Deep thoughts about Black Friday.
Surely you’ve heard by now of the Wal-Mart employee in Long Island who was trampled to death by the crowd when the doors opened on Friday. Because people are so eager to start celebrating the birth of Jesus, after all. Right?
Malkin says the Black Friday phenomenon is insane, Morrissey calls it ironic, and the Anchoress thinks it has something to do with people not getting the right kind of love.
Well I say we can all save a lot of time and effort trying to analyze this issue and go straight to the heart of the matter: people are assholes.
Specifically, they’re self-absorbed, single-minded, greedy, thoughtless assholes. But the “asshole” part of that is the most important, and handily encapsulates all the other qualities. If you’re still unclear on what I’m trying to get across with this post, here:
I’m not saying you’re an asshole if you went shopping on Friday. I had to do so myself because that was the only weekday Rupert’s in town for the next month and we had to buy wedding rings.
But you might be an asshole if you were at any store before dawn waiting for the doors to open. Sorry, I just don’t get it. All that stress and drama just to get a few bucks off? Do the sales end at 8 a.m. or something?
Being as asswipe is a choice many have made. Here is CA it is rather a way of life for the bulk of the self-possessed wads that wander the streets or drive. The more expensive the car the less likely they are to use a turn signal to let anyone else know WTF they are doing.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:09 pmRachel, I do believe that the assholes are there to get one of the 15 (name the item) that the stores will have in stock. They advertise awesome prices, than only have 15 or 20 of said advertised items in stock. It’s not only the people shopping who are assholes…
November 30th, 2008 at 7:22 pmAs a big box “wholesale” monkey who just worked an open to close with no breaks or lunch in a 1 Hour Photo Lab with no help whatsoever during the busiest season of the year, i.e., Christmas Card Season, (deep breath) I think this is the most important thing you have ever posted on the IntarWebTubes.
I love you and want to have your children.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:26 pmChris, it ain’t the retailer’s fault. It’s the manufacturer’s. Ask me just how bad the entire retail community wants to murder those miserable cockgobblers running Nintendo right now.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pm‘Tis the season to trample your fellow man in order to save a coupla bucks. Tra-a-la-la-laaaa la-la-la-la.’
November 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pmThe fact that this happened in the NYC/LONG ISLAND area came as no surprise. “Shop at Walmart’s and Decrease the Surplus Population!”
November 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pmUpstate starts around Albany NY. I worked with cops & crime victims (Troy NY) for over 30 years; experience taught me to detest downstate assholes for their “kill-or-be-killed-ness.”
Furthermore, the Amytiville Horror - aka “Gate to Hell” - is in Long Island.
‘Nuff said.
I bought a few things online Thursday and then went to a couple of stores today (Sunday) and got some good sales. I may have paid 5 dollars more, but I did not have to wake up at 2 in the morning, stood in line, and acted like an idiot to save those few dollars. Some are trying to blame it on mob mentality, but how YOU act is your responsibility, blaming it on the mob is a cop out
November 30th, 2008 at 7:49 pmI have decided to keep all holiday shopping restricted to my own hometown (yes, we have a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Lowe’s), with 95% of the business going to our mom and pop-owned gift shops. We have 3 such establishments. Anything that cannot be acquired that way will be ordered online or through a catalog. Personally, I’m easily irritated by the bustling crowd and would rather not to subject myself to it. I’m afraid I might snap and shoot somebody.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:56 pmI waited outside my local GameStop two winters ago from midnight to 9AM to get a Wii.
I brought a beach chair and blankets and books and dvds and red pesto farfalle with chopped turkey meatloaf.
I hadn’t done an all-night wait-to-purchase in years and I enjoyed the hell out of it, despite the cold and the large “FREE HEAT” sign on the apartment building across the street that mocked us in the 0-dark-early.
Those around me enjoyed themselves too. There were only six for sale and I got the last one; if I’d shown up a half an hour later, I would have missed out. I was even applauded by those who did. That might have had something to do with all the crowd entertainment I’d done prior to that, though.
I feel no guilt or shame. I got what I wanted and had fun doing it.
PS: Also, I picked up Wii Guitar Hero World Tour last week and have been having Big Fun with it. Schlepped it along to my friend’s family thanksgiving dinner and we rocked out to Blondie and the Eagles and Paramore.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:58 pmYou nailed it on the head. The tragedy here in this is that these idiots who basically walked over another human (to death) in search of a deal are still out there. Some of these people need to be run over in the parking lot. I agree Randy that it is not necessarily the store’s fault. People are the root cause here. What about the heartless assholes who kept shopping for the bargains in spite of a death in the store? If they weren’t so absorbed with finding the best deal or bargain, life would not be so cheap.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pmAmen sistah. Assholes! Period.
No more to say.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:02 pmYeah did you see the dumbass woman who is 8 months knocked up,and was semi trampled too?
Now Im 8 months preggo,went to the mall but I sat my fat,waddling self down while I imagined what the hell my husband was doing at his job,saving the world…and knew he’d get a kick out of me sitting with all the old people outside of Sears.
Sure we got 2 great deals…but that is just it…TWO GREAT DEALS.Not worth me KILLING MY CHILD or GOING INTO PRE TERM LABOR FOR…
I feel sorry for that baby having such a stupid,asshole Mom.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:09 pmOkay, I admit it. I was out there on Friday shopping. However, the only reason I get up before dawn is because we host exchange students and it truly is an American phenomenon. Not a good one, mind you. But purely American. I’ve always asked my kids whether they want to join the madness and let them peruse the advertisements on Thanksgiving so they can pick one place we’ll go. This year, we wound up at the dreaded mall. An hour after they opened, so we weren’t waiting in line. The boys went one way and I went another. We met a couple of hours later and headed for home. All of our exchange students (we’re hosting our fifth this year) have really enjoyed the madness. But we’re in Idaho and there ain’t no trampling goin’ on here.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:20 pmSeveral years ago the Black Friday sales were fun. There might have been some people waiting in line, but the deals were good, the crowds were not ginormous, and it was a “tradition”.
Skip forward a few years. Rude people, entirely too many of them, all fixated on saving a few bucks. To the exclusion of everything else.
I did my “black Friday” shopping mainly on-line. My best friend and I went out to a Circuit City that was closing and visited a couple of “girl” stores, so we had fun. But we did NOT do the wait-in-line-forever-just-to-find-out-they’re-out Black Friday shopping.
