America: leading the way in the endless consumer frenzy

[Jaqhama]

John Whalen mentioned Black Friday to me the other day...Linda and I didn't know what Black friday was, we don't have it here in Australia.
So I Googled it...and found that Black friday is followed by Cyber-Monday.

We just shook our heads while we read the explanation below:

Black Friday is a popular label attached to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the US. This day marks the beginning of the busy shopping season during which most consumers typically start their Christmas/holiday shopping.

While the word "black" often has a negative connotation, the use of black in this case alludes to profitability, which is traditionally noted in black ink (losses are noted in red). Traditionally, brick-and-mortar retailers see a surge in retail sales on this day as a result of the holiday shopping, putting their books "in the black".

Doorcrashers, special deals and heavy discounts on the most highly sought after holiday gifts are often offered by retailers in order to lure consumers into their stores in the hope that they will purchase other, higher margin goods. Some bargain hunting consumers have even been known to camp out overnight in order to secure a place in line at a favorite store. The contents of Black Friday advertisements are often so highly anticipated that retailers go to great lengths to ensure that they are not leaked out to the public beforehand.

For online retailers, there is a similar type of day on the Monday following Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is known as the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season as internet-savvy shoppers go to their favorite online retailers to do their holiday shopping. Similarly, online retailers also start promotions and sales on Cyber Monday in order to compete against the Black Friday offerings at brick-and-mortar stores.

Good to see the USA is still in front of the rest of the world.
Even when it comes to making up special days and trendy names to convince sheeple to shop.
Shop till you drop...in the future they'll probably be able to find a way to sell your fresh corpse...maybe get a good deal...buy a fresh one and a get a week old corpse for free.

[John M. Whalen]

Glad to see I'm broadening your horizons, amigo. I suppose you haven't read the news stories about what happened on Black Friday. There were a couple of shootings, a woman shopper pepper sprayed other shoppers in order to get an advantage over them, and a grandfather tucked a video game under his shirt at a Wal-Mart to keep frenzied shoppers from stealing it from him and someone yelled out that he was a shoplifter. A cop grabbed him and slammed him down on the floor head first. His grandson watched in dismay, to say the least, as his grandpop lay there bleeding from the nose. All in all it was a magnificent display of mad greed and a fitting start to the festive holiday season. And despite the hard economic times, this Black Friday set a spending record. But lest you become too smug and superior and think the US has the corner on the madness market, I might say that at least we don't have boxing kangaroos. ; )

[Jaqhama]

Boxing kangaroos...

I could sell you one.

The Grandpa story was awful.

I'm sure we'll all be better off when the aliens invade and take over.
One can only hope.