What a Steal!

There it sat. The last Christmas teddy bears on sale for $3.99, sitting on a destroyed Dillard’s rack. The woman eyed her surroundings, nerves on the rise, suspicion leaking from her pores. The lonely jeans were meant for this woman. Taking a step forward, her eyes darted to another flurried woman to her left. She, too, wanted these jeans. Within an instant, an all-out race began toward the rack. Swimming through crowds, tripping over small children, and falling over strollers, anything to get to that bear. Three feet away, two feet away, one-foot away- both women dived like lionesses, hands and arms stretched, and growls and grunts irrupting from their throats. But the bear disappeared from sight. Lying on the ground, the two women stared around ferociously until their pupils landed on a woman who had slipped off with the last Christmas teddy bear.
Black Friday, the shopping day to end all shopping days all started with the post-World War Two era. Most department stores back then had to order items several months in advance in order to get them by the holiday season. After the war, the department stores has ordered way too much, and when Thanksgiving rolled around, they would try and get rid of some merchandise. This would also help fight the debt that these stores seemed to have around this time. Why has this day traditionally arrived after Thanksgiving Day? The holiday season truly begins with Thanksgiving because people have come to realize that Christmas, Chanukah, and other holidays are coming soon, and the frantic panic sets in. ‘Does Aunt Marge own a pearl necklace? Does Andy have a pea-coat already?’ Department stores and other mall shops, little boutiques and even grocery stores notice the panic, and plan out drastic sales for worried shoppers. They will send out little mailers in the mail, and put inserts in local newspapers the day before and on Black Friday so that shoppers can compare which stores have the better deals. Some sales start early in the morning, some do progressive discounts, where the percentage off an item increases hourly or bi-hourly. Twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, even ninety percent off deals for bed sheets, fruitcakes, and limited edition Febreze sprays can be seen throughout shops on Black Friday. Register lines back up and wrap around stores. Employees run around trying to keep the peace and make sure their valued customers do not lose their minds. These sales save many from spending too much on holiday presents, and happening across a new book for only five dollars can be quite exciting as well. Because the massive surplus in items after World War Two, and the sales that developed from that surplus, people have been flocking to stores for next-to-nothing deals on gifts.
The biggest problem is when people see great deals on items, they often get a bit crazy. Some will even spend the money on items that they would have never bought before, only because they are on super-sale. Plastic flamingoes with Santa hats, paper napkins with pine trees on them, and socks in bulk packs; if they’re on sale, people will buy it. Based on this thought process, stored catch onto this and advertise amazing sales, and when Black Friday ends, the stores are rolling in the cash. This year, shops are under pressure to create the best deals ever, because the recession has taken quite the toll on the American public. Because the sales and the people, it has become known as dangerous. In fact, last year on Black Friday, a Wal-Mart greeter was trampled to death by sale-thirsty shoppers. He opened the doors, and was flattened because the shoppers had to get to the sales, and they had to get there fast. Along with this man’s death, four others were injured including an eight-month pregnant woman. The views on human attitudes were questioned that day. How could a crowd risk so many lives to save money on an iPod? Stores all over America hire more security officers just for Black Friday, but even excess amounts of officers cannot stop a crowd’s fury for cheap stuff. The question is, will it be worse this year? Will the recession make people even more malicious over shopping? Black Friday sales have introduced a prime example where humans can take on savage attitudes in the name of gift giving.
It all started with post- World War Two holiday sales, which led to decades and decades of worried shoppers. These shoppers created a day where people either love or hate it. Love it: the sales are to die for! Hate it: death and utter destruction can occur if one is not careful. The crowds, and the exhaustion, death, and sales that come from Black Friday can make anyone both enjoy or resent the day after Thanksgiving. Driving around town to early bird specials at Kohl’s and Gordmans, fighting for that last teddy bear at Dillard’s; Black Friday brings out the best and the worst in human nature. Human’s flock to sales like flies on trash. If a crowd can kill a single man just for a sale, then yes, human nature has a right to be questioned. Black Friday sounds fun, and really, its not that bad, but when someone is killed, or when two women fight over a mere teddy bear that might just sit around and collect dust on a child’s bed in the future, then where is the fun in that? Black Friday: it’s no longer just a shopping day; it’s a shopping day on steroids.