Retailers Cause Black Friday Chaos

We've seen numerous videos of thuggish people behaving in an uncivilized manner in Black Friday sales. This is not confined to the US as such chaotic scenes are seen in South Africa and Great Britain, to name a few. The videos show people of all races fighting each other for everything from flat screen TVs to packages of toilet paper. Mini riots break out. People fight, kick, and trample each other. Anyone who is the least bit sensible stays away from malls and retail establishments altogether. It's easy to blame the animals who act so uncivilized, and they should not be absolved of responsibility for their behavior. But simply blaming the low class cretins for their uncivilized behavior begs a very large question. Who causes this to happen?

The retailers. They put on very large sales of items which normally retail for much more and then limit the number of products sold at that special price. Why do they do that? My guess is because they are loss leaders. Any more and the retailers would lose serious money, so they place a few on sale at a very low price to encourage traffic into the stores. In my area one retailer had exactly one dozen "haptic chairs" used by gamers to 'enrich the gaming experience' by having feedback sensors in the chairs themselves that respond to controls from the gamers playing with their XBox and Playstations. So on Friday people camped out at the store entrances and rushed the doors when they opened so they could "compete' for one of those special chairs. Chaos ensued OF COURSE and only a few people wound up with the chairs. Who caused this frenzy?

The retailers. It's like throwing chum in the water to attract predator species of fish that you can then catch. The small number of 'eligible items' at these 'special prices' causes the frenzy. Do you really think people would only buy toilet paper when it was on sale? Of course not. Any other day of the year they would by TP, towels, clothing of all sorts, and anything else they needed at normal prices. But on Black Friday, they fight over a 12 pack of Charmin Extra Soft.

If retailers would stop this nonsense, there would be no more Black Friday incidents. We ought as a nation to discourage retailers and ask them to stop this practice of chumming the waters. It's not doing any of us any good. The loss leaders are not making the stores profits. We would all be much better off if they did not have this practice.

a reply to: schuyler

I tend to believe in personal responsibility.

Those people are making the decision to act like cattle and idiots because they see others doing it they believe it's acceptable.

I think the stores aren't helping, but blame lies on the individual.

When did it become a thing to always blame someone else..

No one is making people shop just like no one is msking people beat each other up...

a reply to: schuyler

We've seen numerous videos of thuggish people behaving in an uncivilized manner in Black Friday sales.

As for the thuggish antics . Could be organised civil dis order?! Seems to be a plan to create civil un rest and division.
I'm in my 40's. Until this year I have never heard of Black Friday??? I had to Google it for goodness sake. Seems like a pretty big deal! I don't understand how I could never of heard of it? Could it be because I am Australian??? I have heard of Thanks giving day. But never Black Friday? Are there any other Australians or people in general like myself who have never heard of it?

Yes, yes. I get it: "Personal responsibility." That's why I specifically said, and I quote:

It's easy to blame the animals who act so uncivilized, and they should not be absolved of responsibility for their behavior.

I've covered that issue. Duh. You may repeat it ad nauseum if you feel the need to point it out yet again, but it's a pretty lame contribution and not exactly insightful. These situations are caused by the environment. Without both 1) A limited quantity, and 2) Special low prices, and 3) Special blanket advertising, this chaos would not happen. It's an artificial scarcity to begin with. It's like taunting a dog until he bites you, then blaming the dog. The retailers have set the scene here. They've decorated the stadium and placed the bait in the middle of the arena. They create the anticipation, then open the gate like a horse race with a clang of the bells. Then they say,

"Oh, look. They're fighting!"

Earth to retailers. Hello? It's not as if you have no experience in this. You knew what would happen, just like it did last year. What on Earth possessed you to set up this situation yet again? In property crime law there is something called an "attractive nuisance." For example, if you have a telescope on your roof and it can be seen from the street, if someone trespasses on your property to get to the telescope and subsequently falls off the roof and hurts himself, you can be successfully sued by the "victim" despite the fact he unlawfully trespassed on your property. That telescope attracted him.

This is what the retailers have done. they have created an attractive nuisance and set the scene for this type of uncivilized behavior. And WHETHER OR NOT YOU CLAIM THIS IS SOLELY A MATTER OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, it can STILL be stopped cold and completely by retailers refusing to indulge in this kind of activity.

Retailers, this is not rocket science. Stop Black Friday sales with limited inventory and special prices, and voila! You'll not have another riot in your stores. There is a very simple solution that it 100% within your power to control. If you continue to bait the trap, you're a part of the problem. In fact, you caused it in the first place.

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: schuyler

I tend to believe in personal responsibility.

Those people are making the decision to act like cattle and idiots because they see others doing it they believe it's acceptable.

I think the stores aren't helping, but blame lies on the individual.

