Space for Rent: This is Madness, No, THIS IS BLACK FRIDAY!!!!

Tweet of the Day: Ruthless Writing: Murder Your Darlings

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“If all of your friends jumped over a cliff, would you jump after them?” asked the mother while standing in line.

“No mom!” answered the child with a roll of the eyes.

“Good,” said the mother, as she, and hundreds waited at midnight for the doors to the mega-shopping-plex to open.

Welcome to BLACK FRIDAY!

Now, I could say that the reason I loath the whole concept of rushing to the store at an ungodly hour, risk trampling a stranger or been trampled by strangers is that the whole thing is a marketing ploy for the severely mentally handicapped, nay, stupid. But then again most of the things we do are contrivances in one form or another. Many of the activities we engage daily are for the benefit of a larger group, be it family, friends, co-workers, our employers or society at large. In most of these the individual participates because her or she will receive at least a tangential benefit from it, be it emotional, physical or financial.

Rushing head long into a frothing mass of desperate shoppers on the first day of the holiday shopping season (in November, not December, btw) is not one of mutually beneficial relationships. It is closer to scam than anything else. The implication surrounding this dark, surrealistic enterprise is that you, the consumer, will be able to take advantage of the very low, low, low, “Did we mentioned deep discounts on our already low prices?” but only if the stand in line for hours at an ungodly hour to snatch the item before everybody else. Except that

1. There are no real savings because the store either raised the prices days or weeks before,
2. The discounts won’t stop because the store needs to make up for the lackluster sales from the rest of the year,
3. They will restock the shelves within hours,
4. A careful shopper could get the same items weeks or even months in advance for even lower prices on the Internet or another store.

Add to this the way people overbuy in these events, scooping up anything their lizard brain picks up and they end up with such a credit card debt that if they are lucky will be able to pay off on Thanksgiving next year at a 20% interest per month.

Ah the savings, it smells like…a sale!

The only reason I would go anywhere near an event like this is to watch, like when people slow down on the highway to stare at a traffic accident. They never stop to help, but oooh, look at the blood spatter!

Happy Holidays and thank you for shopping at  Neither Here nor There… where we tickle your imagination for free.

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