatever they could before items disappeared off shelves and altercations over who was in line first, it made me think that our walking around town in PJs is not so crazy after all.

Our Pajama Sale has a civility to it. True, most people are there for the sales, but the real draw is to dress up in your pajamas and shop and feel completely at ease doing so. There is a festive mood to our sale- not the frenzy that you read about or see on TV.

People stop and chat as they see friends and neighbors that were lost in the summer crowds. They discuss their plans for Thanksgiving and share the finds they found. Even Acadia National Park sells its annual passes at half-price off in appreciation of all the locals who support the park year 'round.

It's a time to support the local shops as well and feel good about doing so. Oh I could buy my books cheaper on Amazon but I prefer to support Sherman's Book Store and buy my Christmas cards, calendars, books and toys there. It's the sense of belonging to a community and doing what you can to keep local stores stay open after the tourist dollars fade away. After all this is our town and we have a pride about living here and keeping it a viable community.

I used to love to shop at Port in a Storm- a wonderful bookstore in Somesville outside of Bar Harbor. But they could not keep up with the competition from online stores and closed their doors last year to our dismay. Maybe if they had been embraced in the arms of our small town community they might have survived.

So you can go shop your big box stores and stand in lines with people you do not know and fight over merchandise, but I will take our small town sales supporting shopkeepers you know, rubbing elbows with friends and acquaintances and helping to sustain our year-round community.

Next up is our Midnight Madness sale the first Friday after Thanksgiving- and that has another whole mood to it. Stay tuned.