*sigh*
I wish it could go back to being fun…
November 30th, 2008 at 8:23 pmFuck the mall, fuck the geniuses that create the chaos, and fuck all those assholes whose lives are so shallow that they have to be the first to get the latest shiny new gizmo.
If I can’t buy it on Amazon, it doesn’t get bought.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:35 pmSharon,
Don’t you just love that about Idaho? Of course, only redneck hillbilly retards would live in a state where people are still basically decent human beings and don’t trample each other; it’s mostly the cows you have to worry about. Must be all that intelligence-sucking religion we got up in them there parts that teaches us “do unto others…” and all that non-progressive crap. /sarcasm (I’m sorry, I just really hate it when coastal jackasses try to talk down to me for being from Idaho/Utah; I hate it even worse when they decide to bring up religion, which inevitably follows).
Unfortunately I’m stuck in the asshole capital of America: California. Christmas can’t come fast enough for me to visit my family and be back where there is actually some human decency. And there’s also the added bonus of being able to go out with my dad to my uncle’s dry farm and fire a few rounds from my very first gun:D The fact I can do that proves that living in a backwards hillbilly state is superior to living in such a progressive state as California. (I’m sorry to the people who love California, but I can’t even begin to explain just how much I absolutely loathe this shitty state - and the assholes that live here.)
But back to what this is actually about: Anybody who participates in the trampling of a person, especially if it’s over a fucking sale, then continues shopping, will certainly face some kind of punishment in the hereafter. I don’t believe that kind of stuff goes unpunished.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:43 pmHurricane Mikey:
speaking of Amazon, Hubby just discovered they sell unlocked cellphones now! I con’t describe how awesome this is, since the last two unlocked cellphones I got came form the EU, and were kinda expensive.
back on topic: I liked on HotAir’s story about how cops were trying to ID the people directly responsible for the trampling, and Ed’s (or Allah, don’t remember) byline was “good luck with that”. I would really love to see these people punished, but I doubt anything can be done now.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:53 pmWhat really makes the American Consumer an asshole is that we’re in the brink of a recession with a capital R, perhaps another depression, and here are a bunch of dimwits racing to spend more money. And yeah, they have a ‘few’ items available at the bargain price, but then again, the item isn’t something you actually need.
Anyone who’d stay up half the friggin night to buy a Walmart item on sale is pathetic to me … wait a few days, when the true blackness of black Friday materializes, and buy it online for the same low-low price.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:00 pmAfter hearing the “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” reports, we’re considering shopping after Christmas and exchanging presents on Twelfth Night — Magi fashion!
As a hermit raised by hermits, I’ve just never understood the “moths to the candle flame” attraction to mad sales events. No thanks.
Friday was spent with old friends visiting from Maine — a hike and lunch (homemade Mexican!).
I did make the mistake of ‘needing’ to go to the Farmville Supercenter on the day before Thanksgiving. Oh God. Parked my cart in a quiet spot so I could nip into an aisle after some decaf coffee beans for the Ancient and Venerables. When I came back, my cart was surrounded by two other carts, two women, a man, and two children, one of whom was wailing, “Mom-my, Mom-myyyyyyy!” over and over while being hauled out of one cart and deposited, screaming, into the other. Meh? As I stood there looking longingly at my groceries, I suddenly wanted to cry (or maybe punch somebody?): I’d overheard just enough of their conversation to realize that they were doing their non-custodial parent, Holiday hand-off. . . in Wal-Mart. . . in the middle of the grocery section. . . on top of my groceries. Happy Thanksgiving, kids!
People are assholes. Yes. They sure are.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:24 pmOTOH:
Awwwwww! Much better — yay! (”Had to”, eh? Sounds like the big day is fast upon us :D.)
November 30th, 2008 at 9:25 pmMy husband bought a new TV on Friday morning. It actually wasn’t that bad. He got to the store at 4:00a.m., waited an hour for the store to open, and was home by 5:30 with the TV, which was literally half price. Of course, he went with the attitude of “If I don’t get it, oh well.” NEVER would he have trampled anyone or got into a fistfight over a stupid TV. In fact, he planned on coming right home if it looked too crazy. But it was very organized on the store’s part (not Walmart but a local competitor). An employee went out to the people in line 15 minutes prior to opening, and asked what people were getting. If it was one of the limited sale price items, that customer got a ticket for that item. Once the tickets ran out, that was it.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:37 pmOne phrase, baby: on-line shopping.
If I had to set foot in a mall or big store to shop for Christmas, you would be reading about me in some wire story linked from Drudge. It wouldn’t be pretty.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:50 pmI’m a little curious about one thing. Don’t people ever wonder why, if a store can sell a $1,000 TV for $500 one day a year - why they can’t sell it for $500 or even $600 the rest of the year? Do they think the stores are actually losing a single dime on the transaction? I’ve asked that of a number of people, and they all say it never occurred to them.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:54 pmAnd, most of the people willing to trample another person to death for that TV would have bought the same thing at full price - because they just “had to have it”. (Not everyone - but most people; and they would have put it on the credit card and incurred interest.)
I think that you might be a bit harsh, to call each of the tramplers an asshole. I mean, they might just be ignerant sheep-headed imbeciles, and not assholes at all.
The pushing thing, the camping and anticipation - are deliberately engineered marketing ploys. Everything is set up to create the rush to buy. Merchants compete for shoppers primed to spend - so they encourage ganging up at their own doors for shoppers to hand over money, rather than let those shoppers spend themselves broke at a competitor.
And the ignerant sheep-headed imbeciles buy into the excitement, the frenzy of shopping.
It reminds me of the opening, sad lament from “Pluto Nash” - “They’re Moving Grandpa’s Grave.”
November 30th, 2008 at 9:55 pmMrs. JackCoke, who of late has a bum right foot due to a recent corrective foot surgery, and therefore cannot drive, forced me to get up early on Black Friday for a fantastic deal at Sears (not crazy-early, mind you, of the type that waits in line or gets up after two hours of sleep, but way-too-damn-early-after-entertaining-both-sides-of-the-family-on-Thanksgiving nevertheless.)
“Those things are all going to be gone,” I said. “They only stock like four of them and advertise them to bring in gullible shoppers who believe that they’ll actually have any left.”
“Nonsense! They’ll have lots of them. If we get there before eight, I’m sure there will be plenty left,” she said.
