Who needs to give thanks when you can stand in line for 15 hours for a $2 waffle maker? Within two years, Black Friday will begin on Wednesday. Book it.
EDITORIAL: Thanksgiving gradually disappearing
THIS PAST WEEK may mark the gradual disappearance of Thanksgiving.
It will be eclipsed by the lengthening shadow of Black Friday.
Thanksgiving will still be around, but not so you’d notice it.
Pilgrims and Indians are being replaced by door busters and rolling sales.
The traditional Thanksgiving dinner is less a family feast than an opportunity for carbo loading for the rigors of the morrow’s shopping marathon.
The weekend after Thanksgiving has always been the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, but the Christmas ads began right after Halloween with darn little mention of Thanksgiving.
America’s hypercompetitive retailers began hyping their Black Friday sales, and America’s hypercompetitive shoppers responded.
Stores began opening earlier; for a few brief years, 4 a.m. Friday was the tacitly agreed-upon opening time.
But then some stores moved it back to midnight, others followed and now some are opening at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve. Some just stay open all day Thanksgiving.
In a similar race to be first, shoppers began lining up earlier too.
One Best Buy banned tents in the waiting line. Undaunted, the hardy shoppers froze in the open.
THE OCCUPY movement urged its followers to boycott big-box chain stores. Blocking access to the stores would have been too dangerous because the 152 million people expected to hit the stores this past weekend would have stampeded right over them.
Three years ago, a Wal-Mart clerk in New York state was trampled to death when he failed to get out of the way of onrushing shoppers fast enough.
The Tea Party responded by calling for a “BUYcott,” needlessly because the Black Friday bargain hunters were too preoccupied to notice.
Near Los Angeles, a woman pepper sprayed a horde of rioting shoppers when they got too close to her purchases.
A WITNESS told the Los Angeles Times that a pushing, screaming crowd tore open plastic-wrapped pallets of goods, trampling the merchandise in their frenzied haste for bargains.
One viral video showed shoppers rioting over $2 waffle makers.
One woman began losing her pants but she wasn’t going to let go of that waffle iron.
There’s no way the Thanksgiving poem “The Courtship of Miles Standish” can compete with that.
Scripps Howard News Service
brann says:
i’ll bet most of those who fought over a waffle iron didn’t even know what a waffle was.
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29th November 2011 at 9:24 am
Welshman says:
When you go into Costco it seems “Black Friday” starts at Holloween. I had to asked my wife what type of store Urban Outfitters was, I have never seen one.
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29th November 2011 at 9:29 am
Muck About says:
Just another good reason for old age and dying off if change makes you bitter or uncomfortable. Get used to it because “change” is evolving into ever faster modes and wider scope than ever before thanks to our “instant everyone knows about it” communications capability.
Sometimes, it’s better to pull a Wyoming Mike or Davos and go live in the woods and limit your inputs of “different” for a while.
MA
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29th November 2011 at 9:34 am
Maddie's Mom says:
I will not run with the herd.
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29th November 2011 at 9:44 am
Persnickety says:
We did zero – nada – zilch retail shopping from Wednesday through today. Feeling pretty good about it.
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29th November 2011 at 10:09 am
AKAnon says:
I bought groceries on Black Friday night. Does that make me a bad person?
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29th November 2011 at 10:57 am
AWD says:
Retailers prime the pump with $2 Chinese crap, because the publicity they are getting is worth millions (even free publicity on TBP). It’s like throwing chum into the water to get the sharks feeding, until they are in a frenzy. People are like cockroaches. They stuff themselves until they’re so fat they can’t walk anymore, they follow and scurry around, and they are just a small step above primates. It’s pathetic these people, and most Americans for that matter, have nothing better to do than shop, watch T.V., lay on their asses and get fat. No small wonder we are going to be wiped out by bacteria, viruses, and each other. We’ve polluted, raped, and destroyed the planet, and there are probably more humans alive today than cockroaches. Pathetic.
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29th November 2011 at 12:45 pm
Welshman says:
AWD,
and Merry Christmas to you LOL.
