Black Friday brings death, debt

editorial cartoon by Michael Escañuelas
editorial cartoon by Michael Escañuelas

The economy is in the midst of a recession, yet that did not prevent the ritual known as Black Friday from taking place last Friday, as consumers hit the retail outlets to take advantage of the annual day after Thanksgiving sales.

That’s just what this economy needs to bounce back. More people spending money they do not have while burying themselves in more debt. Can we stop it already? Have we not learned our consumer lesson?

Our society promotes Black Friday as a consumer holiday where items are sold at lower prices and Christmas shopping begins. The malls are packed, the parking lots are bedlam, the streets are flooded and all the retail stores see mobs of people tearing through aisles of clothes, toys and electronics.

Stores are decorated in Christmas themes, and shoppers get to wait in long lines with holiday jingles keeping them content. As great as this sounds, it is not all fun and games for some people.

Just last week, Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour, who was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 270 pounds, was trampled to death by an estimated 2,000 shoppers who stampeded through the glass doors prior to the store’s opening in Valley Stream, N.Y.

There is no excuse for this kind of thing to happen. What has our society come to where a sale in Wal-Mart causes a worker to lose his life? This is nothing more than another backhanded benchmark of how our society is evolving into the ruthless, materialistic country we are labeled as internationally.

Historically, the term Black Friday can be traced to a few different sources but generally represents the same thing—a profit. Most retailers lose money throughout the year, placing them in the red and eagerly await the Christmas season where profits account for their losses suffered.

Maybe it was the recent drop in gas prices or the excitement of a new president, but this year’s Black Friday was a success for retailers. The National Retail Foundation published research Tuesday that indicated total spending had increased by 18.5 percent from last year’s day after Thanksgiving sales. The staggering sales concluded that consumers spent an average of $372.57 last weekend, and that total spending reached an estimated $41 billion; $534 million of that was through online sales. eBay reported that its PayPal division had a 34 percent transaction increase from last year.

The most popular products purchased on Black Friday? According to PriceGrabber.com, the top five products were the Nintendo Wii game console, the Ugg Australia “Classic Short” boot, the Sony Blu-ray disc player, the Samsung 52-inch LCD TV and the Nintendo Wii Fit.

We do not claim to be economists, and unfortunately no one on our staff is a business major; yet, these statistics are intriguing. According to the U.S. Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is at 6.5 percent and has increased by 603,000 from a year ago to raise the total number to 10.1 million people without a job today.

Jobs are being lost and many businesses have implemented contingency plans; yet, consumers are spending more money than they were a year ago.

Only time will tell how our spending trends will influence our economy. In the meantime, shoppers will continue to flock to stores because marketers, advertisers and the media tell them they should.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

Michael Escañuelas, Editorial Cartoonist
Michael Escañuelas

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