“Merry Christmas, Dentist,” I thought, as I gnashed another layer of enamel off of my teeth.
We got to Sears at 7:05 a.m. You’ll never guess what happened next!
No fantastic deal items left! Gosh, who would have thought it?
It’s enough to make you want to trample someone.
Or at least go back to bed.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pmWe’re becoming more like Euros every day. Just think “soccer match.” Trampling deaths are not that unusual in Euroville and South Amerikana.
So, all that’s left is to give up our guns for the good of safety and security, and raise taxes to the point of happy socialism.
Then, we have our very own Supreme Court to “allow” Shari’a law.
No wonder so many people voted for the Obamassiah. The new religion is upon us.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:30 pmThe UFCW local is blaming Wal-Mart, naturally.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:36 pmWhat Randy said.
I never worked in a one-hr. photo place, but I did work in one of those stores that sells Country-Victorian Froo-Froo (CVFF), and their Christmas store was doing booming business.
Especially the day after Christmas, when all their stuff went on clearance. The boss was expecting to do brisk business, so he sent out flyers telling all the customers to show up at 8 AM. But he forgot to tell the employee who was opening the store (that would be me). Boy were those customers pissed.
He also forgot to schedule extra help. Meanwhile, we had a line going all the way to the door and doubling back almost to the register. We ended up pulling in an employee from another store in our chain, and running a third (fourth?) “register” out of a cash box and an adding machine.
Of course, he didn’t bother coming by that day– must have been home celebrating with the family. Interestingly, my mom and I were both working at his store that day.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:59 pmSo, rachl lukis, I thought you were trying to test your loyal followers to see how long we’d stick around? How does blogging about something in which we are all in complete agreement help that goal? I like that we all agree and all that happy horseshit, but when does the mommyblogging start?
November 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pmUhh… yeah, they are losing money on those individual transactions. That’s why they only have a few units in stock. It’s called a “loss leader.” If they lose 3 or 400 hundred dollars a piece on 10 televisions but it draws 5000 idiots who will spend - on average - $300 each on other crap they didn’t plan to buy, it’s a net increase in revenue of $1,496,000. That’s a pretty good marketing investment.
Then there’s the more difficult-to-measure psychological effect: For every sucker that gets up at 3am and waits in line for hours, there are a half dozen other people that will show up days later because they remember seeing that BigBox Store™ “has” that $1000 TV for $500 less than everybody else. A large percentage of them will end up buying it for $979 once they get there because they want it, they’re already there and it’s still $20 less than GiantDiscount Store™ that’s selling it for $999.
November 30th, 2008 at 11:56 pmHuh…..call me late for supper, but are these people paying for all of this stuff on credit? And then when Obama becomes president all of their bills will be forgiven? Our family has sworn off of all but small gifts this year.
The only thing I have bought on a Black Friday (during the day, not at some ungodly hour) sale was 2 years ago. A 20″ flat screen that broke within 6 months and took me another 6 months to get a refund. (Of course, the refund was at the BF price and not at the retail.) AND I was told that I was lucky that I got to use the TV for 6 months for free.
I fear THIS horde mentality when they find out that they will not get everything for free.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:45 amCats are saints compared to these assholes.
Animals.
More like animals than cats.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:19 amI worked retail 3 years straight, 3 straight black fridays, I have seen the bowels of hell that people will sink too, just to get a few bucks off an item.
It ain’t pretty, and it makes you hate society even more.
Also, I thought we’re in terrible recession times, why is everyone spending like crazy? Black Friday sales were up like 3%?
Dude, where’s my “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression”?
December 1st, 2008 at 1:28 amIf I had to go out to shop, nobody in my family would get anything. I haven’t been to a mall in at least 15 years.
Why was the Wal-Mart closed in the first place? Around here they’re open 24/7.
As far as Black Friday goes, the local Bass Pro Shop has made a tradition of letting people set up camping equipment in their parking lot and spend the night in comfort so they’ll be rested for the sale. I’m sure it would still be crowded, though. Every time I’ve been there it’s been wall-to-wall people.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:54 am“Being as asswipe is a choice many have made. Here is CA it is rather a way of life for the bulk of the self-possessed wads that wander the streets or drive. The more expensive the car the less likely they are to use a turn signal to let anyone else know WTF they are doing.”
Turn signals just alert the other drivers of what you’re planning which gives them the opportunity to prevent you from doing it. Turn signals are for suckers.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:10 amLast year (which from all reports wasn’t as busy as this year), I worked at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. I worked the customer service, which isn’t as busy as the rest of the store because people are buying, not returning.
The point I’m trying to make is that I had it much, much easier than just about anyone else in the store.
But still, NEVER AGAIN!!!
December 1st, 2008 at 2:17 amRing pictures ring pictures!
December 1st, 2008 at 3:37 amEven before Black Friday got crazy, I couldn’t see the point of it. I’m not spending more than $50 on anybody for Christmas, so what the hell difference does it make if I get it for $45? Is that $5 worth me spending even one hour waiting in some line?
Hail NO!
And it’s definitely not worth anyone’s life. Even if 2000 people were going to save $100 each, is that worth a life? A mere $200,000? Do you really have any idea how small that amount is compared to the value of a life?
Even the crude “earning potential” of an unskilled laborer, age 36, $10/hr, equals $200000 in less than 10 years.
Marketers do share some responsibility because they traditionally appeal to the most primitive emotions. Yet, are not the buyers more culpable for not fending off those appeals? Are both equally reprehensible?
Life would be so much easier if we could just blame this on WalMart and the fact that their employees are not union members.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:52 amI’m with evvybuns. Shopping is an all-out sensory assault: the screaming kids, the shoving crowds, the vile mix of Chanel and Cinnabon, the long lines of whiny customers leading to some snippy sales girl with pierced everything who’s ignoring everything around her except her cell phone, into which she’s bitching to one of her loser girlfriends about her loser boyfriend and how much it sucks to work in retail…
One-click for me, thanks.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:07 amThe guy in this video pretty much says it all.
December 1st, 2008 at 6:44 amOne of the idiots fell on the floor. Her wig fell off. So while people were trampling on her and tripping over her, it was very important for her to get that wig back on before she stood up. If I had had a wig, I would have grabbed it in one hand and got off the floor right away, not waste time putting it back on first.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:27 amI’m converting all my family’s old VHS vacation tapes to DVD for this year’s gifts, which is fun because I get to delete out all the parts where my mom hits the record button on the camera and leaves it pointed at the ceiling of the van for like half an hour. And maybe a couple of the parts where I’m being a total dick to my little sister.
