Black Friday Matters: American Holy Day

a reply to: Specimen

Because they'll be asking God for food, water, and warmth, or just to live when there broke and alone.

No , those prayers are reserved for our great , imperious , give-away leader

a reply to: Willtell

Lol, they're fighting to buy things.

Stealing takes way less effort.

originally posted by: Willtell
Well we don’t have to worry about religion taking over America, no theocratic state here, don’t worry about it.

There’s already a theocratic state in America and today is the chief holiday of American theocracy: Black Friday…or perhaps a better more accurate term would be: Green Friday! Or Greed Friday!

There is no God but Consumerism and the Almighty Dollar is its Profit

I'm stealing this quote from someone else
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for what you have, only to rush out the door the next day to trample strangers for sales on what you don't.

Black Friday is a vile, disgusting practice.

originally posted by: DeepThoughtCriminal
I actually kinda want to go to the US on one of these "Black Fridays" just to see for myself how bad it actually gets. I couldn't believe it until I saw all the videos etc.

I'm still not 100% on it - is it really all about shops putting on sales specials? Shops get really busy here on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) when they all put on post-Christmas sales, but I've never heard of actual fights breaking out over some item in a shop. American shoppers are hardcore.

Obviously there are exceptions, but it's pretty depressing to see just how much people are influenced by advertising. A lot of the time, people will buy stuff that's on sale that they wouldn't actually have bought otherwise. They'll get it simply because there's a big brightly coloured sign saying announcing a price reduction. It's amazing how a simple little trick of elementary psychology can have such a huge impact on people.

Not to mention, we all think we're immune to advertising. But if it can lead to people rioting over sales discounts, imagine the effect of political propaganda. It's often a lot more subtle, such as media bias, but no less effective. Unfortunately, most people will essentially do as they're told, whether their dictator be the government or corporations.

I've gone Black Friday shopping a couple times (had to try it to confirm I hated it), and some friends of mine treat it as a sacred American ritual. The truth is, the hardcore fights are pretty rare. There can be people fighting over individual items but usually that's not the case. There are crowds though, and stampedes. A lot of the experience is just standing around waiting. Things go on sale at a certain time, so you show up to that area of the store hours early, everyone sits in a line bored and waiting, then they get their item. Doors in a store opening are something of a stampede but they're not so bad that people get trampled.

All in all I found the experience to be quite boring and most of the sales are limited to x# items so you usually don't get the huge savings but rather just a smaller ordinary savings. Really, it's just the spirit of it that I dislike rather than individual behavior. The actions taken in the annual video compilations don't show what it's really like. It's just taking the worst of the worst of what happens when you get hyped up competitive crowds together.

Most stores in the uk didn't do it this year, the whole idea of not forming an orderly que was just against our cultural norms and values

We have "Black Friday Sale" here in Canada as well. However, the "vibe" is different.

a reply to: DeepThoughtCriminal

It's all about the cheap TV's.

Americans love their TVs -- and getting a TV for cheap is almost like a religious experience. People will go on "pilgrimages" and camp out over night, giving offerings (bribes) to others for a chance to be first at the low-priced TVs.

You do not get between an American consumer and an insane deal on a TV.

a reply to: Involutionist

If you have to fight over a gift because you can only afford it on sale...

a reply to: Aazadan

I don't know if she still does, but my cousins wife used to be a dedicated Black Friday shopper. She'd lay out all the store ads and plan it all out like a military op and by the end of the day, she'd have all her Christmas shopping done. But she'd have her sales and everything all mapped out to get the best deals on it all.

I do something similar when I plan out the cooking of a major meal. Plan out my oven, burners and prep to try to synch it all up and on the table.

I like mine better. It involves far less people.