OWS is useless until we stop this kind of shiat.

I like what Target did. They only let 30 people into the store at a time to keep it from turning into a mad house. It was as much for the employees' safety as it was for the safety of the customers.

You know, if the Occupiers had spread their message widely enough instead of allowing the conversation to be distracted by things like the UC Davis pepper spraying, a lot of this Black Friday nonsense could have been averted.

But, no-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o, you had to make the conversation about police brutality. . ..

Just wondering, were there any deals that were not going on online also? I did all of my Black Friday shopping Thursday with a beer in my hand from the comfort of my computer desk.

You have to be a fool to go wait in line in the cold for a store to open if all of the items are also on sale online.

Link (Happy Black Friday)

they missed the stabbing in San Antonio over a parking spot.

/stayed home and played the new Star Wars game instead
//pretty cool game

Went into a Bestbuy to get a power supply for some lady and that shiat was a mess.
/No I will never buy anything for myself there

akula: It's the end result of humanity's innate selfishness. The reason this kind of thing happens is because humanity is who we are... no more, no less.

We were hunters and gatherers for tens of thousands of years. You think that primal association of possession with survival is gone after a scant few millennia of civilization?

And less than a century of television?

All the fearmongering about things happening at Black Friday sales relies solely on the fact that most people assume that the sale prices themselves are the true cause of anything that happens. In reality, a lot of the shootings and violence at these sales are later shown to be the result of personal grudges or gang violence, not because shoppers are willing to kill each other to save money. There's also a portion of the population that just isn't mentally stable, and sometimes those people do things like pepper-spraying others without a justifiable cause.

Honestly, TFA reports seven instances of violence at stores yesterday. How many instances of violence are there during an average shopping day? There are literally hundreds of thousands of stores in the US, and I really doubt that seven incidents rises above the average.

The people with an axe to grind are going to point to ANYTHING that happens on Black Friday as further "proof" that things have gotten out of hand. The rest of us aren't going to care.

WorldCitizen

Ya think? It looks like we're about to turn Thanksgiving into nothing more than a consumerist orgy extension of the consumerist orgy Christmas has become. Sad too as that's exactly why I liked Thanksgiving a thousand times more than Christmas.


You can still have that: batten down the hatches and avoid unwanted humanity for four relaxing days. Good stuff.

BroVinny 2011-11-26 01:06:07 PM

You know, if the Occupiers had spread
their message widely enough

[what big-media venue are you suggesting? Fox News, perhaps?]

instead of "allowing" the conversation to be "distracted"

by things like the UC Davis pepper spraying,
a lot of this Black Friday nonsense could have been averted.


[how do you suppose OWS could have averted Black Friday?]


But, no-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o, you

had to make the conversation about police brutality.

Britney Spear's Speculum: OWS is useless until we stop this kind of shiat.

+1000 points

Sleeping Monkey: Mrs.Sharpier: Humanity isn't "sad" - our consumer driven, media driven obsession with purchasing sh*t we dont need culture is "sad".

[th36.photobucket.com image 150x150]

Actually, mindless consumerism is a pretty damning summary of human nature at it's purest...we want more pleasure, better pleasure, sooner rather than later.

If only we could turn Wal Marts into Roach Motels, and cleanse the species of it's dregs.

Sid_6.7: About the pepper spray incident:

All these news stories I've seen say it was for an Xbox. An Xbox, or an Xbox 360? It's Walmart, so I wouldn't put selling Xboxes past them, hoping to capitalize on the ignorance of their shoppers.

In any case, having Black Friday sales is kind of like ordering a military offensive. You know there will be casualties.

I actually remember BestBuy doing that one year.

AcneVulgaris: If only we could turn Wal Marts into Roach Motels, and cleanse the species of it's dregs.

Target is way ahead of you Shoppers unfazed as man dies at Target (new window).

Dude lay dying on the sales floor while the other shoppers ignored him, or in some cases stepped over his body.

/The Bebe Jeebuz must be so proud of us!

I dislike Wal-Mart as much as the next guy but the article is a bit biased. There were incidents in other stores as well. I know I read something about one in a Toy's 'r' us and a quick google revealed some in Target.

Wal-Mart has far more stores than anyone else, it makes sense that they had the most problems.

Summer Glau's Love Slave: AcneVulgaris: If only we could turn Wal Marts into Roach Motels, and cleanse the species of it's dregs.

Target is way ahead of you Shoppers unfazed as man dies at Target (new window).

Dude lay dying on the sales floor while the other shoppers ignored him, or in some cases stepped over his body.

/The Bebe Jeebuz must be so proud of us!

At least they didn't go through his pockets, or devour him.

walmart had sweet deals on xbox360 games. I picked up battlefield 3 for $28. If I had some more money I would have gotten Gears 3 and batman arkham as well. Didn't have to fight anyone to get it either.

Bonus quote

Black Friday retail sales hit record, says report

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Preliminary reports for Black Friday indicate that retailers may have seen their strongest sales ever during the all-important kick-off to the holiday shopping season.

You really made a difference, OWS hippies. Start another petition now.

This is why I haven't been to a Wal-Mart in years.

If I ever have children, I'll raise them to never go to Wal-Mart ever.

Managed to shop only at small businesses on Friday, and avoided all Black Friday "deals."

fark Wal-Mart, and fark the people who shop at that place.

akula: poot_rootbeer: akula: It's the end result of humanity's innate selfishness. The reason this kind of thing happens is because humanity is who we are... no more, no less.

We were hunters and gatherers for tens of thousands of years. You think that primal association of possession with survival is gone after a scant few millennia of civilization?

And less than a century of television?

Exactly. We're programmed to accumulate at the expense of others. Anybody claiming humanity is a beautiful and wonderful thing when left to our default and base instincts is dense to the point of rivaling a neutron star. Take our standard instincts, wash them through the culture we've created, and this is exactly what you get.

And no, it doesn't matter whether you place it into a capitalist, socialist, or communist society... our nature remains the same.

Ahem. Hunter-gatherers are actually pretty peaceful, especially if there is some division of labor, certain members responsible for certain tasks and everyone shares or suffers alike. Agriculture slowly changed that, the crop being claimed by a single member or clan and an outsider gathering from the crop was discouraged, eventually prohibited by the concept of private property and the myriad laws supporting that. Urban industrial society is the most selfish and violent if history and anthropology have any value.

But wait a minute, the aborigines of America were the repeated victims of forced migration and uneven combat because they were uncivilized savages, I remember now. We enlightened the hell out of them.

Funk Brothers: This is why I haven't been to a Wal-Mart in years.

If I ever have children, I'll raise them to never go to Wal-Mart ever.

When they hit 14, they'll start porking up on 6 litres of soda a day, and bring home hoverrounds to rebel.

"They shouldn't be psyching them up so much and using all sorts of psychological tactics to get them to feed into this desperation and competitive spirit," he said.

It's called marketing. Don't tell me the advertisement made her do it. People are grown-ups, sheesh. You're really going to blame Black Friday violence on companies advertising?

doglover: Ya call this bad? Pfft. Crack open a history book ya big ladies' blouses!

That's kind of the point, not repeating the mistakes of the past.
/we're doomed