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29th November 2011 at 1:23 pm
ron says:
I just buy stuff when i need it.Sometimes i like to see it and hold it before hand.Otherwise i buy online to save the hassles of stores and traffic.
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29th November 2011 at 2:55 pm
Thinker says:
AWD, you’re in a bit of a funk these days. Anything going on? You doing okay?
Regarding the sales, I had this conversation with my sheeple sister-in-law over Thanksgiving. She, of course, drops the kids on their grandma so she can get up and go by 3am because she “gets the best deals.”
She’s bought into the hype that advertising and PR agencies have created over the years (trust me on this). See, the retailers know that if they can get shoppers into their stores first, people will (1) spend more of their holiday budget in that store and (2) end up spending more than they can afford to. By the time they’ve hit their 2nd or 3rd store, they’re more choosy. But get them to stand in line for YOUR store, YOUR sales, they’re already “amped” to drop a bundle and cram everything they can into their carts. So, retailers open earlier, knowing that they’ll make more money if they do.
They also rely on the kind of psychology used by the ad/PR agencies. We start with “rational” drivers — it’s a tough economy, people want to save money, so we’ll have some loss-leader items that we’ll have next to no margin on, but we’ll place them in an action aisle so people have to walk past piles of higher-priced items that we’ll make look really attractive. Rational: you’ll save money because you bought it now, because you got the best deal, etc.
Then, to be really effective, we use “emotional” drivers — you’ll have fun shopping with your friends at 3am (really!). Standing in the cold to buy for your family shows what a great Mom you are. If you’re really good at it, people will envy you. They’ve taken most of them down now, but Walmart’s Black Friday ads — from “Living Legend” (external validation) to “So Pretty” (you’ll have a better sex life if you buy this) — all employ the use of psycho-social triggers to convince people to go to that store.
It’s all based on the heirarchy of needs (similar to Maslow’s) that creates behavioral response in consumers. If you can “ladder” a functional attribute — $2 waffle makers — into “my life is better for having spent my money on a waffle maker,” then you will create the desired response. And, guess what? You also get the added benefit of YouTube videos of mobs of people going into your store, making you the “place to be” next year. (That taps into the human need for belonging, being ‘cool’ btw)
So, yes, until consumers stop behaving this way, marketers will continue to control the masses and get them to spend money they don’t have on crap they don’t need. Stores will open earlier, deals will appear sweeter, and the herd mentality will take over.
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29th November 2011 at 3:38 pm
Petey says:
Yes, I’ve noticed lately that AWD seems to have gone off the deep end as well. You can step back from that ledge my friend. You seemed to have looked into the abyss and let take hold of you whereas others find the truth to be exhilarating and empowering since they are no longer lying to themselves. Maybe you should consider that instead.
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29th November 2011 at 4:06 pm
flash says:
Paraphrasing of course ,but Nietzsche said “If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss will begin to stare back..” AWWW GAWD!!!!! Don’t let it take you AWD!!!!
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29th November 2011 at 4:21 pm
FRED FLINTSTONE says:
@ Thinker:
Did you by chance get an MBA in the 70′s?
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29th November 2011 at 4:49 pm
Thinker says:
Fred,
No — I’m not old enough. But many of those techniques were created then, and even earlier — most modern PR firms started after Walter Lippman published Public Opinion in 1922. Marketing techniques were developed later and worked because the Baby Boom generation was predisposed to the idea that material things could improve their lives. For the Millennials, it’s the idea that social connections improve their lives.
Once you know how it works, and how these techniques are applied to just about every communication you receive from companies, the government, candidates for office and just about anything else that matters, you never look at things the same way again.
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29th November 2011 at 4:55 pm
Mikey says:
@Thinker
I’ve always found it partly liberating, partly enlightening, and partly depressing having studied psychology, Body Language, Mob Behaviour, and Neuro Linguisting Programming. I did it for fun while at Uni and while sometimes I ‘know too much’ – like you with your analysis of the way that mobs have been incited to form and perform at the ‘Black Friday’ sales – it’s better to know that to not know.
