Showing posts with label black friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black friday. Show all posts

Friday, November 29, 2013

Black-Eye Friday

When reaching for that tablet or sweater keep your elbows within the frame of your body. Let's not make this Black-Eye Friday!

You're welcome.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Wal-Mart Employee Was Trampled To Death On Black Friday.

A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by shoppers as he unlocked the doors of for shoppers the morning of Black Fridays. Other employees were hurt as they tried to help the employee. Other shoppers including a pregnant woman were taken to the hospital.

People! Get a hold of yourselves! Shoppers complained when the police had to shut the store down to complete the investigation because somebody died!

Wow! I'm a big fan of Black Friday. I think it's fun. I think it's a cool tradition. I think it combines two great American traits, capitalism and competition. This is a horrid example of what can happen when these two items are taken to their extremes.

It is also an example of what can happen when people get caught up in a pack mentality. People who wouldn't dare act rudely or aggressively on their own go wild when they are in a group that is stirred up.

Sad. Nothing funny here. Prayers go out to this man and his family. The blackest of Fridays indeed for this man's family every year.

Life Lesson #1: Capitalism, competition are fine in balance with compassion and cooperation.
Life Lesson #2: Be aware of the pack you travel in and check yourself out of the group if you are
not comfortable with their intensity or intentions.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Macho Man's Guide To Black Friday (Or, Goin' a TV Huntin')

My wife, daughter, and mother-in-law were all a buzz about shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. My nine year-old daughter was especially jazzed about getting up early to join the sea of salmon swimming up mall escalators. They had nothing in particular to shop for my wife just thought it was important to train my daughter in the fine art of being a good American woman and contributing to the capitalistic engine that makes America great.
Being somewhat of an endorphin junkie myself and wanting to contribute to the family’s desire to donate money to big box retailers I offered to participate in a manly way. Yes, I would go on a TV hunt much the way I would a deer hunt. My male friends wouldn’t mock me this way. It was a masculine foray to bring home the biiiig electronic score thrown over my shoulder.
In the part that is totally unmasculine my wife wrote down the model number we had agreed on as the best buy and then circled it on the newspaper insert. (Maybe I could treat the newspaper insert like a map, yeah, I could put a big buried treasure “X” on the TV and that would make it more piratey!) I gathered my layers of warm clothes, and kissed the lasses good night. I would sleep in my daughter’s bed so as not to wake them in the wee hours of the morning.
My wife and I agreed that getting to the store at 4 AM when they started handing out the claim tickets for the TV would be fine. I mean, really, who else was going to be waiting at a store at 4 AM? I decided to impress her and get there at 3:45 to be extra sure to capture the big one.
The alarm clock went off and I was pumped with adrenaline so I grabbed my hat, gloves, book, sales map, and folding chair and bounded silently out the door! I even bypassed the doughnut shop to assure I got my spot and my TV (of course the “Hot Now!” sign wasn’t on so it made it much easier to pass up).
I turned into the parking lot and much to my shock and awe were two to three hundred people in line already! They all seemed to be laughing, mocking, and pointing at me as I drove by in slow motion. “What I was I thinking?” they were laughing in their head. I’ll tell you what I was thinking, I was thinking that if I turn around right now I can be back in bed at 4:30 for a good three hours of stolen sleep!
For those of you interested in the deer hunt comparison I have never had two or three hundred hunters show up in a field. For safety’s sake if I did, I would still do the same thing. I would head back home for a nice toasty three hour nap. That many people competing for twelve TV’s or twelve deer cannot lead to anything good.
The rest of the day was spent in a manly way. My wife says I spoke with her as they were leaving on their little shopping expedition at 5:30 (I thought I just dreamt that!). I woke up at 7:30 to go play a couple hours of basketball with my nephew, some twenty years my younger. I then came home to work on the outdoor decorations which involved a lot of a macho’s guy favorite substance, (no, not beer) duct tape! Yes, I did go back out about 7:00 PM to look at TV’s with my wife. Yes, all the Early, or as I like to call them, Cuckoo Bird Specials were over but we could look in peace and calm. By looking at banks of sixteen TV’s at a time I felt like one of those cartoon aliens that have a line of sixteen eyes. I also don’t think I’ll be watching as many TV shows about tropical fish and incredible underwater TV footage as TV salespeople think. Nice pictures, but they seemed a little light on the plot.
Did I ever make the big score? You bet I did! The next morning my wife found a great TV for a great price! On line. In bed. Hmm, next time I’m thinking of deer huntin’ I’m getting’ my wife to Google “venison” first.