"Black Friday Is Obscene And Needs To Die"
SF Gate columnist Mark Morford hates Black Friday, and he's written an over-the-top Network-style screed against it, backing it up with some cringe-inducing YouTube clips of giddy, running Americans swarming into retail outlets last Friday morning.
I don't even know what Kohl's is. I'm guessing some sort of mass-crap superstore, like Best Buy or Target or T.J. Maxx or a weird amalgam of all of those and it doesn't really matter because last Friday they opened at 4 a.m. for the mad rush of Black Friday shoppers, because if there's one thing you want to do when your body is groggy and sleep tugs at your heart and your dreams have turned vacant and sad, it's grope cheap waffle makers before sunrise.In the second half, Morford draws a loose connection between America's overwhelming consumerism and our hunger for oil, which is now leading petroleum companies to develop environmentally damaging bitumen extraction refineries in Canada in order to produce synthetic crude.
Until there's a profound shift in how we approach the world, in how we view the goods we buy, in how Black Friday and the rape of Canada are grossly, inextricably connected, we cannot effect much change. Much as I love the green movement and the Buy Nothing movement and the Slow Food movement and all the rest, in the face of the countless billions still to be made by raping the planet for oil, they're merely the equivalent of trying to water the rainforest with an eyedropper."Black Friday Die Die Die" [SF Gate] (Photo: Associated Press)
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Comments:
Somebody woke up with a turkey tummy ache!
Oh well.
Ooooh, I wish that lady in the photo was shopping for me!
If you dont like black friday, sit at home and watch tv like I did. I used to go out shopping on black friday and now I don't. I win.
Black Friday shopping celebrates the worst in us. It turns us into selfish, short-sighted, lizard-brained, cattle in the slaughter house, slot machine zombie, stupid, wasteful apes.
And yes, it really does require energy to support this system. And tar sand mining's impact on the environment is a very real issue:
"Most tar sands production takes place in vast open-pit mines, some as large as 150 square kilometers and as deep as 90 meters. Before strip-mining can begin, the boreal forest must be clear-cut, rivers and streams diverted, and wetlands drained. The overburden (the soil, rocks, and clay overlying the tar sands deposit) must be stripped away and stockpiled to reach the bitumen."
WOW, he does not even know what Kohl's is, but he does not like it.
Yeym how about writing about something you know....
Kohl's is NOTHING like walmart or target or Best buy. Well, unless by "like" you mean you pay money for goods there.
This guy really needs to do some research as well. Many "mom and pop" stores open early too, and have big sales that day.
i think his "dinnermate" has it all wrong. wal-mart will thrive because people will continue to drive to the walmart even if gas is expensive. why? why to save money of course!
the problem is still the same: short sighted idiots that think "i want to save money!" instead of "what the hell is supporting this giant doing to this country?".
we have become spoiled by this lifestyle. it will be painful when it changes so drastically.
Journalists suck. Nothing more important to write about, but they need to write something, so they create drivel like this.
Worse yet, it's posted here.
If you don't like Black Friday, or the way your fellow Americans choose to spend their time then get the hell out of the United States. Free will is not stifled in this country and if people want to get up at 2am to shop and someone is willing to oblige them who cares?
Kohls is more or less like Target/TJ Maxx. It's a department store. From Wikipedia....
"Kohl's Corporation (NYSE: KSS) is an American department store chain..."
"In the United States, companies such as Macy's, Gottschalks, Dillard's, Nordstrom, Sears, and J.C. Penney are considered department stores, while retail brands such as Toys "R" Us, Target, Kmart, and Wal-Mart are discount department stores."
All those stores excluding Best Buy are in the same category more or less.
@LTS!: Commenters suck. Nothing more important to write about, but they need to write something, so they create drivel like this.
Worse yet, it's posted here.
If you don't like the fact that people have opinions that don't jive with yours, or the way that other Americans may have ideals that rise above the desire for cheap crap, then get the hell out of the United States. Free will is not stifled in this country and if people want to complain about how Americans seem to put the race to have the most random junk ahead of their fellow man who cares?
@LTS!: Yes sir/ma'am! Just let me switch my spare million over to my swiss account and I'll speed over to my condo in Paris.
Kohl's basically the same as Mervyn's / Mervyn's California (and in fact are taking over many of the Mervyn's store properties). They're basically a smaller JC Penny or Sears without hardware or appliances. In my opinion, they're bland and superfluous.
Actually, in terms of store hours on Black Friday in central Ohio, it's worse than 4 a.m. openings. The Jeffersonville outlet mall opened at midnight so that you could get in a couple of hours of shopping there, then drive the 60ish miles to the Kohl's in Columbus or Cincinnati . . . .
