RELIGIOUS FREAKS! See them go at it!

[frogfromthenorth2]

Nope, not the ones your thinking... I am talking of a cult more powerful than any other organized religion. A cult followed by MILLIONS of North Americans... A bunch of zombies who don't know what just hit them...:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/26/news/economy/holiday_shopping/index.htm?cnn=yes

[goddess40]

1. I wish I gould have been part of the boycott today

but I have always refused to shop on this most holy shopping day.

[bumblebee1]

29. Here, here, Goddess

I've always refused to shop on Black Friday. A boycott has not been the reason. Some of the time I had to work on Black Friday. Other times, I just don't have the ambition to wake up a 3a.m. just to camp out in front of a store. A customer in my husband's hardware store talked about his trip past our local mall this morning (11/26) at 5:30 am. He told everyone there was not a parking place to be had. I also don't like the massive crowds.

[Tempest]

2. This is the worst time in the world to be adding debt

The dollar is collapsing and large interest rate increases will be the only way to keep the U.S. from going into a depression.

But I don't have any sympathy for the sheeple who stay ignorant of what is happening around them.

[frogfromthenorth2]

3. Religious Right is nothing next to that disease that is corrupting not

only the USA but my country also...

[jadedcherub]

4. I've never understood peoples problem with shopping on day-after-thnksgvng

Seems to me that when prices are extremely low, it's one of the few times that the disparity between what a company is making in profits off of the individual is relatively low.

It is amazing what people will do to purchase things though. I've (honestly) seen a fight between to woman break out at a department store in the past. It all started because one woman took some socks in her shopping cart and gunned them at the other woman while they were arguing, accurately pinning her right in the side of the head. And then...

all hell broke lose.

:)

What the hell IS that pseudo-French that I keep hearing Canadians calling French.

.jc.

[frogfromthenorth2]

5. My friend... I see that you are now too blind to see what's coming your

way.... Illusion of deals... that's the gimmick... and they will come the next day, the day after... get more credit cards.. and so on....

[jadedcherub]

7. Yes...my friend.

I'm too blind. As evidenced by me sitting here posting on DU instead of out shopping.

It's hardly a gimmick to save some money. If you've got plenty of it, you can afford to shop whenever you want. If not, then you need to brave the masses, fight the shoppers, and get out there so you can get presents for children, clothes for yourself, etc.

I helped organize a don't-buy-anything-day last year on this day, but it just seems rather ridiculous. The point is negated by the fact that many of these sales are the closest to a non or low-profit market that can be found anywhere in the U.S., at any time of the year.

Consumers are bad and evil or whatever. But notice the forest despite the trees, huh?

.jc.

[frogfromthenorth2]

13. Reminds me of what Bush said after 9/11 ... he did not ask people to go

to church and pray... he asked them to go shopping... It's pathetic to have a society relying on people blindly buying crap...

[ikojo]

6. In some instances the prices ARE low the day after

Thanksgiving, however, in many instances a merchant will mark up a price and say it's on sale for 40% off....when in reality the price after 40% is what the item sold for the week before.

Lane Bryant is INFAMOUS for doing this to the prices on their clothes, which among other reasons, is why I don't shop there anymore. I'll stick with the department stores and buy things at the end of their season for pennies on the dollar.

[jadedcherub]

8. That's true.

I use my mother as an example. She goes out shopping today because she has 6 kids, and buying presents for them all is expensive. She can save a significant amount of money by getting a lot of her shopping done today.

If they are not actually giving discounts, my mom can smell it from 100 yards off. ;)

Although, for honesty's sake I should say that she is not going shopping today because the family is home; she lives in a smaller town (I'm back visiting) and so she has to drive for an hour 1/2 to get to a mall. But trust me when I say, she wouldn't be driving that distance if it wasn't worth the time/money.


.jc.

[Deja Q]

10. Very true. It's sickening. Especially with jewelry...

but also with clothing, they try to pull the wool over our eyes.

Electronics (Best Buy, CompUSA) seem to be a little more genuine, although they play 5 times as many games with the customer in order to get that deal. (mostly in the form of multiple rebates, each requiring the original UPC, receipt, and proof of purchase to ensure you don't get all the advertised rebates sent back to you 6~10 weeks later.)

[__Inanna__]

26. Best Buy is NOT genuine

They are genuinely overcharging at their registers. They overcharged me, refused to refund me my money by lying about an instant savings vs rebate (in spite of their own employee confirming I was right), and I had to follow up three times with HP just to get the HP rebate. I told them I'd never shop there again and they didn't care. Oh well. Come to think of it, I interviewed there years ago and thought I had the job, then that evaporated as well. And you should see their new beautiful BIG corporate offices (two of 'em) Yup, their registers which just can't seem to register the advertised sales prices paid for those buildings.

