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| Posted By : Dave - 11/27/2005 2:05 AM | I'm watching the news and they are showing stores opening on 'Black Friday'. Some people had been camping out overnight to get into the stores. The doors open and the people stampede in, pushing and shoving. I saw people knocked to the ground, push out of the way, knocked into walls, etc.
What a disgusting display. It truly turned my stomach. What must we look like to the rest of the world? No wonder our society is detested. We have so much, and appreciate so little.....
Dave
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| Posted By : Edward Knight - 11/27/2005 6:21 AM | I saw a lot of that on the news too. It just goes to show that idiots come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and sexes. Of course on top of the fact that people are doing it, we have the media making a display of it.
Before long Black Friday will be a spectator sport. They'll be setting up bleachers outside the Wal Mart and selling tickets so people can watch the fights. Either that or they will make a reality TV show, Shopping Wars or something. People are just nuts. Society, IMO, is stooping to an all time low.
Have you seen the reports about all the people being mugged and robbed over those stupid X-boxes? Don't they know that there will be plenty of them, and in a few weeks the price will drop? But we have people pulling guns on folks to get one.
Retailers should hve their butts kicked t0o. They know they will cause this chaos when they advertise laptops for $149 or whatever it was and then have a supply of 4 machines when the doors open. Then they bask in the glory when their storefront appears on the evening news because some old lady got a broken hip from a group of thugs that ran her down when the doors opened.
I'm all in favor of Cyber Monday. At least nobody gets hurt.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com |
| Posted By : UnclePete - 11/27/2005 6:27 AM | It's kind of amazing what people will do to save 30 bucks on a dvd player, eh? There's a similar phenomenon in Canada, but it's on Boxing Day - Dec 26. Same deal though, except there's really not that great a savings for anyone, except the first 4 or 5 people, as Ed mentioned.
I hate shopping at the best of times - there's NO way I'm going out in that mess. Though I don't know if you can just blame retailers, Ed -- it's more problematic of a consumer society as a whole, I think (as you mentioned too).
____________
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." --Thomas Jefferson
http://www.creativeguypublishing.com |
| Posted By : Dave - 11/27/2005 7:55 AM | I don't want to appear too much the hypocrite, since I run 50+ price comparison shopping sites. I think the concept of gift giving is great. I truly enjoy selecting presents for those people I care about - more than I enjoy getting them - but you'll never see me waiting overnight (or even in too long a line) and you'll never see me stampeding over people to get into a store.
Dave
SFReader Webmaster
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| Posted By : UnclePete - 11/27/2005 8:25 AM | everything in moderation. [;)]
i know exactly what you mean dave, and I don't think anyone would take you hypocritically. I think a lot of what happens with the lineups, etc. is also bragging rights - and that's just human nature. "Oh yeah? Well I lined up at 4 AM and got this dvd player for 9 dollars!"
"Oh yeah? Well I was there at 2:30 and they PAID me to take this stereo!"
etc.
____________
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." --Thomas Jefferson
http://www.creativeguypublishing.com |
| Posted By : MichaelEhart - 11/27/2005 9:16 AM | LOL
Wait in line overnight for a $349 laptop = end of civilization as we know it.
Wait in line overnight to see latest Star Wars = a healthy fandom
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| Posted By : Dave - 11/27/2005 11:37 AM | Yeah, well, I don't wait in line for movies either, and I'm not sure that would qualify as 'healthy'.... Though if my daughter wanted to do a midnight run get the most recent Harry Potter, I'd indulge her without hesitation. Not to support commercialism or consumerism, but to share in something she was excited about and would enjoy.
Dave
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| Posted By : ajjones - 11/27/2005 1:06 PM |
I used to think it was exaggerated--the whole Black Friday thing; as I never really went out that day. Then a couple weeks ago, I got my first look at an actual shopping addict; my sister in law, visiting from England. It was odd. Her purchase would produce an almost sexual gratification within her. A little odd. But of course she's FAR from alone in that category.
But now all i can picture is a mall, with a sea of Amandas, crawling over each other like insects swarming a piece of fruit, walloping each other with Gucci bags, fighting over bargains.