But not the parts where she’s baiting me into it.
Anyway, fuck brick-and-mortar retail and the mindless herd. What Mikey said: If I can’t buy it on Amazon, it doesn’t get bought.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:48 amThat last photo looks almost like a shot from Dawn of the Dead ‘04.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:25 amYou could not pay me money to go shopping on Black Friday. I don’t like crowds, because people in crowds are assholes. Always.
The Generic Winter Holiday really has nothing to do with “Christmas” anymore. It’s about Consumerism. There is no such thing as Christmas spirit, wherein people care about and help strangers, by paying a kindness forward. No such thing. It’s only about the next sale, the next deal, the next gimme.
I guarantee you those tramplers were not celebrating “Christmas” or “Christ’s birth”, because there is no such celebration. No offensive talk of Christianity or love/joy/peace is allowed. It’s all about The Winter Holiday - the biggest End-Of-Year Sale. That’s all it is - nothing more.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:38 amOn my way home from my Dad’s house on Thanksgiving, I saw people in line at the Best Buy near Triangle Town Center in Raleigh, N.C. That was around 9:00pm and they didn’t open until 5:00am the next morning. Idiots …
December 1st, 2008 at 9:55 amI gotta second the obvious here: ONLINE shopping. There isn’t anything I want or need that I can’t get online now. Sure I make the occasional trip to the market and I don’t dawdle in there. MOVE IT people. Comin’ thru.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:56 amSomeone upthread suggested this was a purely American phenomenon. ‘Fraid not. We had similar scenes at the opening of a Primark (cheap clothing) store in the West End of London and an out-and-out riot at an IKEA (cheap Swedish furniture) store in Edmonton, North London. Animalism. Sheer, unadulterated savagery.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:12 amHowdy,
My husband and I went to the Dallas Gun Show at the Dallas Mart on Saturday. He wanted to look for a new pistol. We’d attended a gun show there several years ago and the difference between the two was astonishing. When we went before Robert and I just walked into the building, paid for our tickets and strolled around the various tables…at that time, I was looking for a pistol for myself. But this past Saturday…YIKES…the people running the show expected 18,000 to 22,000…yes, that’s right, 18,000 to 22,000 in attendance. We stood in line for about 20 minutes (the delay involved the people who’d packed needing to have their weapons inspected and any full magazines emptied), but that aside, the line moved pretty quickly…and as it was chilly (about 50 degrees and windy), we appreciated getting inside the building as quickly as possible.
Inside it was crowded and noisy, but no shoving or pushing…very orderly and friendly. Gun folks are friendly is my take. Robert found a Para HWG9 which he fell in love with. I’m sort of partial to it myself, although I do love my little Kahr PM9. We get along just fine.
Speaking of which, is there a class I can take here in the Dallas area that will teach me how to clean my weapon? I’ve paid to have this done until recently but decided if I own a gun and shoot a gun, I certainly should be able to take it down and clean it. I did this yesterday but trying to clean a gun by reading the gun manual and the gun-cleaning kit manual is kind of like reading in the dark. I think I did an okay job but would like to do a super-duper job as my Kahr deserves it.
Thank you in advance.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:44 amOh, please. California is a mere armpit compared to the Greater DC Area.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:47 amMy Black Friday shopping experience went down like this:
Woke up around 7:30 a.m. (slept in a little because it was a Holiday, and all)
Had a couple of cups of coffee while I piddled around the house. Might have had a piece of leftover pie with my coffee.
Around 10:30 a.m., I drove my truck about 30 miles down to Dripping Springs, TX to the Tractor Supply Co. store because I knew they had 4′ x 6′ rubber horse stall mats on sale for $29.99 (regularly $45.99).
The Tractor Supply Co. was busier than normal for a a Friday…but there was no pushing. No trampling to death of store employees.
In fact, everybody was quite helpful and polite. A store employee even helped me load the mats (about 100 lbs each) into the back of my truck.
Then I drove home and had a couple of beers while I unloaded and laid down my new mats.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:51 amIts definitely not just an american phenomenon. There are assholes like these all around the world, unforunately. I vividly remember the Boxing Day (day after Christmas sales) back home in Sydney in the 1990s. With the ads in 100 point font declaring $50 fridges (only 5 in stock in 2 point font though) and the like, people were savages - especially considering the fridges were on the seventh floor and it meant a serious run in order to chain yourself to one to claim it. I dont think they’ve dared doing it in the last 10 years or so, after people got hurt and the front doors to their flagship store were crushed into oblivion.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:00 amA couple observations:
On the radio, they had an interview with some guy from some online site (Overstock? maybe) talking about how their site is so great, you can knock out the Christmas shopping “for a family of five in fifteen minutes.”
I almost had a coronary. Now, understand: we are not Communists or anything. But if someone in my family admitted as much that he spent 3 whole minutes choosing my present, because he wanted to be done with it….well, I’d probably cry. And I’d probably re-gift whatever stupid inappropriate thing someone would pick out using 3 minutes of their precious time. And I’d tell him to never, ever get me a gift again, if he cared so little for me that he could only spare 3 minutes of thought.
The tradition in my family is to watch the people, to think, to spend time figuring out what a good gift would be - and then to obtain it.
I know people who DO the “fifteen minutes for a family of five” thing - all the women get the same identical gift. Ditto for the men. It’s very disappointing, i think - you see your mom open up her set of pajamas and you’re like, “Oh, ok, I know I’m getting the exact same thing in the exact same color.” If the gift isn’t appropriate, too bad - the thought doesn’t count.
I never go to the mall after Thanksgiving. It makes me hate my fellow man too much - too many grabby greedy people, too many shoving rude people, too many people bitching about “having” to buy a gift for Aunt Edna whom they hate, etc., etc. It makes me want to haul off and tell them, “Don’t do it. Don’t give gifts. Stop the practice if it makes you so miserable that you have to make everyone around you unhappy. There is no Biblical mandate that you must give gifts on Christmas. It will not make Baby Jesus cry. And if you “hate” your family so much, why keep “rewarding” them with gifts that they will probably just complain about?”
Oh, and anyone who tramples another human in the process of trying to get one of the 20 big-screen tvs on some insane cheap price is less than human. I can’t understand being so fixated on a think that you will ignore the human being next to you.