[Deja Q]

9. Yup. Go to the store in their pyjamas... and yet their hair looks neat as

if they took the time to groom it. :crazy:



And the article makes it sound like only women shop after t-day. How fucking sexist is that!?

And even the article panders to this stupid mentality, love them "Bratz" brand cheap plastic rubbish dolls that look like prostitutes on the corner of 4th Avenue and Hennepin: :eyes:

[acmavm]

11. If you intend to buy, Christmas Eve is the day to do it. There's plenty of

stuff out there to purchase and they want to get rid of it.

I love Christmas Eve shopping. People are just so craaazzzyyyy by that time. Me personally, I don't feel that it's my obligation to provide everyone I know with something they want but won't buy for themselves.

When I was little, and I do mean very young, it was perfectly acceptable for someone to give you cookies, fudge, and even the dreaded fruitcake for Christmas. It was something made by the person who gave it, and it meant more than the stuff they throw at you from Bath and Body Works nowdays. That's the kind of Christmas I miss.

[frogfromthenorth2]

12. Yep, people now feel obligated to buy CRAP. When you think of it,

we are just a bunch of drones...

[tblue37]

28. I opted out of Christmas altogether years ago.

On Christmas Eve two years ago, my two kids (21 and 23 at the time) went to the grocery store with me to pick up some Italian bread for our dinner (we did use the holiday to eat together). While we were there, the rushing-home-from-work Christmas Eve crowd was also there, desperately stocking up on stuff for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners, since the store would close by 7:00 that evening.

My son commented on the fact that we were the only people in the store who didn't have scowls on our faces or look desperate and harried.

Yep. We had nothing we had to do for the holiday, so we didn't feel a bit of pressure, unlike those poor frenzied souls that surrounded us. To us it was just a nice quiet evening to have a nice dinner together, knowing there would be no getting up early for work or school the next day.

We don't "do" Christmas. Let others put up with that stress (and that expense). Who needs it?

[Ron Green]

14. It's SECULAR DEHUMANISM. The true religion of America....

shopping and acquisition takes away the pain of living (at least in the short term.)

[frogfromthenorth2]

15. Amen brother.....

[xxqqqzme]

16. told my kids yesterday

that I am NOT shopping this year. They will only get handmade gifts. After the Nov 2 korporate Koup, I am not spending any money unless I absolutely, positively NEED 2 replace something that is broken beyond repair.

Repair, Reuse, Recycle, Reclaim

[genieroze]

17. Good I hope they all go into serious debt and GreedSpam

raises interest rates through the roof!

[genieroze]

18. Buy, buy, buy and don't worry about the debt because

The Rature is Coming, The Rature is Coming. YeeHaw!!!!

[eleny]

24. Sounds like the 9/11 hijackers

News stories told about how some of them went to bars and cavorted with women in the days before the hijackings. Whooping it up in decadence before they went to their own brand of glory.

[frogfromthenorth2]

27. Did not know that...

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Why do they need to buy, buy, buy

if "The Rature" is coming? They can't take that crap with them, can they?

[SmokingJacket]

19. Go visit The Church of Stop Shopping

www.revbilly.com

Reverend Billy goes around to stores and tells people that buying too much stuff is immoral. I looooove him.

He's not a real reverend, it's kind of an art/activism project, but apparently he's kind of turning into one.

[frogfromthenorth2]

21. Thanks fot the link

[pss]

20. This Saturnalia Season...

... sweetie and I are making gifts for everyone. And cookies. And cards. And original music. No cheap plastic crap for ANYONE. Ever again. We're done...

[alexisfree]

22. same here...

I will bake delicious bread. And some killing original Mexican cousin..

[Touchdown]

23. How are you going to cook your cousin?

Saute, or flame broiled? I hear the mother's side is more tender. :evilgrin:

[alexisfree]

25. lol

[frogfromthenorth2]

30. KICK!!!!

[AllyCat]

31. Why would a business run in the red all year?

Then put all the eggs in one basket for the holiday season. Sounds like bad business planning to me.

[Dukkha]

32. When There's No More Room In Hell

The Dead Will Walk The Earth

[frogfromthenorth2]

33. Damn.... Why didn't I think of this one?! Great, you are making my point!

[RPM]

35. little piggies

look at that photo - all of the consumers dressed in pink pJ - just like the little pink piggies that they are/

DIE!!!!

[tsuki]

36. Right. I can remember a time when all the sales were after Xmas.

But look at what Tolley is saying.

Said Tolley, "These discounts are too good to pass up. But we think that these are planned sales and not at the expense of retailers' profits."