[:0] |
| Posted By : erazmus - 11/27/2005 4:32 PM | Well, my family managed to miss attending this years black friday fesivities. As shoppers anyway. It wasn't my idea, we were just broke. The flip side of the madness is that my wife and I manage to enrich ourselves by working extra shifts as security on that day. Parking lot patrols, eleven pm to six am, are one of my wifes normal shifts as a guard and I pulled a side walk sale posting as well. At holiday rates!
They are extending the thing in the media already. I have heard references to "Black Saturday" on the radio this year and fully expect promotional events for it next year. And if they sell tickets to watch it, I'll end up being the referee at the fights. I went last year and managed to avoid injury, mostly through intimidation. Yes, I bought some twenty four dollar DVD players. The store had about fifty and they went in five minutes. I normally shop at those hours, I'll add. Its a side effect of my work shift. I'm never in the market for the hottest gifts anyway.
I did really like the Harry Potter book party I went to this year. I got all teary, looking at all the young people lining up to buy a book. We had over two hundred and fifty at my local B&N and thousands across the city. That can't be a bad thing, can it?
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine coming Sept. 05
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises |
| Posted By : Edward Knight - 11/28/2005 3:50 AM | Mike,
I don't have a problem with people lining up to get something they want. It's the beating up part I have trouble with.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com |
| Posted By : EdMcfadden - 11/28/2005 4:20 AM | I'm so with you, Dave. That's why Thanksgiving is by far the better holiday! No gifts!
Ed |
| Posted By : Dave - 11/28/2005 4:34 AM | quote:
I don't have a problem with people lining up to get something they want...
The core of the problem is what we want. We are told to want everything, and many people buy into that. The message hawked by our society today tells me I should base my self-worth, my level of success, and my social status on whether or not I own enough 'bling'. A cheap DVD player, fancy car rims, Xbox 360 or what-have-you is so far down on my list of priorities that you will NEVER find me waiting in line to get it.
To me, money is not the end, it is a means to an end. If I had enough money, I could 'buy' back the hours of my life I'm currently selling as labor to someone else. Money to me is freedom to 'spend' my time how I want, not a big house, fancy cars, and the latest plasma TV. Nevertheless, I do want a nice house, reliable cars, a working TV, comfortable furniture, good food to eat, a gym membership, etc. I'm not willing to live in a run down trailer and collect welfare.
The exchange of my time for labor is reluctant, but voluntary. I've voluntarily chosen a standard of living that isn't supportable unless I have a certain amount of money coming in. In the meantime, I'm, working on things on my own that hold the potential to allow me to buy back my time without sacrificing income.
But no matter how much money I might ever have (or not have), it will be a cold, frozen, snowy day in the Sahara before you see me on TV, scrambling to get into a store like a starving hog trying to wedge his way into a spot at the trough.
Dave
SFReader Webmaster
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| Posted By : Edward Knight - 11/28/2005 5:10 AM | I agree with almost everything you say. My goal in life for the last 7 or 8 years has been to become self-employed. I long for that degree of freedom. I could do that now if not for health insurance. That's the only thing keeping me working a "public job" (as my grandfather used to call it).
Still, I really "need" a new laptop for the type work I do. The one I have is barely getting the job done. I'd stand in line a while if I thought I could get a good deal on one. I would not run over, push, shove,or beat up another person to get one.
I've stood in line for concert tickets. I've stood in line at Disney World. I've stood in line to get a book signed and to get my driver's licsense renewed. I stood in lines to register for college classes. Standing in line (even on a snowy day in the Sahara) doesn't seem so bad to me. It's that "I'm gonna beat the hell out of everybody in front of me" attitude that so many people have these days that bothers me the most.
I agree with Dan that we have become way too material. Add that to the "I have to have everything right now" mentality, and the "I deserve it just because I'm breathing" way people have come to think and it becomes dangerous.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com |
| Posted By : Daniel - 11/28/2005 6:59 AM | I agree with Dan that we have become way too material.
***
Did I say something? LOL
Ed, you're just getting to know me too well, my friend!
