in this holiday season...

So, on Black Friday, there was this one incident where a woman used pepper spray at a store to gain an advantage over the other shoppers in order to get a video game console.  Despite all of the security measures (camera, guards, etc), she was able to escape undetected.  A few days later she turned herself into the police and decided to "face the music".  Quite admirable, considering that no one died and only twenty people experienced a good deal of discomfort with being exposed to pepper spray. 

The policed examined the case and the best they can come up with is possibly charging her with a misdemeanor.  Considering the behavior and bloodlust for a video console, a possible misdemeanor is close to nothing.  As the saying goes, "it's not like she had killed anyone."  Then again, if that is the nicest thing that anything can be said of anyone, it should not be said at all.

A week has past since she has come forward and admitted to subjecting fellow shoppers to pepper spray.  Now, she has filed a lawsuit against the store for inadequate security which had prompted her to use pepper spray to protect herself and her children from the surrounding mob.  I hope the error of her ways is obvious to everyone. 

First, considering all of the hype surrounding Black Friday events, it is unimaginable that any sane person would not expect a mob at most of these stores.  Second, she brings her children with her to such an event.  At this point, I think child protective services should really look into that home situation because any parent that would expose children to such a dangerous situation should be visited by child protective services.  Third, it is really a display of ingratitude at its worse when one decides to sue the store for inadequate security.  The fact that she was able to carry pepper spray into the store without being search may indicate that the store should review it's security protocols and search everyone at one of these events, it will also prevent a mad rush for items on that day.

In this holiday season, we have a blatant display of indecency, bad judgement, greed, lack of consideration for others, and most of all ingratitude. 

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, signals the first day of the Christmas shopping season.  This has not become a sport, a very violent one.  Much like the presidential primaries, every vendor wants to be the first one open their doors for customers. 

In recent years, some malls and stores have opened at midnight on Friday and have attracted customers with deep discounts on a select number of items.  So, after Thanksgiving dinner, people would drive out to these places and stand in line or wait in the parking lot until the doors opened at midnight.  It is quite a spectacle.  Other stores, opened later in the wee hours of the morning with the same enticements.  Because of the frenzy, there would be throngs of people at the entrances and when the store was opened, a mass of humanity (and I use the term very loosely, more biological than philsophical) would rush into the store and grab whatever was marked down. 

As in any scenario where a lot of people are trying to squeeze into  small space, injuries (sometimes fatalities) do occur.  People have been trampled by this rush, sometimes store employees or even shoppers.  Comparatively, the running of the bulls in Spain seem safer because the bulls will only knock you over and the rest will try to avoid you.  What kind of people (again, I use the term loosely) would just step over a person who was knocked down and grab a discounted appliance?

That was last year, when some people were trampled to death in the mad rush, this year, people were robbed in a parking lot (seemingly unrelated to shopping, yet, if you sit in a dark parking lot with lots of money, you will be robbed).  One person employed the use of pepper spray to get to the front of the line for a video game.  If there is anything that video games have taught us, it is the proper use of pepper spray to disperse large crowds.  In one other instance, a grandfather (50 year old or so) was slammed to the ground by security because someone accused him of shoving a video game (yet, another video game) into his shirt.  The explanation was that he was trying to secure it for his grandson, whom he had brought along, because others had wanted this item as well.  There were other stories this past season of shoppers rushing into a store that was not even scheduled to open and then looting the store as the employees hid and called the police.  What is going on?

Some people blame the retailers for causing this frenzy by marking down items well below any sane price.  Are retailers really to blame?  I saw this one video where a shop offered waffle irons for five dollars and that caused a fight.  WAFFLE IRONS!!!!!!! We are talking about WAFFLE IRONS!!!!!!!  Has everyone lost their minds?!?!?!!??  Even for five dollars, all you can make are waffles.  The economy is in a free fall and spending five dollars on something like that is considered a deal?!?!?!?!?!?!

A friend once told me that if you wanted to slow traffic down, you did not need to cause an accident, all you had to do was to throw a mattress (it does not matter what condition) on the the shoulder of a highway and you can cause the greatest traffic jam in the world because every single car would slow down just to look at it.  I scoffed at the comment until one time, I slowed down and looked at a mattress that was on the shoulder of a highway wondering how it got there.  Just like everyone else, I slowed down and looked at it.

I cannot blame the retailers for this frenzy on Black Friday.  The mass hysteria about buying last year's technololgy at cut rate prices is from the consumer.  The general consuming public is not smart enough to see that the stores wait until this time and then start to unload inventory to goose their year end numbers.  The warehouses are empty so that by February, they can be filled with the newest items in fashion and technology.  The public just eats up this crap that is dumped on them. 

All explained by economic behavior and the theory of games.  The notion of utility and what people will pay for  certain things.  Of course economists can explain it more techinically, but in the end, P.T. Barnum is righ, "there is a sucker born every minute", and I will add that these suckers are the result of multiple births. 

Retailers know that the more money you give, the more money they have.  .