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  • Why I Hate Black Friday

    2011 - 11.26

    So the Black Friday hype has come and gone, and I am here to tell you that I had no part of it, and for good reason.

    Example One: Pepper Sprayed

    Woman Pepper Sprays Fellow Shoppers

    Really? A woman sprayed shoppers with pepper spray to gain an advantage over Xboxes on sale? Is this really what Christmas is all about?

    Example Two: Pandemonium Reigns

    Walmart Frenzy Over Video Games

    Wow. Just…wow. Not many people know this, but crowds make me extremely uncomfortable. In fact, crowds make me claustrophobic. I think in this case my phobia is fully justified. These people can barely move and they are trampling and shoving one another to get a video game to go in their kids’ stocking. Here’s a better idea: either buy the game online during cyber Monday or teach your kids a life lesson that they can’t always get what they want.

    These are just two examples of the violence that broke out in stores across the nation. I have heard horror stories from friends who work at Wal-Mart that they have actually seen fist fights break out during Black Friday frenzies and I read articles the day after Black Friday of people getting trampled, injured, things stolen out of their carts, or even yanked right from their hands.

    I think the best comment I read by a user on YouTube pretty much sums up how I feel about Black Friday:

    “The revulsion I feel when watching this kind of thing is mixed with shame for my fellow Americans who participate in this sort of thing. This is one example of what is wrong with our country. We can be so much better than this! Mindless consumerism…Walmart and companies like it are all too happy to oblige…”

    I am completely ashamed of this kind of behavior, and ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ ceases to be just that when people are so consumed by greed that they choose to harm others in order to indulge in this ‘mindless consumerism’. My husband once worked in the technology department of Office Depot, and he was subjected to this exact kind of greed-driven stupidity. In fact, he described that he had no room to walk or even type in products on his computer because people were bunched around him so closely that they pinned his arms to his sides. Frenzied customers would grab and pull his clothes, tap him, and yell in his ears to gain his attention. He would come home exhausted and literally collapse on the bed early in the evening because it took so much out of him.

    Is this what Christmas is really supposed to be about? I always thought Christmas was about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, spending time with family and friends, and praising God for the blessings He has provided us throughout the year. But media such as this makes it clear that people have lost sight of what Christmas is all about to perpetuate their own personal gain. How shameful, America. How shameful.

     

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