Okay, honestly its not as bad as all that.. or is it?
While vacationing in Florida over the Thanksgiving holiday, I read, on the following Saturday, of a woman who was trampled and seriously injured during a mad rush to get the 30 dollar DVD player at WalMart in the wee hours of Friday morning. This is of course what is rumored to be the busiest shopping day of the year (although I think it is 2nd now), and is known to retail employees as Black Friday.
For the first time ever, I was there, at 5:58 AM in line to enter target, and yes, i too got the 30 dollar DVD player. But to me, the phenomenon was the interesting part. What was so fascinating was the fact that my day started with no Christmas shopping done, and ended with most of it done, and with considerable savings. For my effort, I did see people shoved, items snatched off shelves, arguments, and the like, but it was a madness I kind of got into.
Underneath it all was a kind of glee, a mad, adrenaline filled rush to get, at prices you can afford, those items that will make the people you love have that moment of big smiles.. and it is a thing I am beginning to think is not as evil as everyone says.
The fact is, we want our friends, family, and kids to have that glee filled moment, and we are willing to fight to do it.. and that’s sort of.. well, sweet. Now, if we can translate that to the other guy who just got the last copy of THE TWO TOWERS, then we’ll almost have it right.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I worked at Best Buy during Black Friday
Nasty.
People waiting in line overnight to get the cheapy ad product. Folks trampling over each other, mad dashes through aisles, arguments. We were told that we had to keep extra [pallets] of everything secretly hidden in the back because a fight broke out in the parking lot over bitterness for failing to obtain the last Xbox set.
This year, I saw one woman dump as many $30 DVD players (Minteks?) into her cart [as she could]. People were spitting on her as she checked out.
EDIT by matthew: Fixed a couple word choices to clarify a bit 🙂
Capitalization of Christmas…
It’s kind of weird for me this year, not being a practicing Christian Mormon anymore. I hear the songs on the radio, and find myself singing along to many of them. When they mention Jesus, I just have to remind myself that I happily sing songs about Santa Claus, too 🙂
This is not a dig at Christianity, by any means. It’s just me noticing that, if you don’t worship Jesus, there are definitely a lot of things around to remind you of that fact. Everybody keeps talking about keeping the “Spirit of Christmas”, and tying it in to Jesus Christ.
My take? For some, it’s about taking advantage of the season, including January 1, to take stock of where we are in our lives and where we really want to go. It’s about bringing joy to others, and thereby giving ourselves joy in turn.
For some, it is about remembering the birth of their Lord and Savior, who sacrificed himself so that they could live again in an eternal resurrected state.
For some, it’s about honoring time and tradition, remembering how God brought their ancestors through difficult times with miraculous bounty.
For some, it’s all about Santa Claus, and the marvelous expectation of giving and receiving gifts.
For some, it’s all about decorating and admiring the amazing beauty of light piercing the darkest winter nights to bring joy in a time that would otherwise be dreary for many.
For some, it’s the saddest time of the year, as they realize that, jobless and hopeless, they cannot provide for their families. They mourn anew the passage of wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers, and feel estranged and apart from the apparent happiness of everybody around them.
For some, it’s about making fruitcakes. Umm, and they can keep them, thank you very much.
For some, it simply means bonus checks.
And, for some I suppose, it’s about beating the crap out of the guy that took the last Xbox that you wanted for your son. To each his own!
If nothing else, humanity is notable for diversity of opinion.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
The Day After…
The Day After Thanksgiving reminds me of that 1980’s made-for-television epic about the repercussions of nuclear war of a similar name (The Day After). The carnage is staggering. Watching the fights is kind of entertaining, in a rubbernecking-a-car-accident way. However, some of the deals are just insane, particularly at Wal-Mart. Buncha’ freaks lined up before 6 AM just to get their hands on a hot little gift…
It just goes to show that the phenomenon of rational thought going out the window when shopping doesn’t just apply to women…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Jingle all the way, baby, jingle all the way
I especially liked the earlier post.. cogent.
Definition of Cogent
For the vocabulary-challenged, like me:
I assume you mean the second definition. Thanks 🙂
And I missed an entire category of people.
For too many, it means another day on the job. A few presents, a few hastily scribbled notes from family and friends, thanking them for protecting our country. Sand in their eyes, grit in their mouths, victory that tastes of ashes, and the constant threat of violent death follow our soldiers as they celebrate this holiday season.
I second Jon’s post. Remember our peacekeeping forces. Killing people, and attempting to avoid being killed in turn, has got to be the worst job in the world.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Funny how the feelings change as i get older…
I love to see how my kids get excited as they see all the christmas decorations going up. the excitment that you hear in there voices when they talk about Santa coming. I love decorating the house. it is the one time of year when i can say that my house gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling.
On the other hand. I hate dealing with the traffic, the crowded stores, the rudeness that people on a mission to get the “perfect” parking spot or that perfect gift get. Call it “Holiday rage” i guess.