Oh, and finally: a relative of mine, who has a new tiny baby at home, went out at 2:30 am to wait in line at an electronics store. He was gone from 2:30 to 8 or 9 am leaving his wife to hold down the fort with the babies and numerous other visiting relatives. And he didn’t even get what he went to buy! I’m sorry but if he were my husband, he’d be sleeping on the couch for months.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:09 amThe truly ironic thing is there was just recently an episode of “Life” where a mall employee was killed in the mall just before the opening of the doors for Black Friday, and they opened the mall and people just walked past the dead guy like it was no big deal. And that was at least two weeks before this thing in Long Island happened.
Oh, and I only have two words:
Gift Cards.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:17 amNot into shopping or gifts this year at all. We already have way to much stuff. I would rather we donate to charity, but some family members really wanted to exchange gifts, so we drew names. Well, at least that’s only one gift to buy…
December 1st, 2008 at 11:23 amAnd all of it bought on credit…
December 1st, 2008 at 11:32 amThis “Black Friday” trampling incident is a perfect illustration of media-induced mob hysteria, sort of like the Obama cult.
(PS - I was unable to connect with your blog for several days because my bookmarks were inextricably tied to Google; I learned you had Google remove your link to thwart the trolls and other excrescences that were attacking you for your political opinions. However, I found a “back door” (undisclosed, to thwart trolls)– I am really glad I can get my “Rachel Lucas” blog fix again.)
December 1st, 2008 at 11:35 amWho are you hanging around?
At my church we have a community outreach, angel food boxes, etc, etc. Every year we have the Salvation Army angel trees - last year I was too late to get any angels, so we gave the money we would have spent on the Christmas angels to the community outreach.
This year we have three angels - ages 1, 8, and 13. The kids will go with me to help pick out a coat, at least three outfits (including shoes, socks & undies) and a couple of toys so that those kids get a decent Christmas. And the kids learn the joy of giving to those less fortunate than themselves.
At my husband’s practice we do a food drive every year. This year we are also doing a clothing drive. It’ll go out in the newsletter and we always get a fabulous turnout from people who are actively looking for ways to give.
If you are looking for the “Christmas Spirit”, volunteer at one of the local shelters, get an angel from the Angel Tree, take food or clothing to the Samaritan Inn…find the spirit inside yourself and then you’ll be able to see it in others around you.
We are the most giving society on the face of the planet. Yes, you have the Black Friday idiots, but you also have tons of good neighbors and all-around good people who share what they have with the less fortunate.
And the good people really do outnumber the assholes.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:48 amI wonder if the Christmas morning conversation will go like this: “Merry Christmas my precious child/hubby. I hope you like your presents, I had to kill a man for them.”
December 1st, 2008 at 11:50 amThis song by Tom Lehrer expresses my opinion perfectly. It really annoys my materialistic friends when I sing it to them. And not just because I can’t carry a tune.
A Christmas Carol
It was released in 1959 so things haven’t changed all that much since then.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:56 amIf I didn’t work in retail you couldn’t drag me out of the house on that day. I work for a major electronics retailer at the corporate level and am required to be in a store on that day to help out.
We must get a different class of people. There were people camped out on Thanksgiving morning (morons) but when the doors opened they filed in quietly. We only allowed a certain number in at once to keep the store from getting swamped. There were two off-duty county cops outside the door, and tickets had been passed out for all the “doorbuster” items.
Smartflix rents all kinds of DIY videos, including many on firearms subjects, usually for about ten bucks:
December 1st, 2008 at 11:56 amhttp://smartflix.com/store/video/5/Professional-Gun-Cleaning
My wife works retail, when we lived in NJ she worked at a place in a Mall, so of course she had to work on the “Friday of Color”. After moving to NH, she didn’t have to, so what did we do? We went to the mall, didn’t fight for a close parking spot, went in, got a cup of coffee and then just sat down and watched the assholes for about an hour. An older couple were there doing the same thing; we had a good chuckle over it, then went home.
Another good variation is as it gets closer to Christmas, and the lines are getting longer, I found that by waiting in line patiently, actually have a smile on your face, being pleasant to the checkout person, gets a whole lot of people angry at you. Of course I toss in the gratuitous “Merry Christmas” to see who strokes out on me.
As for “getting”, I’ve got most of my family and the inlaws to not get us anything, but to send a donation to a charity in our name. Funny, Mom and Dad donate more in my name than they would ever spend on a present.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:00 pm> But you might be an asshole if you were at any store before dawn waiting for the doors to open. Sorry, I just don’t get it. All that stress and drama just to get a few bucks off? Do the sales end at 8 a.m. or something?
Asshole? No. And just being in line at dawn? It’s part of the fun of getting a great deal*. That said, in situations like LI, well, this isn’t really even new. It’s been happening for decades… I recall mention of people getting injured at big sale openings in New York back in the 60s and 70s. If anything, I think it’s a part of the NY personality.
As far as “the sales ending”, well, in most cases the quantities available at the sale price are limited, and low enough that if you aren’t in line you may not get it. So, in a sense, if the store opens at 6am, the sale ends at 6:05am.
====
December 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm* I do think that someone who lines up 24 hours before the sale starts (that is, you’re giving up your Thanksgiving Day!!) for a deal must really, really need that deal. Or be a lunatic. Or both.
Thank you Fargus. I just knew somebody who reads Rachel Lucas’ wonderful blog would steer me in the right direction. A video sounds ideal.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pmMaya, you want mommyblogging? Well, I can provide mommycommenting… I can tell you about the cuuuuuute adorable thing my widdle precious angel said (angel? is today opposite day?).
Saturday night I was reading through this list of iconic movie characters (http://www.empireonline.com/100-greatest-movie-characters/) and #28 is Gandalf. My son, who is 2 years and 4 months old, was sitting at the other end of the couch on my husband’s lap and seeming to be paying attention to the football game on the tv. Then the kid pipes up, “Dandaff! Dandaff! Dandaff!”
Husband and I look at each other in confusion, and Husband points at the computer screen where there’s a picture of Gandalf, and asks our kid who it is. “Dandaff!” the little geek-in-training announces.
He’s not even 2 1/2 and he’s noticeably language-delayed, but without any deliberate teaching on our part, he already knows - and says - Gandalf. It was only last month that my mother, who he spends every Saturday afternoon with, got a name.
