Black Friday

Nov 28, 2008 10:58

The Fear has arrived. Panicked animals fighting for their lives. Faces smashed against glass doors. Wild-eyed unabashed greed -- the real face of humanity ( Read more... )

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Comments 12

mr_niggle November 28 2008, 17:54:27 UTC
I thought Hannukah was all about the miracle of fights? no, wait, lights, I mean rights. I don't know.

I thought this Friday was supposed to be particularly black (unlit) as no one would be shopping? I guess not.

CDH

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sykotropic November 28 2008, 21:46:05 UTC
It is all rather frightening, but then again so were the masses at the parade yesterday.

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sykotropic November 28 2008, 21:59:11 UTC
The video is interesting. First the article refers to some woman saying "they" the shoppers were "savages" and if you notice most of the people in the crowd are "of color." Nice. Then you hear laughter on the video--who knows what someone was laughing about, but uh...ok...laughing while a guy lays dieing. Then the person who is doing the taping on his cell phone points out that "no one is doing CPR...no one is giving mouth to mouth" which is interesting since I believe paramedics were advised recently to not give mouth to mouth and that compressions are the more important part of CPR.

Upside, the mother didn't miscarry--or at least its not being reported.

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faekitty71 November 29 2008, 00:16:39 UTC
She didn't actually miscarriage. So it is indeed a Xmas miracle.

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zthulu November 29 2008, 02:34:24 UTC
Ah, the first version of the article said the baby died. I'm glad it didn't happen that way.

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zinzinzinnia November 29 2008, 17:49:05 UTC
Further proof of the vortex of evil that is WalMart.

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hoffmang November 30 2008, 06:55:24 UTC
Yep, capitalism sucks. It's just too bad that everything else sucks even worse...

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zthulu November 30 2008, 14:07:25 UTC
Ah, but this was not an indictment of capitalism in general -- I agree that it is the only option, at least in the current state of the planet. I was referring specifically to the current trend of retailers to run at a loss for most of the year to create loyalty, then pinning their profits on a single quarter. This creates desperation in the boardroom which gives birth to shady marketing tactics ( ... )

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hoffmang November 30 2008, 17:35:23 UTC
In Walmart stores all around the US that are not in Long Island people could actually stand in line without killing anyone. The problem I have with Walmart bashing is that it's never done by poor people. People with limited disposable income love Walmart. It keeps their costs down. You also should know that Walmart has been consistently profitable all year.

Walmart was doing something "shady" by massively advertising teaser goods sold at or below costs and opening early and that should expose them to liability for their shoppers bad behavior? If that's the rule, then we no on 8 supporters can be held responsible when our dumb co-supporters hurl racial epithets or protest at Mormon churches. I'm quite sure Walmart does not condone mob behavior. It's bad for business - they closed that store for the rest of the day.

Walmart should pull put of New York until the civility situation improves!

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zthulu November 30 2008, 19:04:13 UTC
What you're missing is that the mobs *are* manufactured. I can't speak for Walmart (nor have I bashed them here), but I have worked with the Federated marketing department, and they hire experts in mob psychology to create that very hysteria. When it's controlled, it is *very* good for business.

They started doing it in the 40s to keep the consumer economy growing during the war, and it has gotten more sophisticated every year since. Macy and Gimbel were smart enough to use the herd instinct without pushing people over the edge.

I suggest reading up on Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays. Bernays especially -- he was so successful on Madison Avenue that he was hired to orchestrate the Guatemalan coup.

Look, if this were simply some overzealous under-educated thugs running over each other to save a buck, I would have no sympathy. The problem I have is that the mob was manufactured quite deliberately, and when that is done with no safety measures, it becomes criminal negligence.

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