BTW, I agree with Dave on the psuedo-looters, though I like money and material things, too -- but I don't think I'd stand in line, or punch someone out, just to save a couple bucks on a dvd player or video game.
My stepson waited in line for over an hour to get into Best Buy to snag cheap new video games -- I would've maybe been more inclined to this kind of thing when I was his age. Me and my buds waited overnight for concert tickets a few times (and it was worth it!) not to mention crazy stuff we went through in pursuit of expensive musical equipment we couldn't get our parents to buy for us ;-)
Every year, the residents of our village set out trash (the kind the trash guys don't usually take) for "curb day" and you should see how fast this junk is swiped up by people who swarm in from all over the outlying city. You could put ANYTHING out there and some fool would take it. I'm not trying to be hostile to these people, but it is rather sad to see someone digging through bags of *garbage* so they can take home an old vhs tape or busted up old computer keyboard.
"Disgusting" would certainly fit a few of the scenes I've witnessed on "curb day" in Southern View Illinois.
Daniel
www.pitchblackbooks.com |
| Posted By : Edward Knight - 11/28/2005 8:47 AM | Dave, Dan, Dave, Dan!!!
I don't know why I keep getting you two mixed up on this board.
As I might have mentioned, I grew up very poor--rural poor vs. inner city poor, but poor is poor. In rural communities we had dumpsters at the ends of certain roads. My family was one of those who would dive those dumpsters for whatever we could get. We'd scrap any metal we could get. Copper and aluminum were the same as finding cash.
As to musical equipment, I found a Gibson Ripper bass guitar in that dumpster once. The pickups and electronics as well as the tuning pegs and bridge had been stripped off. Once I got parts for it I played it for several years.
I have a nice new bass now, but I still get out the ol' dumpster bass now and again for old time sake.
The shame is that people throw away things that others could use. Besides, being materialistic, selfish, and violent, our society has become extremely wasteful.
Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing
Amazing Journeys Magazine
http://www.journeybookspublishing.com
http://www.journeybooksonline.com |
| Posted By : Daniel - 11/28/2005 9:30 AM | The shame is that people throw away things that others could use. Besides, being materialistic, selfish, and violent, our society has become extremely wasteful.
***
That's true. I don't have any problem with salvaging, none at all -- it was the attitude of certain people rifling through trash bags, digging with both paws and leaving stuff strewn about that struck me as "disgusting."
Second hand stuff, I've no problem with and think it's great to use what others might throw out -- but some folks seem to have no shame when it comes to salvaging methods....
Daniel
www.pitchblackbooks.com |
| Posted By : PaulMc - 11/28/2005 9:47 AM | quote:
Originally posted by Daniel
The shame is that people throw away things that others could use. Besides, being materialistic, selfish, and violent, our society has become extremely wasteful.
***
That's true. I don't have any problem with salvaging, none at all -- it was the attitude of certain people rifling through trash bags, digging with both paws and leaving stuff strewn about that struck me as "disgusting."
Second hand stuff, I've no problem with and think it's great to use what others might throw out -- but some folks seem to have no shame when it comes to salvaging methods....
My mother-in-law has been raving about "Free Cycle" lately. I think it's an email group where you post what you're giving away or what you're looking for.
I don't know the group, but I did find a similar website.
http://fc.swapace.com/
Just FYI
Seems like a good way to keep stuff moving and out of the dumpsters ...
-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net
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| Posted By : MichaelEhart - 11/28/2005 11:02 AM | My wife and I run a food and clothing bank--- and even the non-reusable stuff gets re-cycled--- the worn-out clothing and shoes get shredded for rag.
I am occasionly stunned by how much stuff there is out there, and how much of it goes to waste.
"Dancing with the Elder Gods"-- Thirteen Magazine, October
"It's a Living" Byzarium---Now Appearing!
"Voice of the Spoiler" and "An Exorcism Straight, Hold the Elvis" The Sword Review, October
"Oathbreaker" Mythica Vault
Host, 2005 Nebula Awards Live Chat, sff.net
http://mehart.blogspot.com/ |
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