If nothing else, it means that I’m more aware of when those techniques are being used on me. That gives me more time and more ability to counter them.
Don’t know about you though, but it does also sometimes make me feel even more of an outsider – watching people rather than being with people. I know enough to realise that this is just herd instincts kicking in from that part of our brain that still thinks we are small, furry things, emerging as patterns of wanting to conform to the tribe so that I may gain the perceved security of the tribe (stragglers from the herd are more likely to be eaten by things with sharp teeth). I know this emerges as desires to match behaviors, wants, and needs (“keeping up with the Jones’ “) or more subtle forms such as Status Anxiety (Am I at the head of the tribe?), Aspirationalism (I’ll pretend to be in the tribe that I wish I was in), Depression, and other similar mental illnesses.
I also know a lot of this is a cop-out that society has created by deliberately triggering psychological stressors in order to sell one type of soda over another, or some other crap. If you are surrounded by images, texts, sounds and behaviors where people deliberately and scientifically hit trigger points that leave you distressed and worried in order to make you buy this brand of toilet cleaner over another – is it any wonder that society has become significantly more stressed and fractured?
No, I’m not ‘blaming’ advertising for the destruction of modern life – that’d be intellectually lazy, dishonest, and just plain wrong. People are very, very good at finding reasons to make life hard for themselves. It’s the flip side of the exact same drive that makes people want to make life better for themselves too – you look for problems in order to fix them, downside is that you see lots of problems.
I am saying though that this is the way things are, and will be. Very many, very smart, hardworking people have put a lot of effort into working out what makes people tick, and how to use that information – and to tell others how to do it too.
It can be amusing to practise these techniques at your workplace – though I found it eventually a very phyrric sensation. I achived what I set out to achieve, by spreading a rumour about myself that was untrue but even when I later proved it to be false, was still beleived. It annoyed me just how easy it was and it secured me a $20k payrise for doing absolutely nothing differently.
Sometimes I’m annoyed with my parents for raising me with such strong ethical beliefs. I could become such a supervillain otherwise….
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29th November 2011 at 6:24 pm
The Claymobile says:
Target, shame on you for forcing your employees to come to work at midnight thanksgiving day. Wal-Mart, shame on you for forcing your employees to work on Thanksgiving Day. Its bad enough that you are open and force your employees to work on The LORDS Day (Sunday). The people who shoped at 2:00am are insane!!! If they wanted to really find bargins, they should have shoped at thrift stores. Yesterday I bought about $400 worth of stuff and only paid $50 for it! Has the whole world gone freakin’ crazy or what?!
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29th November 2011 at 6:33 pm
Thinker says:
MIkey,
Exactly. Spot on. Yes, you find yourself feeling like an outsider, but if you even mention your knowledge or share insights on behavioral control, people look at you like you’re nuts. As someone said to me recently, “or, it could just be a funny ad.” They really don’t know how their mind is being shaped.
The trick, for me, since I do this all the time, is to turn it off. To the extent I can. Sure, I still view all advertising, stories in the paper, political debates, etc. with the same mindset, but I definitely don’t use behavioral control techniques on people around me. Well, not too much, anyway…
One of the benefits of my job is that I use it for good more often than not. Sure, we help sell gaming devices and cell phones and mouthwash and room fragrances. But, we also create stop-smoking programs, anti-obesity programs, health education campaigns and other things that I do feel are making a difference. Supervillians can be superheroes, too.
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29th November 2011 at 6:47 pm
Kill Bill says:
Havent these morons heard of Eggo’s
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29th November 2011 at 6:50 pm
printmemoney says:
These retailers are stupid. Generally, retail sales will be a zero sum game. They’re just pulling demand forward and increasing their cogs in the process. But if Walmart opens on Wednesday….then target will have to too.
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29th November 2011 at 6:55 pm
Novista says:
The Thanksgiving myth must be a comfort for the few who remember it.
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29th November 2011 at 9:45 pm