Clearly the child is doomed to geekdom.
Was that a good enough example of mommyness? Hmm. I don’t know if I was sufficiently vomitously effusive. Maybe I should go back and edit…
December 1st, 2008 at 12:27 pmHey y’all, being caught up in a crowd is the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me. I got caught in a narrow passageway entering a high school football game and the only thing you could do was keep your elbows up, keep your footing, and try not to fall. If I’d been trampling on a elderly lady with a walker I wouldn’t have known — I was too terrified to do anything but try and stay alive.
The people who trampled this lady were in danger of their own lives, and if they’d tried to stop they, too, would have gone down to their deaths.
The fault of this death belongs squarely with Wal-Mart. Crowd control is science and it is possible. Wal-Mart should have had security in place, or refused to open the doors until they’d established control of the crowd.
People are assholes, yeah, but a happy crowd can morph into an uncontrolled mob in minutes. I will never forget not being able to breathe, not being able to control where I was going, and knowing I was going to be killed if I stumbled.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pmFelicity wrote that those people are out spending more money like it’s the thing to do and another wondered if it was on credit to which I say, “most likely.” Felicity, perhaps these are the people whose mortgages got bailed out so now they have more money than you or me now that their houses are in the black. Just thinking. And yes, I believe most of them used credit for this nonsense. Hey, I was just happy to get all those little incidental medical and household bills taken care of: a doctor’s visit here which insurance didn’t cover all of; a pest inspection bill there…etc. I also renewed personal health insurance before the policy lapsed. Now, I can rest easy. I would much rather sleep well, than own a flat screen TV, but most people would that weird.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:38 pmI’ve mentioned here before that I work PT at Crate & Barrel. The store I work at is the flagship store on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Michigan Avenue is less chichi than it once was, but it’s still one of the toniest shopping districts in the world.
So why do I mention that? One of my Managers got balled out by a customer on Friday because we weren’t open at 5:00 AM (like Macy’s, the only store that opened early). She apologized for any inconvenience and promptly turned back to the next customer. What we all wanted to say for her?
This is Michigan Avenue. We don’t do “Doorbusters”!
December 1st, 2008 at 12:44 pmBawled out for NOT opening at 5 am?
Good grief. Surely Crate and Barrel has an online presence where one could go shopping at 5 am if one just has to.
If I ran a big-box store? I’d declare an END to the madness, refuse to open before normal opening time, and not go in for the “Get a TV for $500! Hurry, we only got ten at that price!” stupidity.
Black Friday CAN be fun, but any more it seems like there are too many crazed baboons who seem to think their child will hate them if they don’t get THE must-have item of the year. (I wonder if there’s a tie-in between the “Every child’s a Winner!” mentality and the “I MUST get a Wii for my child, God forbid he should have to deal with disappointment in his life!” attitude.
And yes, I remember the Cabbage Patch Kid riots of 25 years ago. I thought it was stupid even then.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:15 pmThis all made me think of what is probably the biggest crowd-trampling incident (that was not related to escaping from an emergency) in Amreica, the Who Concert Tragedy.
That was all because of people trying to get a good seat at the concert. It is also why Cincinnati no longer has what is known as “Festival Seating” (where tickets are not purchased for specific seats, but seats are on a first-come-first-served basis).
December 1st, 2008 at 1:27 pmWhat’s the old thing about getting into arguements……oh, be careful about getting into arguements with assholes….someone passing by might not know which one is the asshole.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pmThis whole thing makes me sad. First off yes, they’re assholes. No two ways about it. But I enjoy Christmas. I enjoy shopping for gifts. I am thrilled when I find the perfect thing for someone I love. This has taken a lot of the joy I feel out of it.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pmNow I just feel old and depressed.
This is why I give out a lot of baked stuff at Christmas. A) I don’t have to beat down any store at 4 in the morning (you know, unless I want to make banana bread/biscotti/scones in the middle of the night) and B) I’m not only giving you some awesome cookies, I’m giving you my time.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pmHubby works for WalMart. He said last Friday he was treated to the worst behavior he’s ever witnessed in the 17 years he’s worked for the company. Their store is open 24/7 so there were “bargain hunters” trolling the aisles early. The workers were hauling stuff out on pallets to put them in displays at about 3 a.m. and customers were snatching stuff right off the pallets. When the workers tried to stop them, the customers began making threats. Hubby told the workers to just let them take the stuff.
Last year he said there was a knock-down drag-out brawl between customers. He just told his workers to stay clear and called the cops.
We’re not doing any Christmas shopping this year; can’t afford it. I’ll be handing out homemade cookies again. If people don’t want them, I’ll eat ‘em.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:10 pmhM: Not all of us California residents are jackholes. Even some of us SoCal natives know how to behave properly. Wachel and Bill Whittle might vouch for me
Brooke Campbell: Right on. That’s how I feel about giving homemade gingersnaps, snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip artery-cloggers.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:20 pmThe problem is we as a society define ourselves by what we have, and what we can give is an extension of that. So lining up to get a whateveritisthisyear becomes The Most Important Thing Ever.
When people are more grounded in reality, their family, spirituality, neighbors, and helping others, we don’t need to have (or give) a Wii version umptifratz to prove how cool we are.
Oh, and I’d rather have some of Brooke’s cookies anyway.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:21 pmMy life changed dramatically when I got introduced to Peter Walsh via the TLC show “Clean Sweep.” I realized I’m far more interested in experiencing my life rather than buying crap for it.
I’m now into buying people “experiences” (even if it’s a gift card to go to dinner) than stuff. Though I am buying my mother a new card table and chairs, as she needs a new set.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:38 pmOkay…I did NOT get up pre-dawn for sales and missed out on a few things that I wanted but for the most part the stuff I had on my list was still there at 9 a.m. I wasn’t really shopping for my family though. I was mostly shopping for the two families we’ve adopted at work.
I got really pretty wrapping paper for $0.77 a piece (50 sq feet), hot wheels for $0.49 and 64 pack of crayola (not the generic crappy ones) for $0.99.
The key is to buy only the loss leaders. =) Although I admit I did not only do that … but I still got some slammin’ deals and had a blast.
Then I took my dog to an agility trial and watched talented doggies and handlers.
