Welcome to Black Friday, a national disgrace.
Pardon my venom this early on a Friday morning, but the very idea of lining up 24 hours before a sale begins has always struck me as beyond ridiculous. And then there are the stores that decide to open only one door, leading the a phenomenon familiar to anyone who remembers what happened in Cincinnati when The Who scheduled a show with festival seating.
I got back from seeing fam and passed a few walmarts, they should be saying Black Thursday instead
— Shawn Marion (@matrix31) November 23, 2012
Is it really worth spending your Thanksgiving plopped down on the pavement for 12-14 hours just so you can be the first to get a $50 discount on an HDTV? Hasn’t anybody heard of online shopping?
Not that I want to kill the retail sector of our economy, but when I see Americans going through this ritual each and every year, it makes me sick to my stomach.
At least a few retailers are doing the right thing. And since Matrix mentioned Wal-Mart, they’ll get a shout out for opening their doors before Thanksgiving even ended.
From Martinne Geller and Dhanya Skariachan of Reuters: “Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s U.S. discount stores, which have been open on Thanksgiving Day since 1988, offered some “Black Friday” deals at 8 p.m. local time on Thursday and special deals on certain electronics, like Apple Inc iPads, at 10 p.m. The earlier hours lured people who had not previously considered braving the crowds on Black Friday, Jason Buechel, a senior executive in the retail practice of consultancy Accenture, said of his observations from malls. And they also made things more orderly. “There’s no stress, no bustling, no people busting down doors,” Richard Stargill, a 43-year-old construction worker from New York, said, referring to incidents such as the 2008 death of a Walmart worker who was trampled by a mob of eager shoppers.
We’ll spare you that video, and show you a better Wal-Mart video, instead.