About this blog

Incoming BYTES
contains highly variable subject matter including commentary on the mundane, the extraordinary and even controversial issues. At Incoming BYTES
we want YOU to think...if you dare...

Followers

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Black Friday: A Deadly and Contagious Retail Disease

Where are your piggy-bank savings going this holiday season?

You and your piggy-bank savings
money are being persuaded to part company by big business unethically --yet again but with holidays coming on, that would be nothing new. 
How about losing your very life, your self-respect, your human dignity and conscience?
Black Friday, the  contagious disease of retail greed from south of the border is showing up  in Canadian retail centers.  

The symtoms of Black Friday disease are those of  unheralded insanity which include veritable stampedes of  insane, greedy shoppers, laughing greedy retailers, and inevitably, trampled people,  scores of  innocent people being hurt, violence, gun play, and even death.

Has corporate ethics have reached a new all-time low?  Is it now considered 'good business'  to promote total shopping madness, hand-to-hand combat on the retail floor, and idiocy--all  in the name of corporate profit?
How did "Thanksgiving", a time for family, reflection and above all, Giving Thanks, ever turn into such an ugly, greedy, and dangerous  retailing event?


A retail sales event is "just a sale"?  No longer.

On Black Friday last year in the Land of the Free  there were shootings.  A man was killed, stomped to death by an enraged herd of  greedy, lunatic shoppers out of control on corporate advertising steroids.  
Where does the madness end?  Apparently not at the Canadian  border. 
Canadian retailers are quickly adapting the same greedy, mindless and idiotic marketing strategy.
What is that underlying marketing "strategy"?  Simple greed, greedier, and greediest, not necessarily in that order. 
" Promote lack of logic, promote lack of  thought. Generate maximum retail hype and excitement.  Get the shoppers lined up like dumb cattle  with endless expectations to be fulfilled or not,-- and push sales and profit while the getting is good, no matter what the human cost."

In 2011 it quickly became apparent the corporate sector promoting this disastrous retailing practice  learned nothing from the death and mayhem observed in 2010.   The problem  became worse.  


This year, a man in Virginia  was walked over by shoppers as he died. Shoppers walked around, and over him. Nobody bothered to help, they were busy shopping on Black Friday.
A grandfather trying to rescue his small grandson from being trampled in the madness of an opening stampede  was put down, bludgeoned and bloody by a security guard.  On Black Friday.
There were shots fired in other incidents.  On Black Friday.
A certified madwoman shopper used pepper spray on some 20  other  customers to 'gain advantage  to 'get there first, grab the most, whether it was a 72"  flat-screen television, a package of a dozen disposable diapers, a coloring-book,  or a handful of  junk jewellery.  On Black Friday.
Was her vicious attack on others to gain "50% off" ?  No matter.   What she was 'getting first'  or the 'discount'   isn't the issue.   As a 'shopper', encouraged by Black Friday madness and incited by corporate greed,  she deemed  it 'necessary' to use pepper spray on other shoppers that were equally insane, trying to 'get the deals' first.  
Death and mayhem. It happened again on this Black Friday.



People were hurt. The question must be:  What is the matter with these people?   Where does this idiocy end?  
When will retailers take responsibility and curtail the dangerous practice of encouraging the mob mentality and  'racing to the counter' openings?  
Criminal charges should be filed, but will they be? Not likely. It was, after all, Black Friday, time to persuade people to 'shop' like idiot fools and help Corporate North America  make  more profit.


HERE at Incoming Bytes  we would like people to shake their collective heads and  start thinking for themselves.  There can be no excuse for people to give up their dignity, respect for others,  sense of humanity, or their lives  for a "good" deal,  Black Friday retail scam  or not.
 
As for business and the retailing set?  Shame on them.



that's my story and I'm sticking to it

3 comments:

  1. I was in Toronto once a few years ago on Black Friday from the looks of things practically the whole city decamped for Buffalo to shop for the day. The shopping center parking lots were jammed with cars from Ontario. Apparently insanity crosses borders!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The thing is, where was the police to protect our safety? They were doing that job quickly enough with the Occupy movement in different cities. This does not mean I support the movement (or not). Just throwing out some food for thought out. Peaceful protesters and trouble makers alike got the same treatment, at least where I live.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If anything, black friday (purposely lower case) should be an excuse to spend more time with family -- playing games, eating left overs, sharing conversation...hey, there's a novel idea...rebel against the money pit, by enjoying quality time with your family...oh wait! That will never work! Who would dare to ignore the opportunity to make and spend money, just so they can hang with family? There are a few of us out there, and I can assure you, it was much more satisfying than the alternative!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are always appreciated ! No SPAM allowed.