working black friday

Better than a rocket

 

Thanksgiving is the only holiday I've never works

 

top story on our national news was the crazy americans fighting in lineups ...what a bunch of idiots

 

I don't think that Pressed Rat is a dick to everyone.

I haven't seen all of his posts, but I've only seen a few posts were he's been a dick. pretty much everyone has a few dick posts

he has a pretty consistent negative view though. expressing his views is probably helpful to him, though too many negative posts can be a downer.

generally, it would be better not to get negative on a thread where people are trying to be cheerful and wish each other happy thanksgiving, for example

always being negative can be a flaw, but always being positive or happy can be too. if you are completely selfish, don't care about other people, or live in denial of anything negative, that might make you feel happy

some people can't deal with anyone or anything if it doesn't seem like a story out of a martha stewart magazine. that seems, frankly, worse to me than being negative

the world contains both beauty and horror. we should increase the beauty and fight the horror. we need to be able to see both to do that.

 

it's sad to see what the corporations have done to christmas

 

This is the first Black Friday I haven't worked since I started working, I think. Not that it mattered, I'm fortunate enough to live in a town mostly unaffected by Black Friday. We've only got a couple of franchised restaurants and one Dollar General, which might have had sales, but everyone flees to the city an hour away or at least the bigger town 15 miles away for the sales. Only thing I purchased today or yesterday was cigarettes, soda, and candy. The candy was on sale, but not because of Black Friday. lol. I actually bought a phone on Saturday for $200 that was only $99 today, but I decided I'd gladly pay an extra $100 so I wouldn't have to deal with Black Friday BS.

 

im really tired of everyone always blaming the "corporations"...and "elite"


it was the consumers i saw acting like retards..people need to have more self control...and stop blaming others for their own stupidity

 

all i bought today was a used snowblower for $70....that I will repair for no cost (i have tons of parts)...and i will resell it in a month or 2 for $350 to $400

 

I'm positive if there was a massive image overhaul of mega corporations that focused on moderation and saving the earth, the masses would literally buy into it. If they promoted positive self image and didn't prey on people's weaknesses and insecurities I don't think people would be as subconsciously compelled to buy shit.

 

Fuck Black Friday. I worked in retail a long time and saw people act like assholes everyday and black Friday turns the regular assholes into uber-assholes. One of the best Black Friday feuds I witnessed was 2 grannies fighting over the last Xbox-360. I also had a little old lady wearing a "WWJD" t-shirt call me a bitch because we did not accept personal checks. I thought fuck you old bitch...Jesus wants your old ass to get a debit card.
Fuck black friday, bah-humbug fuck xmas too.

 

Yesterday, on some news type program, they listed the results of a poll about shopping on Black Friday. They said 81% polled do not shop on that day and 17% do participate (who knows what the other 2% said). With all the hype, ads, news stories and commercials, I had the feeling that I was in the minority to not shop that day. I guess there are a lot more sane people out there than I thought.

I am not a big shopper in any case but won't shop on holidays or Black Friday.

 

people have to take responsibility for their own actions, but the corporations are the real villans

it's the same thing with the sub-prime housing bubble.

people were total retards to sign on for mortgages that they couldn't afford, and (often) to lie on their loan applications

but the loan officers were telling them to lie. the corporations were manipulating people. they knew exactly what they were doing. they didn't have any excuse

people shouldn't be so obsessed with material things. they shouldn't get into fights over piles of crap.

but the corporations are manipulating them. they know that people will fight, get stampeded, etc. they intentionally try to whip people into a frenzy so that their competitive urges lead them to buy things even if they don't need or want them.

and year round, the advertisers are saturating people's brains with the message that they must have mountains of possessions to be happy, to have status, to be loved. that even to be treated as a human being, you must have wealth and possessions. they appeal to the lowest aspects of human nature and poison our culture to push their shit products

and all the while, they're happy to use exploited chinese laborers that get paid 50 cents an hour and have no political rights. not to mention the massive environmental pollution of chinese manufacturing, and the fact that it's fueled by sudanese genocide oil.

yes, the consumers are to blame. but the corporations are 1000 times worse

 

But the change has to come from somewhere. It's not going to come from top down. It's the consumer that has the power of choice, so I think putting the blame a little more squarely on the individual is good and we as consumers need to accept more personal responsibility for our role this scheme instead of just waving our fists at corporations - because without us, that pyramid would topple.

 

^i agree

 

'corporations' aren't inherently evil. my father's small business is a corporation, and we employ people for liveable wages and sell products produced in north america. being a corporation doesn't make a business shitty, it is the people running it that makes them awful.

 

it's kind of like blaming the slaves instead of the masters for why the slaves aren't free

I'm not sure it's helpful to blame the consumers primarily. I think both should be blamed, but mostly the corporations.

there's another thread where a guy with a bullhorn is telling the black friday shoppers what assholes they are. I don't think that it was well received.

 

I agree. not all corporations are bad, nor are all big corporations bad. and many corporations that do some bad things also do some good things.

I think there is, however, an inherent tendency in free market economies for corporations to do evil things.

the corporation that is most ruthless, most dedicated to making profits at the expense of everything else is the one most likely to stay in business and to grow

 

Also, some of the people who did shop yesterday went somewhere other than a big store like Wal-Mart or a major shopping mall. Things never get really crazy at the smaller stores, no matter what day it is.

I've never been to one of the bigger places on Black Friday because it's common knowledge you have to wait in a long line before they open to get a shot at the super-cheap stuff, and/or brawl with a bunch of people who have the opposite of what I'd call a holiday spirit. I'd rather pay the same amount of money at some other time and get less stuff for it. If you try to go after those Black Friday bargains, you shouldn't be surprised if you have a bad experience.

Nobody makes you participate, and nobody even makes you watch the news stories about it.

They can play whatever games they like, but we don't have to fall for any of it. You know that corporations are not your friends. How hard is that to figure out?

Exactly. When consumers fall for a marketing trick, the natural forces of competition force all the companies to use it, if there is no law against it. A little skepticism goes a long way. Never forget the motivations of advertisers.

You're seeing the big picture. :cheers2:

 

yes, we don't have to fall for it. but it does affect many people, and they in turn have an influence on the rest of society

it's not so hard to ignore the advertising. but if you are surrounded by people who buy in to that mentality, it's much harder to ignore

 

It is harder for a small business or smaller corporation to exhibit greed, but very easy for a larger corporation to do so. The typical consumer has been duped into believing that more stuff cheap is better than less... Who is it that has fooled the consumer into thinking this way?