Later that evening my MIL, SIL, and I went to Macy’s (long after their morning sale ended) and I found a $105 500 count Pima cotton sheet set for $20. Because I rock at finding deals. =)
While I can’t stand the crowds I really do enjoy Black Friday. It signals the start of the Christmas season with carols and decorations and I start saying “Merry Christmas” to the clerks.
Then again…I’m also ordering gifts online. I’m not a total asshole.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:44 pmI’ll send you my address. *grin*
I plan to start making my candy to give to coworkers and friends. But I’ve also been stocking up on free stuff that I’ve gotten using coupons in the last six months and those will be given as well.
I wish hubby would be less interested in the number of gifts he gets. He’s getting better but he still wants ’stuff’. *sigh*
December 1st, 2008 at 3:46 pmShe’s just yawning.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:48 pmThis is what complimenting my baking and kindness will get you:
Because it’s Christmas and because this community has been so fabulously welcoming to this liberal, for the first five people who email me, I’ll send some sort of baked goody package. I’m making lots of cool stuff this year, so it’s always fun to send stuff out. brooke.campbell71 at the gmail….
December 1st, 2008 at 3:53 pmSince I was throwing up at 3:30 a.m. on Black Friday, I slept until 11 in the morning and then spent the day lying around in my pajamas and watching Hellboy II.
God, I love Ron Perlman.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:01 pm“This is Michigan Avenue. We don’t do “Doorbusters”!
Well I was in Marshall Fields about 20 years ago. Someone had put out price mismarked Frango mints. There was a near riot as customers fought with salespeople to get those mints before they could be removed and correctly priced.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:04 pmWe can’t see your email addy Brooke, but that’s OK the thought is everything.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:26 pmI haven’t been to a mall during the Christmas season in a decade or so– with the exception of last Christmas when I grabbed a handful of Angel Tree tags after Mass. It is amazing what a difference it makes to be buying things that are useful, as well as fun, for people who have very little. So, no, I didn’t get up anywhere near dawn to shop and nothing I bought was amazingly discounted. But all the gifts were wanted, needed and useful. Even though I had to stand in line for over a half hour, I didn’t resent it as I did when I was buying “stuff” for people who have everything already.
ElvenPhoenix is right. There are some pretty easy ways to remember what Christmas is all about. For those family and friends who have everything– online shopping is more than good enough!
December 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pmhmmmm - it’s my name plus 71 at gmail.
Odd.
[It shows up just fine! Dave, it's in text at the end of her comment. Not a hyperlink on her name. - Rachel]
December 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pmFrango mints are worth it.
Well, maybe not worth a riot. But definitely worth it.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pmAmelia: That’s the ticket!
And everyone crapping all over credit: Stop! What’s wrong with putting it on your card? you gonna carry around thousands of dollars in cash [edit: OK, they have debit cards now]? yeah, no. It’s only a problem if you carry the balance for so long that you can only afford to pay the minimum (seriously, $10 minimum? who can’t pay that?). So for those of us who pay off the balance every month (OK, maybe takes a couple three sometimes) credit is a godsend.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:33 pmI’ve done the Black Friday shopping for good deals, but haven’t camped out waiting for the doors to open. Since my husband is cold-blooded, waiting in any type of weather below 80° is right out.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:50 pmThe saddest story I’ve got is from our last Christmas in San Diego. Fry’s (or Hell - whichever) had oodles of things on sale, and as expected, the place was nuts. We wended our way through the aisles, found the thing we were after, and headed towards the checkout. One poor schmuck of an employee was following the line holding a balloon that said, “This is the end of the checkout line”. That’s all he did. All. day. long. That and answer the question, “Is this the end of the line?”
I hope he went home and got drunk.
Ohhhh!! You hit it right on the head, Rachel. I’ve been ranting around the house about this very thing! It makes me absolutely nuts, it’s so retarded.
And when exactly did it start being called “Black Friday?” I remember the good old days when it was just the day after Thanksgiving and happened to be the busiest shopping day of the year. Now we’ve got all this “Black Friday” crap. Hubby said they call it that because it’s the only day of the year when all the stores operate in the black. Whatever it is, it’s stupid. Calling anything “black” gives it a feeling of doom and sadness, like Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed. Of course, now it really does have horrid connotations with the death and fighting that happened.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:54 pmBlack Friday?? I woke up about 1pm and lazed around the dwelling and took a nap and then went to a bar to see a friend around 11pm. There was no way I was going anywhere while the sun was still up.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pmDallasGirl,
You don’t say what you have but YouTube has several videos on cleaning rifles and pistols. I’m sure you can learn a lot from them even if you need a little extra help with specifics. Here’s one for a rifle
December 1st, 2008 at 5:37 pmWe don’t do black friday, but I have rarely gone to a store before opening. This year in January I picked up a Wii (I got the last of 6 the store received that week) on my wife’s birthday, after failing for 3 months to get one by more normal means.
I’ve also had to go to Menards (a local home improvement store) on the evil day to get emergency repair stuff, and deal with the unpleasant crowds (the really nasty crowds are at the big stores like wally world). Not fun.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:42 pmDave, it’s in text at the end of her comment.
Oh duh. I’ll just disappear now.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:51 pmWell, based on my comment, I must assuredly be hanging around with people who stampede other folks for a deal at Wal-fuckin’-Mart. Right? Because that’s why I needed your lecture on charity.
December 1st, 2008 at 6:16 pmI actually did the get-up-at-1:30 am shopping gig to get to the major electronics retailer for a few of their limited quantity “loss leaders.” This was the first time I’ve ever done that, and around here it was like tailgating before a football game. Tents, games, grilling, everyone had a good time. When the doors opened at 5am everyone lined up peaceably, I got my items, paid for them, and was home by 6:30 — and was only home that late b/c I finally got to play with the first Blackberry Storm I’ve seen in town so far. It’s nice to live in “flyover country” where people know how to behave. It was fun, I’d do it again, and I figure I saved myself about $125 bucks per hour of waiting.
December 1st, 2008 at 6:50 pmAt Protein Wisdom, I saw a story about how lawmakers want to make a law regarding the trampling; it would affect the stores, and how good their security is.
