Black Friday

.... where Bats continues to find that he is Not Like the Rest of This Country.


I figure that everyone has heard/read about the trampling death of a Wal-Mart employee on Long Island on Black Friday (Times Coverage: here) One of the more astute step-back-and-meta-analyze articles had the great title of A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment:

It was a tragedy, yet it did not feel like an accident. All those people were there, lined up in the cold and darkness, because of sophisticated marketing forces that have produced this day now called Black Friday. They were engaging in early-morning shopping as contact sport. American business has long excelled at creating a sense of shortage amid abundance, an anxiety that one must act now or miss out.

In a sense, the American economy has become a kind of piñata — lots of treats in there, but no guarantee that you will get any, making people prone to frenzy and sending some home bruised.

It seemed fitting then, in a tragic way, that the holiday season began with violence fueled by desperation; with a mob making a frantic reach for things they wanted badly, knowing they might go home empty-handed.

Another article (All Eyes on Holiday Shopping Turnout in Bleak Economy) states:

While tussles, and even broken bones, are common when the doors open on Black Friday, this is apparently the first time someone has been killed in the stampede. And for some consumer psychologists, the mad scramble was a sign of the times.

“I think it ties into a sort of fear and panic of not having enough,” said Joe Priester, a professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a former president of the Society for Consumer Psychology. A herd mentality, he said, can lead individuals to feel anonymous — so much so that they are quite capable of trampling someone. “Fear combined with the group mentality?” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all.”

To be honest, this episode reminds me of one thing that I heard--in economic downturns, racism, xenophobia, and violence increase--think of it as atavistic tribalism, circling the wagons in tighter, and blaming "others" and "outsiders." Hitler exploited it quite successfully in Weimar Germany. Stay tuned to see if that pans out.

Since we're talking about buying stuff, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my post from last Christmas: Just in Time for the Holidays... (The Story of Stuff). A worthwhile 20-minute web video, if you didn't catch it last time.

One striking aspect of the Black Friday coverage is how much it makes me feel Outside of the Mainstream of American Consumers. Such as housewives cutting back from their multi-thousand-dollar Christmas shopping sprees (multiple thousand?! wow):

"I've been doing this for 17 years. This year, it feels smaller," said Tracey Darwish, 37, who was waiting in line at the Wal-Mart in Columbus to buy "Madden NFL '09," the football video game for PlayStation 2, for $39, marked down from $59.

Darwish said that in the past she would "spend thousands of dollars on Black Friday" - even withdrawing money from her retirement account. But after losing her job as a medical assistant in August, her routine has changed. "My son told me this year all he wanted was 'Madden '09,"' she said. "Other than that, 'Save your money, Mom,' he told me."

Or this excerpt from TV Sales Becoming Litmus Test for U.S. Economy:

Yet resistance remains for many consumers, like Bayani Deluna Jr., 35, who stood last week at a San Francisco-area Best Buy looking longingly at a 32-inch Sony television. Mr. Deluna, who worked as a parking valet until a few weeks ago when he went on disability, is waiting for the $600 price to drop.

“If it comes down to $450, I’d buy it,” he said. “And I’m sure the price is going to come down.”

Unemployed parking valets buying 32 inch LCDs?!? Wow. I guess I am odd for agonizing for two years (at a good job) before convincing myself to buy an LCD TV. But then again, I actually have a positive savings rate.

Another semi-related item--a James Howard Kunstler graph showing the per-capita square feet of retail space by country:


So bringing this post back down to earth--yes, I admit it--I went and bought stuff on Friday (biked 7 miles each way to REI to buy snowshoes on sale--an activity that I would like to get into). And I will be doing some final Christmas shopping. Actually, it was half an hour on Amazon and ThinkGeek; done now. But not a multi-thousand dollar spree, thanks.