I’m actually infuriated as I write this blog. This is American consumerism at its worst. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally the day where people wake up at the crack of dawn to wait in line to receive the best sales ever and jumpstart the holiday season.

I’m not too big on shopping, plus my total disposable income is about $8 bucks right now, so I wouldn’t really benefit from the colossal sales. However, aside from me, there are still plenty of shoppers who would kill for these kind of savings. Kill, literally.

Imagine waking up at 3 am to head to your job at Wal-mart, still fighting off the “itis” from last night’s Thanksgiving dinner. You look at your sleeping family, jump in your Ford Escort and go. It’s 4 am, the parking lot is almost full, luckily there’s a staff lot. You park your car you head in to work, “Hey Mike!” you say. Mike exchanges a friendly greeting, and you both head to work, you’ve both been designated to regulate the crowd and make sure nobody gets hurt. “Make sure nobody gets hurt!” Says your manager. It’s 4:58, the store opens at 5, the people are ready, there’s excited, they want to get in that store. You’re yelling, “Okay, one at a time, we want to keep every one safe, one at a time please.” They aren’t listening to you; all they can see are those 40% reduced toaster ovens. 4:59: the doors slowly open, there are hundreds of them, and they’ve knocked you over. Mike is trying to fight them off and help you through the crowd, and by now about 55 people have stampeded across your face.

At 6:03 the victim was pronounced dead. Shoppers then left the Wal-mart, which then was closed. I can’t help but think that for both Wal-mart, and the shoppers there was a twinge of sadness at the potential profit gained/money saved on both sides. Somebody was killed, literally trampled over, for a sale! Really, that’s ridiculous, beyond ridiculous…

Happy Holidays folks!
—Jazmyne Young