Yes, just what we need to make people act like humans. Another fucking law.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:33 pmI used to work for CompUSA. So I’ve been on the crap end of black Friday (clearly not as much as some people, but still…). Frequently there will be “early bird specials” that only last for the first two hours of the sale. Also, when it comes to technology products especially, the items with the greatest mark down are older products that need to be moved off the shelves to make room for newer product. When it comes to computers and the like stores make next to nothing on those items anyway, which is why they always try to build the ticket. Services and in store product protection plans are pure profit. Cables, and accessories have the highest mark-ups.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:38 pmThe last year I worked for CompUSA the store was open until midnight on Thanksgiving and reopened at 4am on black Friday. The was crowd already formed by 3:30 when the poor schlubs like myself got to the store to open it (and this was a company that went completely out of business less than two years after I quit). I saw things that made me be at peace with the idea of global nuclear war.
A mother threw her baby across an isle to the father so she could fight for a keyboard. I mean a freaking lateral pass. For. A. Keyboard. And not some new shiny awesome hyper expensive keyboard (not like that would have made it okay or anything), but a $10.00 CompUSA p.o.s. that was on sale for $5.00.
I have an idea.
Driving home, listening to one of the radio-jockeys talking about it, the idea hit me:
Tasers.
Give the Wal-mart employees Tasers. Or tranquilizer guns with lotsa darts. A-hole customer gets out of hand? He gets tased. Jerk lady pushes her way ahead of someone else? Tranq her butt.
Oh, I know, the lawsuits would start 0.0005 seconds after that went into effect, but I have to say, the thought of wal-mart greeters armed with Tasers to deal with the crushing mass of “gotta get them dvd players” idiots makes the misanthrope in me cackle.
(And maybe they could make them combo Taser/defibrillators, so if the aged greeters’ hearts stop, they could just pop themselves in the chest and start it back up).
December 1st, 2008 at 10:18 pmTaser-armed greeters?
“Welcome to Wal-Mart, may I assist you?”
*POW!*
“Have a nice day!”
December 1st, 2008 at 10:45 pmWhat happened at that Wal Mart is a sad commentary. I cannot understand for the life of me how this happened. There are people, and they know who they are, who know full well they stepped on this guy, contributing to, causing his death, trying to be first for some trinket on a shelf. I hope the cameras captured them and they are brought to trial.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:41 amIt makes me wonder what we are capable of doing to one another in a real nationwide catastrophic emergency. There would be nowhere to go. The true character of many sure raised its ugly head that morning.
sorry to be late to the party … 16 hour drive back to the Michigan snow from North Carolina yesterday. Made even more fun by the assholes driving on the freeway, without knowing how to drive. The number of cars facing backwards in the ditch did cheer me up though.
Black Friday? Slept in ’til 9AM … son picked us up at the RV park for breakfast, which was very leisurely. Made it to the store (50 miles away) just before noon. Handed over a cashiers check for $20k. Took delivery of my new Honda Goldwing motorcycle. After stalkiing the aisles for awhile, handed over my plastic to also purchase a new trailer to haul said bike home. Rode the new bike back to Fayetteville.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 amBEST.BLACK.FRIDAY.EVER!
LOL … son tried a Black Friday sale on the way to pick us up … the deals were all gone, so he just bought his new laptop for a few bucks more the following day.
I can honestly say I have never been to a Midnight Madness or Earlybird sale …. it’s just SHOPPING, folks. If the only way I can afford something is by participating in an idiot sale …. I really don’t need whatever it is!
I grew up in Valley Stream about 2 miles from where that Wal Mart is and I’d like to try to set the record straight and defend the people of Valley Stream who I believe are getting a bad rap. I lived there from 1969 to 1988 and return frequently to visit family and friends.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 amThat Wal Mart is located adjacent to The Green Acres Mall. When I was a kid it was a sleepy little mall with a Korvettes at one end and a Gimbels at the other and a combination of chain stores and mom and pop stores in between. I used to go there to buy records and play pinball in the basement of J.J. Newberry. The area where the Wal Mart now stands used to be old aircraft hangars left over from when Green Acres was an airport.
In the early eighties the mall was expanded. A few people objected, claiming that the expansion would bring more traffic and more crime. It turns out they were right. The expansion brought all kinds of violent crime: muggings, stabbings, shootings and at one point I read that an average of nine cars were being stolen from the parking lot every day.
The people of Valley Stream were not responsible for it, in fact by the late eighties The Green Acres Mall and the surrounding area had become a no-go zone for town residents. It is still that way. If you live in town and want to go shopping you head east to safer environs.
By the way, that Wal Mart is located a stones throw from the Sunrise Multiplex. Some of you may recall that it was the scene of a shootout during the premier of The Godfather Part 3 a few years ago. Again, no Valley Stream residents were involved and I’d bet none were even present in the entire 12 screen theater at the time.
I mention that because across Sunrise Highway from the multiplex is a Long Island Railroad station that has lines reaching into the worst ghettos in Queens and Brooklyn. Since no one in there right mind would open a Wal Mart in those places those folks ride the train to Green Acres and bring all of their crime and social pathology with them.
None of the people that I grew up with would be caught dead at 5:00 AM in that mob.
I’m sorry to go on so long but it really chaps my ass to see the people of my hometown taking the blame for this atrocity. They stopped shopping there nearly 20 years ago.
This incident does not typify American consumer culture either. That trampling was the act of the urban underclass.
Exactly the same thing I asked my wife the first year we were married. I swear I had never heard it called that until November 2000, but she swore up and down that it had been called that as long as she could remember (and she was in retail most of her life before we met).
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 amFor a few years Corporate was trying to get everyone to call it “Green Friday” but they seem to have given up on that.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm> This all made me think of what is probably the biggest crowd-trampling incident (that was not related to escaping from an emergency) in Amreica, the Who Concert Tragedy.
I would point out to all and sundry that this sort of thing is hardly either American or even related to Shopping (or concerts) only.
There are numerous accounts of crowds getting ugly at soccer games in not just the UK but other nations (Brazil?) as well.
People are what they are. Sometimes what they are is a stupid mob of cattle going for the cattle feed. End of story.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:01 pmI wasn’t the first to notice it, but no one blamed “The Who” for the 11 people who were trampled to death at their concert in 1979 or so. No one blamed the numerous soccer teams for the numerous dead trampled at their stadiums.
The stores nor the manufacturers are to blame for the customers bad behavior.
One more thing, prejudice against rich people is still prejudice. You would think something like that would be obvious.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 amI LOVE you-all !
You are smart and wonderful but the REAL
problem is excessive human breeding.
Fewer people = better manners every time.
Get spayed like I did - best day of my life!
December 9th, 2008 at 5:07 pmThe older I get, the more people that there are to mother