Of course, the blame lies in the individual as you say, but that individual has been subjected to advertising that provokes a "mob mentality" from a distance, via several media. The situation is no different than from that of a solitary individual standing on a stump inciting the local populace to riot over some cause that the mass can personally identify with. I don't see any reason or need to explain the phenomena further.

a reply to: schuyler

so they place a few on sale at a very low price to encourage traffic into the stores. In my area one retailer had exactly one dozen "haptic chairs" u

But on Black Friday, they fight over a 12 pack of Charmin Extra Soft.

They went to buy a haptic chair, when disappointed at missing out they consoled themselves by buying toilet paper at a special price. Toilet paper has no "use by date" and can double up to wipe tears away on missing the "chair"

a reply to: TheInfiniteFantastic

WTF...I forgot to mention they have started "black Friday" sales in Perth, Australia...as if we haven't got enough "stampede" days for the cattle, we follow the US!

a reply to: schuyler

So when you miss out on the chair use that angle to hurt yourself in the stampede and sue them for bucks. Sounds like a win

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: schuyler

so they place a few on sale at a very low price to encourage traffic into the stores. In my area one retailer had exactly one dozen "haptic chairs" u

But on Black Friday, they fight over a 12 pack of Charmin Extra Soft.

They went to buy a haptic chair, when disappointed at missing out they consoled themselves by buying toilet paper at a special price. Toilet paper has no "use by date" and can double up to wipe tears away on missing the "chair"

From stereotypes of gamers no way nuh uh are they gonna wake up at 3am and "run" to get said chair.

a reply to: schuyler

I think your observations are correct as far as they go schuyler. Retailers,(the front line of capitalizm) need big money over the Xmas holidays. We all know by now that a vast amount of western businesses would go belly up were it not for the exploitation of the birth of Jesus. We all know the statistics that show that many businesses run in the red until the holidays and only through the massive sales push, manage to get into the black to survive for another year in the dog eat dog world of capitalist retail.

I applaud the staunch defense of individualism taken by people who say stop blaming business. They say that the problem lies in a lack of individual responsibility. Taken at face value this is a fine belief. However, it really has no validity in reality. In reality we are all aspects of our social systems, of our cultural norms. From early childhood we are trained, we are molded, we are 'brainwashed' if you will to fit into the systems in which we are raised.

The system into which most of us here were raised is the capitalist system. An economic system with no morals and no conscious other than that of grab as much as you can and never mind who gets hurt, that is at least until the margin of profit begins to decline and then adjustments by the captains of industry make them for us.

Basically, populations in the West, in general have been turned into little more than consumers with the illusion of individualism. With the illusion of choice. Whether we buy trinkets in late November or huge philosophical positions and pretend to vote earlier in the month, it is all pre-packaged crap to feed the Moola-machine of the capitalist masters.

a reply to: schuyler

As disgusted as I am with the Black Friday tradition, no one is to blame for the chaos other than the people causing the chaos. You can't blame retailers. They never told anyone to go out and fight to the death for a bargain. If you want to point the finger, point it at the social degenerated who fight over material luxury items.

Like WatchItBurn said, "personal responsibility".

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: schuyler

so they place a few on sale at a very low price to encourage traffic into the stores. In my area one retailer had exactly one dozen "haptic chairs" u

But on Black Friday, they fight over a 12 pack of Charmin Extra Soft.

They went to buy a haptic chair, when disappointed at missing out they consoled themselves by buying toilet paper at a special price. Toilet paper has no "use by date" and can double up to wipe tears away on missing the "chair"

Best dang post so far. And closest to the way it happens

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: TheInfiniteFantastic

WTF...I forgot to mention they have started "black Friday" sales in Perth, Australia...as if we haven't got enough "stampede" days for the cattle, we follow the US!

One US tradition the world should not follow in...Ever

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: schuyler

As discussed as I am with the Black Friday tradition, no one is to blame for the chaos other than the people causing the chaos. You can't blame retailers. They never told anyone to go out and fight to the death for a bargain. If you want to point the finger, point it at the social degenerated who fight over material luxury items.

Like WatchItBurn said, "personal responsibility".

Well , a lot of stores follow that old underhanded tradition
We have 60" 4k LEDs on sale for 100 dollars . They never had 1 . But they are quick to put up a sold out sign.

a reply to: watchitburn

I tend to believe in personal responsibility.

But no personal responsibility for the persons in the corporation making those decisions to set the trap and bait it with the known obvious results?

Known and obvious results based on their previous decisions to set the trap and bait it with the same results?

Personal responsibility indeed.

a reply to: schuyler

Is anybody making "the animals" line up to act like animals?

No.

Going to retailers and spending your money is entirely voluntary. The retailers are out to make a buck. What would make them stop doing Black Friday shenanigans?

People could stop lining up for it.

I personally think the OP made a good point. Everyone will be shopping for Christmas anyway, so they just compete for the most traffic and make things more chaotic as they go. It's sadistic.

a reply to: schuyler

I get what you're saying and see where you're coming from.

But I don't believe it's that complex of a dynamic. I think it's just the herd mentality kicking in. The majority of them get away with it, and it's become expected, so that's what they do.