R.I.P. Black Friday?

I don't know how it was in other parts of the country, but here in good ol' Evansville, the dreaded and infamous Black Friday turned out to be just another day.

Normally I avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague, but I needed to venture out today and pick up a few things. I was fully expecting to encounter interminable traffic, picked-over shelves, fights in the aisles and long lines at the register.

Instead I saw none of that. I went to five or six different stores, and none of them were packed. No one was out of anything, and shoppers were calm and relatively polite. In every case, I got right in and back out with little or no fuss. The only store I saw that was really hoppin' was Shoe Carnival (which was good news for me, as I work in their corporate office!). 

I wonder if the general public finally wised up and discovered they can get most, if not all of the irresistible Black Friday deals online, and realized there's no need to kill one another in gladiatorial combat over a $200 TV? Are people finally over Black Friday? Let's hope so!