Well, it's that time of year again - time for the famous (or somewhat
infamous) Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales in stores across America.
However, this year seems to be even crazier than usual in more ways than
one.
To
begin with, although sales are always sky-rocketing during the Black Friday
event - considering the fact that Black Friday is typically the busiest
shopping day of the year - this year's sales in stores and online are even
higher than last year's. Just to give you a clue, Walmart had about 10
million purchases at the register and 400 million website views just only
between 6-10:00 pm. Also, according to Target and Walmart, the purchases
made by shoppers at this time seemed to consist mostly of large electronics,
like TV's and XBOX's.
Then, we have the mayhem of what seems like billions of greedy,
green-eyed, bargain-thirsty shoppers swarming into every existing shopping
center (and causing a great tumult, which I'll discuss later). At one Macy's in
New York City, there were about 15,000 shoppers standing outside the doors just
before its 8:00 opening. (This is even more than last year, when there
were 11,000 people waiting for the midnight opening). The store (the same
Macy's) offered $195-250 jackets for $80 and $130 cashmere sweaters for $40
this year.
If
it's not bad enough with the shoppers, it's only getting worse as the stores
increasingly flock them in as early and often as possible during the holiday
season each year (and adding an extra day to the Black Friday event is just one
part of this larger plot). However, many stores must face the
consequences of going too crazy with the shopping hours as workers have
developed several organizations in protest, claiming that there are too many
demands being placed on the workers as a result of the stores' hasty, selfish
decisions. (And believe it or not, Walmart has been the biggest target
for protests against holiday hours; since most of the stores are already open
24 hours and now the retailer is starting its sales even 2 hours earlier than
last year.)
On
the less amusing side, making opening times earlier and adding extra shopping
days has been the source of a greater amount of danger. For instance, a
man in Las Vegas was shot in the leg on the way home to his apartment after
buying a TV at Target. At a Wal-Mart in California, there were 3 brawls;
two of which were arguments over merchandise in the store and one that happened
outside when the manager opened the doors ahead of time; resulting in the
injury of a policeman that tried to resolve the dispute. A man was arrested and
charged with disorderly conduct and aggravated assault on a police officer
after having a dispute with a store employee over a TV. (Now this is just
starting to sound like what happens in the movie 'Elf' when “Santa” comes to
the mall…) And lastly, yet ANOTHER Wal-Mart in New York received two bomb
threats at about noon and was evacuated, but reopened at 2:00 pm after a search
proved it to be a false alarm. (Seriously, what's the deal with
Wal-Mart?!)
Reflecting
on all this, I personally think that most people these days have lost the real
intended meaning of holidays (especially Thanksgiving and Christmas), and that
there is hardly anything sacred about them anymore. Instead of
spending time with family and being thankful for what we already
have, it's become all about scarfing down the turkey dinner so we can jump in
the car and rush to the mall to buy more, more, more. Have you ever
stopped to consider that there are those who will go without a dinner at all,
or that there may be someone you've encountered that will spend Thanksgiving
alone? Shopping is great, but it's gotten too out of hand during the
holiday seasons. Now it just sucks people in and fills them with
selfishness and greed when, ironically, the purpose of the holiday is to be
THANKFUL and rejoice in what we have. So, the next time you or your
family wants to go out and buy a new flat-screen TV, try to think of something
better to do with your time (like helping those less fortunate than you enjoy
Thanksgiving too), and think about all the people and things you're grateful
for. I promise it'll be a lot more rewarding than gaining things for
yourself - I can say this because I've tried it myself. That's all,
folks! :)
Well, I think the idea of getting a really great deal on a typically expensive item is appealing. However, I tried to do this early morning shopping before and absolutely hated it. People were mean and angry and just about fighting one another for things. I decided then, I would not be doing that again.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I actually heard that there were fewer shoppers this year. I had some family members who went shopping on Black Friday this year, and it wasn't that bad. But of course, crowds and people's attitudes can definitely be worse (or better) in different places. I do find it sad that we tend to forget that Christmas and the Holidays are more about spending time with our families than about buying things.
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