Black Friday
November 23rd, 2007By Sharifa Love
Today, Black Friday, is the traditional beginning of holiday shopping season. Some large retailers attempt to lure in traffic with great deals on electronics and other big ticket items, while clothing retail locations offer slashed prices and buy one get one half off deals. Even web retailers get in on the action offering sales for Black Friday, some with different hourly discounts. With all the savings to be had, people get excited.
Really excited.
People rush to outlet stores at midnight tired yet motivated to shop. Tents are set up outside of Best Buys and Wal-Marts across the country where people camp out and wait for hours to be the first in the store.
With tremendous focus on all things material, an insane prep day for a “religious” holiday that is over a month away, it makes me wonder what values people really have. It seems that our society is increasingly driven by materialistic desires and driven by a huge business interest that silently pulls the strings. (Take the toy industry for instance. Ever notice how every year there is one really hot item that has been heavily marketed and every kid wants and so it flies off the shelves and there are never enough? This is due to a controlled release rate by the toy companies. If they get enough parents to promise their child a particular toy say, a Ferbie, then they will be forced not only to buy something else in its place for Christmas, but to return to the toy store a few weeks later to buy the original promised toy.)
That perfectly reasonable people can be driven to fights and violence over television sets and Tickle Me Elmos is frightening yet illuminating. Maybe next year in the interest of making a change in society there should be a blackout day. No purchases, anywhere. Of course that is simply a novel idea surely to garner minimal support. Even if there were a sizable group of people that participated there would be scabs, those who would cross the blackout line and grab that HD-DVD player for $100.
I bemoan this state of affairs, yet find myself at a loss. Until next year when I embark on a personal day of protest I guess I’ll have to check in to Amazon
every hour to try and find a deal.
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