Black Friday Fever (old post)

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I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy Black Friday every time it came around. Last year I spend fifty bucks on games alone during the Stream Black Friday sale, which is now even bigger than their famous Steam Summer Sale. Seeing people queuing up in mile-long lines always amused me I've only ever shopped online. The one time I actually went to line up I decided against it once I got there at 8am and saw how long the line was already. After talking with those in the line I discovered that the guys at the front had actually been freezing there since 4am! It was this Black Friday that I also realized how much the act of lining up in the cold does to build the consumer culture that Black Friday relies on. Hell, the store fights are even glorified on TV and YouTube. Guess what I was recommended under the store fight video linked in the original blog post?


So in response to the question, I do think that we are encouraged to buy much more than we need, to the point that we often have difficulty separating needs from wants. Something that's very telling of this is how many people will spend far more time and money each morning lining up to their morning coffee at Starbucks or Timmie's when they could get the same caffeine much more economically and quickly by making their own coffee. An article from Business Insider says “Depending on where you live and how you prefer to take your hot caffeine water, if you're buying coffee, you're spending between $1 and $5 per cup. Meanwhile, brewing a cup of coffee at home costs you between 16 and 18 cents per cup.’’ I Was quite surprised at the profit margins of the average downtown coffee shop, and how the only reason they're not making bank is because of the rent they’re paying. I think that this culture of consumerism is quite bad from a moral standpoint, especially for people who are more easily manipulated by it and end up in store fights or credit card debt. However, from a more business-oriented standpoint, consumerism is excellent for the economy. I think the moral of the story is to be conscious of how the media tries to manipulate us and make the right choices for ourselves based on that.

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