As 2011 comes to a close, I thought this would be a good time to take a look back on some of the most popular topics that have been written about in our humble blog.  That, and I'm one foot out the door, egg nog in hand, so...

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the shop

I really enjoy the holiday season.  I love the change in season, the holiday specials, the gifts, all of it.  Most of all, I love the Santa Claus concept.  Here is a man, a Jolly old Elf if you will, who single-handedly delivers the worlds presents in a single night.  Furthermore, he and his elves manufacture nearly $250 Billion in merchandise every year.  This must be some operation!  So, clearly Santa has some high-tech systems in place to bring the presents to the children of the world.  Let's look at what Santa is running in his Quality Management System:

This past weekend is the consumer event we now know as "Black Friday".  Of course, now Black Friday starts on a Thursday, which is followed by "Small Business Saturday", then "Cyber Monday" (which now starts on Sunday and goes all week).  It seems that in our consumerism society, we tend to make these events larger and larger each year - almost larger than the holidays themselves.  If this trend continues, next year we will all having be turkey dinners in the aisles of Toys R Us, and in five years we will just give in and call it "Black November."