I like to see the happiness a gift brings to people. But I do not need to get up before the sun & fight through the crowds. For the last few years we have tried to plan ahead and get a good portion of our shopping done before Thanksgiving. We look for sales and such, but we just try to do it before the mad rush. My wife enjoys shopping at the mall during the holidays (why i don’t know), and we usually still have a gift or two to get so that makes her content to hunt down those last few goodies.
I don’t know my exact feelings for the holidays this year. I have had a hard time getting into the holiday spirit for the last couple years. I guess it is just on it’s own schedule sometimes.
I hope you all have a great holiday this year. Please check out this entry in my blog to see how you can help brighten the holidays for our men and women serving in the military. HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR TROOPS…
Jon
It’s not the killing that hurts…
Killing people, and attempting to avoid being killed in turn, has got to be the worst job in the world. …That only scratch’s the surface. Think of the soldiers who are spending the holidays fighting a war 7040 miles from home. Think of the soldiers who miss thier families, an visa versa there are families here who are on a constantly awaiting word as to how there husbands and wives are doing. I know that there are soldiers there that have kids that they have only met through pictures, and in the same breath might not meet them depending on the way a sand monkey wakes up one day and decides to himself that he is going to kill an american.
Then imagine yourself that same soldier who is married. Making below min. wage in most cases kiving so far from home wondering if his/her family has food to put on the table or money to keep the lights on. Here is a link to the Army Pay Table. The amounts you will want to pay attention to are for paygrades E-3 through E-5. They make up the majority of the troops. An E-3 has been in the service an average of 2 or 3 years, and the E-5 has been in an average of 4 to 5 years. Now take into account that the pay is before taxes and is a monthly sum. PRetty crappy.
I don’t mean to rant, but it sounded like that you were belittling what our troops are doing over there and what they are going through. This is a topic that is close to my heart. I am sorry if i misunderstood.
~Jon~
Naw, not degrading their job in the least!
Sorry if I chose my words poorly. Perhaps a better way to phrase it would be something along the lines of “being a soldier has to be one of the least-appreciated jobs in the world”. When I wrote it, I was specifically thinking of the aspect of the job directly involved in battle. The pay sucks, the job often sucks, and many people back home are either ungrateful, hostile, or apathetic towards the soldiers.
Things are better in that regard now, I think, than during the Vietnam era. But soldiers work their butts off for practically nothing for at least several years in defense of the country. Other than that mental reward, job satisfaction, though, what do you get at the end? Other than vet status, not a whole lot it seems like.
My dad was active or reserve military all his adult life. He works for the Army even today, doing outplacement counseling for soldiers. It just seems like the military gets pissed on by everybody, you know? I’m not sure what to do about remedying the situation, but spending Christmas overseas in some godforsaken place where people want to kill you isn’t my idea of a good time 🙂
I’m definitely ambivalent about what we’ve done in Iraq. But I’m proud of the men & women we have over there doing the tough job. Guess I should check and see what I can actually do to brighten some soldier’s Christmas rather than blathering on about it on my blog, eh?
—
Matthew P. Barnson
walmarts black friday sale
I too drug myself out of bed at 4 am to go to the walmart black friday sale. I waited in line til the doors opened and proceeded to be led in like a bunch of cattle in hopes of purchasing the laptop at the price of 375. I went into the store and stood in line for an hour before they announced the laptops were gone but stayed in line to get the game boys for 48 dollars. I then proceeded into the exit to join my sister and load the tv’s she purchased also and ran into the manager of the store and was informed there had only been 20 laptops sent to his store. Now I was really angry when I found out those that chose the laptop were allowed to put them on lay away, if its a five hour sale dont you think they should have to have it paid for before that five hours is elapsed but no they have over a month to pay off that laptop. Now for the kicker of all of this today I went on ebay and saw all the laptops people rushed in to purchase advertised there and bidding has risen to over 800 dollars on the second day posted. I now refuse to shop at Walmart and I refuse to purchase anything the ebay sellers have advertised that have purchased those said laptops ever.
In Elkton
I read a report that a Wal-Mart in Elkton, MD canceled their Black Friday sale (2005) after police were called in to break up fighting customers. The store manager decided not to hand out #s to people waiting in line (in order of line position) and just let everyone rush into the store and fight for the products.
Yeah Cecil County
My lovely county in all its glory.
There’s some wonderful video of shoppers acting like cattle on the net if you look for it.
My $.02 Weed
The most wonderful time…
The one great demon that Christ spent the most time railing against was Mammon, the demon of greed. Mammon, even in non-demonic interpretations, is seen as the personification of money and rampant materialism.
Based on the sum total of Christ’s words in the 4 gospels, this is the sin that he harps on the most. Not sexual sin, not blasphemy, but greed and love of money. The only time he ever got so angry that things came to blows was when people in the temple put profit over worship.
Retail stores make the majority of their money in the month of December.
Ironic, isn’t it, that from Mammon’s perspective, 2000 years later, Christ’s birthday is the most wonderful time of the year.