All's Quiet on the Western Front This Black Friday
We don't want to jump the gun or anything, but this Black Friday seems to be pretty civil? There's an unsettling lack of mayhem happening on the craziest shopping day of the year.
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Last year's Black Friday was marred with plenty of fights, shootings and otherwise depressing behavior from shoppers. The overall culture of Black Friday this year is sleepy by comparison. We've looked on Twitter and we're following the liveblogs but we can't seem to find anything. The New York Post talked to shoppers at a Toys R Us in Times Square. One shopper who had to resort to paying a homeless person to sit in line for her last year was able to do the job all by herself this time. That's one job down in already failing economy. NBC News reports there's "no major incidents" yet today. Have Americans stopped caring about getting cheap flat screens at all costs?
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No, not really. Shoppers are still turning out, but other factors have contributed to the calm. Some stores' decision to start sales in the early evening on Thanksgiving and extend them deeper into the weekend is being credited for the calm. We still love Black Friday, because science, but we're just no longer violent about it. Or we're just tired. It's one or the other. Heck, the worst thing captured in Buzzfeed's gallery of Black Friday photos is someone's puke. (Which, gross.)
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There is one scene from a Wal-Mart in Moultrie, Georgia that seems to be going viral. A crowd of people desperately pushes and fights to get to a crate of cell phones being opened.
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There are two angles...
But that's the worst of it, really. Applaud yourself, America. No one had to die for you to get a new Samsung Galaxy S III this year. That's progress.
