It's Black Friday in the U.S. I worked retail for several years in my 20s so I skip it these days. I can't justify taking part in something that makes minimum wage employees go to work on a holiday (the earliest opening stores are set up late in the evening on Thanksgiving; some don't even close), missing time with their own families, so that I can save a couple of bucks. Snopes has a great discussion of the day and some of the legends surrounding it here.
The real reason I hate Black Friday, though, is that giant crowds of people losing all sense scare the bejeesus out of me. Is it really worth it to risk life and limb for the Latest!Greatest!Whizz!Bang!whatsit? In the 80s it was Cabbage Patch dolls, which seemingly came out of nowhere one year. Last night a shopper in a WalMart in Los Angeles freaking pepper sprayed "the competition" to get her hands on an XBox360. I truly, deeply, sincerely hope that each of the 20 people who were injured as a result of her lunacy sues her right down to her last can of Who Hash.
*Cleansing breath*
Okay, now that it is officially Christmas music season in my little world (join me, I have fresh cookies baked by speckled unicorns) you're gonna be hearing a lot of it. Let's start out with the motivation for doing crap like pepper spraying innocent bystanders: fulfilling our children's every desire. Alvin may be annoying but at least a hula hoop is reasonable. Have a great day!
Pepper spray seems to be some kind of developing metaphor for our times. That story, and the person who got killed in a stampede a few years ago while waiting for a Black Friday event to open, will pretty much keep me out of stores on the day after Thanksgiving for the rest of my life. I did, however, buy some coffee today at Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteI would never participate in that kind of madness either. I have to get a key made today but hopefully my little mom & pop hardware store is not going to have mobs of people stocking up on nails.
ReplyDelete@Kurbiss...I carry pepper spray with me when I walk the dog; there's an irresponsible Pit Bull owner in my neighborhood who doesn't get that his animal needs to be leashed or contained. I think I might need a trip to Starbucks tomorrow for a peppermint mocha.
ReplyDelete@bccmee...I love mom & pop hardware stores. They all smell sweet, like wet cardboard.