But while I find that ridiculous, I don't see how everybody running into the stores at one particular time on one particular day is the end of civilization as we know it.
This year the good BF deals were online anyway.
Please. How many Americans actually participated in the early morning rush? I didn't. Normally I don't even shop on Black Friday, but I did briefly emerge from my pie-related stupor to shamble over to Target to get an LCD monitor ... which I actually needed and had been waiting for holiday sales to purchase. I guess that means that I worship capitalist spending and gas-guzzling SUVs and buy tens of thousands of things I don'tneedonmycreditcardthatIcan'taffordtopayandohGodI'mdestroyingAmericablashfashashajsajas!!!!!!
Mark Morford is always such a whiner.
Someday I am going to write a column ranting about snobby "BAP-ers" (Bay Area Persons).
Wal-mart might not be my favorite store, or yours, but for a lady I know living in Wyoming on $14K/year, it's a life-saver. We don't all have the shopping opportunities and income of BAP-ers.
They should make sure this guy doesn't find out about the malls in Salt Lake City that opened at 12:01.
@LTS!:
Hey guess what. As an American I and Mark can opine in any way we see fit.
Hell if Jehovah's witnesses and Mormon's can come to my door preaching their gospel - I'll preach my gospel of living simply and reducing my consumption. Oh and buying things of actual quality - not cheap plastic shit.
I was inside one a while ago. I guess the inside is different then Target but from what I remember they had similiar types of items. More brand names for clothing though. Like someone above mentioned its really like a Sears without the appliances.
I find it amusing that when the mirror is turned on Americans, they whine and cry like little bitches. For the people expounding on how pathetic the journalist must be, how about you take the time to digest exactly what he's saying. If there is any "un-truthes" in his column, please point them out.
I like a deal as much as the next person, however, he is 100% right. Black-Friday does bring out the worst in America, and showboats many of our worst features. From our unsustainable consumer driven economy to the reality that we are helping wreck our planet for cheap throw-away crap. We demand these low prices, and in doing so, ship jobs over seas, sell ourselves to countries like China and perpetuate human rights violations across the globe.
So quit being so defensive and take a good look in the mirror.
Mark Morford rocks.
Mark Morford's hilarious! I read that this morning and was laughing... some people need to stop being so defensive and LAUGH, because it's TRUE!
I wonder what the riots would be like if every coffee shop in the greater SF area shut down for a few days....
We're all consumers, some people like waffle irons, some people like lattes. You only stop consuming when you are dead (which some people would prefer....)
@clickertrainer: That woman living on $14000 a year is doing so because of WalMart- and companies like them. They have depressed our income in this country greatly. WalMart not only pays crap to it's employees', they mooch off government coffers for insurance for their low earning employees, and help to ship manufacturing jobs overseas.
They get those low prices by forcing companies to lower their prices, and in doing so they often must outsource to accomplish this. Companies like Jocket, Rubbermaid and Huffy all have been outsourced thanks to WalMart. This is all great for the upper 10% of the country, but it sucks for the rest of us. I for one do not shop at WalMart.
This article is totally right on, but counterproductive, because as someone astutely said, Americans "whine like little bitches" whenever this comes up.
Is he a comedian or what? His hyperbole's a little too over the top to have any actual impact. My eyes glazed over at around the point where I read about dolphins transporting Walmart goods. Good God man, lighten up.
The Black Friday thing is nothing new. Put people in large enough groups and stupidity generally arrises from the best of the bunch. I bet we acted the same when we were foragers and a new patch of berries popped up out of the blue. Feeding frenzy!
Yep. I got it. Black Friday bad. Now on to other matters.
I personally cringed at all the mobs I saw on black friday. Then they complain that sales went down on all days after black friday. How about you run the sales for the entire weekend and not for just 2 hours before 8am. They are just asking for a mob mentality from their shoppers. You just finished giving Thanks during dinner with the family and you turn around and kick and claw each other...all for a stupid tv or laptop. it's sad...it really is
@goller321: Did you ever stop to consider that the extremely low prices offered by Walmart actually benefit everyone else who doesn't work at Walmart, which is the majority of the poor!
Consider that consumer goods are the primary cost of people at/around the poverty level besides rent and transportation. And who pulls down the price of consumer goods? Oh that's right. Walmart does. So besides the small percentage of poor who work at Walmart, who are they hurting again?
@Oneon1isto: You take your rational thought and get out of here. There's a Wal-Mart what needs a lynchn'!
