Experts: Intense marketing, weak economy, obsession with deals fueling Black Friday violence

[dkf]

By Associated Press, Saturday, November 26, 12:15 PM

NEW YORK — Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles. How did Black Friday devolve into this?

As reports of shopping-related violence rolled in this week from Los Angeles to New York, experts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels. With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered. Arriving in darkness, they also find themselves vulnerable to savvy parking-lot muggers.
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The idea of luring in customers with a few “doorbuster” deals has long been a staple of the post-Thanksgiving sales. But now stores are opening earlier, and those deals are getting more extreme, he said.

“There’s an awful lot of psychology going on here,” Jacoby said. “There’s the notion of scarcity — when something’s scarce it’s more valued. And a resource that can be very scarce is time: If you don’t get there in time, it’s going to be gone.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/experts-intense-marketing-weak-economy-obsession-with-deals-fueling-black-friday-violence/2011/11/26/gIQA9KeazN_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop

[Dover]

1. They forgot to add full on media hype

And I'm not buying...lol.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Actually that is exactly what the article is saying.

[Dover]

7. Not what I meant. I think all the reports of immense crowds is overplayed by the media

I have doubts about the actual turn out for these deals. I'm sure some major stores experienced it but I find it hard to
believe the country went wild. That's the part I think is being hyped. I think they are creating a perception of consumerism
that isn't actually true. It's kind of the opposite of what they do when reporting protests where they underplay the numbers.

Could be wrong. I wasn't out and about on Friday or Saturday so can't say I have any eyewitness experiences to back that up.
Just a hunch.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Well I live by a mall

I need to drive by it to get food, or in my case emergency plumbing supplies

At nine it was full, but not real traffic

Lowes was meh

Now on the way back from fod run I took alternate route.

I expect the numbers to be revised downwards on Monday, like every year...but the violence is indeed increasing. These loss leads should be abolished...but that's my view...or have enough to at least satisfy 50% of traffic. Two items in a store is crazy.

[WildNovember]

14. I didn't notice exceptional crowds where I live -- smallish community but

near the portland or metro area.

[WildNovember]

16. I was out and about Friday and Sat. I didn't see any exceptional crowds or violence.

My sense of it is that every year there are reports of such things, usually in poor/minority areas. I don't mean that minorities are more likely to do such things, I mean the media likes to highlight it whenever poor/minority people do something vile -- or whenever things can be spun that way. I don't believe anything was worse or different this year either.

[tblue]

2. I'm sure some sociologist or anthropologist or psychiatrist

has a name for what ails those people who would just about kill for a $2 waffle iron. Isn't there some famous study of rats slowly deprived of adequate food until they start to attack each other? It really looks like some sort of reverse evolution. Really a ghastly statement about capitalism in a collapsed economy. Or something.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Those studies also include over population.

[WildNovember]

17. Yes, the PTB would like you to see yourself as a rat among rats, fighting over food.

That's the image of humanity they promote constantly.

[phasma ex machina]

3. It's sad to see people work themselves up into a frenzy over nothing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Oh and I was right sadly, violence was higher this year

I prefer not to be right.

[bengalherder]

11. Not just higher

but more cruel than simply mindless. To be trampled by a crowd is a little different than an individual deciding to pepper spray all comers.

[WildNovember]

15. Do you have some proof for that?

[cutlassmama]

8. coupled with plain stupidity.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. They shoot horses, don't they?

Substitute crass commericalization and consumerism for a dance marathon and there you have it.

[DCBob]

12. Its an incredibly stupid tradition that has Americans hypnotized into shopping zombies..

Just exactly what Big Corp wants.

[bhikkhu]

13. So when the numbers are bad, that means the economy is bad

and when the numbers are good, that means the economy is bad.

I think I'm starting to get it...