@goller321
She lives on what she makes working on the family ranch. Help support her -- have a steak tonight. ;)
I do not shop at Wal-Mart or K-Mart or Target either, but I understand if others feel they must.
Question, though: what is local? If the bolt I need from the neighborhood, locally-owned hardware store is from China, isn't that just as bad as buying it for less at Lowes? While I'm supporting the local hardware guy, I'm also supporting moving bolt production out of my country.
I'm just not certain this is a local/non-local, small guy/big box question. I don't think it ever was.
@Oneon1isto: Did you not read anything I wrote? Or are you COMPLETELY obtuse? They don't profit ANYONE in the long run. They have exacerbated and accelerated the outsourcing of our country's manufacturing jobs. So instead of the $14/hr job they could have had working at Master Lock, they now get $7 at WalMart, or any of the other low paying service industry jobs that have become the mainstay of out lowish unemployment rate. Add to that the "increasing of efficiency" (ie. down-sizing) that are forced onto companies dealing with WalMart and even secondary companies like US textile companies that loose the business of companies dealing with WalMart. This of course does not even mention that to compete, other retailers are forced into the same business model to survive. Prime example- Lands End. A company that was US made until they were bought out and retooled to import all their crap. So the REASON that we have so many poor is because of WalMart and companies like them- and people like you that support that business model.
And BTW, the "small percentage" working there, I'm sure say thanks for your consideration and empathy....
@clickertrainer: The reason for the bolt at the local store being from China is BECAUSE of WalMart and companies like the (Home Depot for example.) So why reward the bastard-execs at WalMart for selling our country's middle-class out? What made the US different and successful was the middle-class, thanks to WalMart and alike, that is disappearing.
What a curmudgeon!
Unfortunately, even though it's over-the-top, the basic points of this article are spot on. BF brings out the worst in us - materialism, mob mentality, the degradation of the economy and environment, etc. - and all of it right after a holiday meant to celebrate the antithesis of all that junk.
@goller321: The "small percentage" that will be thanking me can join in with the hundreds of thousands of minimum wage-making (now that it was raised) $7 an hour retail workers that have always made total crap. Walmart's wages are nothing new in the world of retail.
And I'll bite and admit I was a bit obtuse in not recognizing your issues revolve around outsourcing and its ill effects. While my issues with outsourcing are different (I think businesses lose alot by outsourcing, first and foremost in customer service) I don't buy your argument that outsourcing has depressed wages. Yes, we've pushed manufacturing overseas, but what of it? Except for a few major industrial manufacturing centers (Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc.) much of our economy has made the shift over to the service sector. Unemployment is at record lows and Americans are making more than ever.
In response, you could quote the recent surveys showing that even while wages are rising the space between the rich and poor is widening to throw a wrench in my wheels, but I really don't think loss of the middle class is at fault because we have less factory workers. Hell, has factory work ever been the job of choice, or the realm of the middle class?
Here's a thought: if we moved all factory work over primarily to robotics, would you still have an issue? I mean, there would be less factory jobs right? Americans moved away from factory work and pushed it on others of their own volition, because it was better for us in the long run. And you'll see, wages will rise in China and India because of their own burgeoning business sectors, and we'll have to move labor back here or somewhere else.
Damn this is getting long and it's a complex issue.
We're both right in some way and I'm done. By the way, you're talking to a fan of the Nickel and Dimed book here, not some heathen evil capitalist.
@ancientsociety: I feel that way as well. It's too bad he chose to deliver his point in such a hysterical manner, because it effectively overshadowed what he's trying to say.
One of my friends camped out in front of a Fry's Electronics at noon on Thanksgiving Day. The next time I heard from him was the time he said "never again." Thank Goodness he learned his lesson.
I, for one, shopped online on the basis that I cannot put a price tag on my health and sanity.
christ almighty. i watched those videos. i am hiding in my closet all day next year.
Yeah. This is why 'they' hate us. Yeah. See, when 'they' are trampled to death, it's because they are trying to stone a fake devil during Hajj. So, yeah. hate us.
Oh, and stop comparing everything to oil.
I needed a laptop and I was just about due for a night under the stars. Two birds and all that. For the $$ I forked over the best I could do on any other day would be a celeron. I did not have work in the 2pm thurs - ~7am fri slot so my time had no monetary value, unless you count the insane savings. And I think carpooling filled my green quota for the day. :-P
@sonichghog: Yup this guy's an idiot. Don't know what Kohl's is? JFGI, or see the light of day once in awhile.
@dasunst3r: Fry's is the worst on black friday. A couple years ago I showed up right when they were opening the doors and was let in before everyone in line.
Wow. Thank you Mark Morford for proving South Park was right again.