Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization

Black Friday shopping is a controversial issue in the United States; while many believe the day after Thanksgiving is a part of holiday festivities, others view it as destructive. Throughout “Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization,” Andrew Leonard argues that the chaos of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in which crowds of Americans shop all night for extremely low prices, lessens the sophistication of Americans and the true meaning of the holidays. People become so consumed in the idea of endless sale prices that they forget to embrace what they already have, such as family, food, and shelter. He believes that Black Friday shopping has become out of control and describes the negative effects of excessive consumerism. he explains how most consumers act completely insane while Black Friday shopping and how society encourages this behavior by creating commercials and advertisements. Furthermore, Leonard states that it hurts the economy and damages one’s mental health. While Leonard is probably wrong when he claims that Black Friday shopping is completely troublesome to America’s well-being, he is right that consumerism overpowers the true significance of Thanksgiving.

Ever been persuaded or convinced that a product works because of an advertisement? The writer in The Onion puts a satirical tone on the behavior of consumers in today's economy. The overstatements of the author's writing show their thoughts on the retail market. The writer uses hyperboles, irony, and diction to convey his thoughts on the manipulative method of retail.

Andrew Leonard's "Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization" argues that the Black Friday shopping spree has begun to get out of hand in the previous years. Leonard explains that consumerism is a great thing for America, but showing Americans that it is okay to go crazy when shopping for deals is not the way to approach the buying markets. He mentions a Target advertisement and states that, "The Crazy Target Lady is not a joke. Watch her cannibalize her gingerbread man, or strategize her reverse psychology shopping techniques... she is America. She might be a lunatic, but it's a culturally approved lunacy" (Leonard 166). The author emphasizes how Americans embrace the acts of the target lady as funny and amusing, but during Black Friday shopping, some shoppers will take the night to the extreme like the advertisement does. He does remind us that there is light at the end of the tunnel, by reporting how shoppers are seeing the problems with the night of crazy shopping. I agree with Leonard that there are problems with Black Friday ads, and that consumers are realizing Black Friday shopping is taking away from Thanksgiving.

Because Parker is passionate in her articles, she derives a lot of credibility from it. In “Black Friday has Lost its Bang. Hallelujah,” Parker is passionate about the topic of people being less materialistic. It is clear that she is passionate about the topic of people choosing to be thankful and spending time with family than going Black Friday shopping through, because she seems relieved that the tradition is

In Sherry Turkle’s “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk”, Turkle claims that “technology is implicated in the assault on empathy”(page 4, paragraph 3) . Through online conversations we are unable to make eye contact, hear and see the other person 's tone and body language. Because we are unable to see these things we are unable to comfort one another. Sherry Turkle further proves her claim that technology may be the reason for the decrease in empathy by performing a study. In this study Turkle, observes the behavior of teens at a “device-free” summer camp and after five (5) days, the teens were able to read facial expressions and were also able to identify the emotions of actors on a video-tape unlike their counterparts , whose devices were not taken away. These teens were able to tell how their fellow peers were feeling based on their tone and body languages. Moreover they were able to hold conversations in

Many people can recall having to work for everything they wanted as a child. The spoiled-ness has to be at an all-time high because the many kids that have every release and every designer shoe or clothing. Material items have created havoc in the past with the many shootings and the stealing that can occur at the releases. The store release of items has changed everything due to the limit of items they have and give out because the next person that does not purchase it becomes angry. Black Friday, the holiday that many people love because of the sales presented at each store. Parents are starting to spoil their children because they do not want their child to feel as they are under privileged. So, referring back to the releases and sales, parents try their hardest to give their kids the money to purchase the items. Children become ungrateful and become angry at the world, when they do not get what they want because they were raised to always do... A spoiled attitude tends to create the failures in the world because of their dependency on their supplier. Many people can agree that it feels great buying things on their own with their own money, but some still rather spend the next persons to save

Shopping has become a daily activity which happens a billion times in America and around the world. We cannot imagine how our lives would be affected if shopping was suddenly stopped. Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Norton both write articles about two sides of modern day shopping: how consumers have impacted the retail industry and how the industry influences consumers. In the article " The Science of Shopping," Malcolm Gladwell, a well-known writer and journalist, analyzes the shopping behaviors of customers and how retailers can lure customers; while Anne Norton, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, in

Even though you can get with your family and be thankful and then go shopping until your legs hurt it can go either way. We should not have Black Friday on thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is for sharing and being thankful and if everybody goes shopping what's the point of even having Thanksgiving then and you should be with your family during all of Thanksgiving not only half of it.

How far do sources 11 & 12 challenge the view presented in source 10 about the conduct of the police on Black Friday?

September 11, 2001. I was busy finishing my “Rapport de Stage” in the Mackworth College Library, Derby, England, when a lady came to spread the bad news. Four commercial jetliners were hijacked and diverted from their paths to be used as guided missiles. Two of the jetliners ended up by crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, New York City, around 9:00 a.m. local time. Half an hour later, the third jetliner crashed into the Pentagon, whereas the forth one, supposedly on its way to Washington D.C., crashed somewhere in Pennsylvania. However, the implications of that Black Tuesday were far more complicated than the mere reported facts.

After an eventful day of celebrating Thanksgiving with beloved family and friends, millions of Americans head out at a late hour to snag the cheapest deals of the year. The “American holiday,” Black Friday, draws approximately 164 million Americans to trendy stores all across America (CBS News). The chaotic crowds begin their night-long shopping excursion in the late evening of Thanksgiving, leaving family and friends behind to hunt for the latest trends. One of the big brand names which utilizes Black Friday to draw in customers is Macy’s. Macy’s, a reputable clothing store, produced a Black Friday commercial, “Screamers” in the Fall of 2011.

As Black Friday has progressed along with retailors marketing their products and their sales, it has become a national day of shopping to get the best deals. Americans mainly go shopping on this day to get huge deals for Christmas presents. Stores have even taken this great opportunity to open their establishments for 24 hours. Just last year, consumers spent a whopping $57,400,000,000 with each consumer individually spending $410 on average. The #1 retailor customers purchased from and camped out at was Best Buy. All of the statistics are based on 2013 and this year was projected to be an 11% increase.

The purpose of this research is to examine consumer behavior on Black Friday. Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year, and it is all driven by the chance for consumers to save the most amount of money possible while getting their holiday shopping done. Research was done online, and also through personal experiences. By understanding what retailers and consumers hope to accomplish on this day can have a positive impact on everyone. Consumers are able to get what they want with the least amount of turmoil, and retailers are able to turn a profit. This research can be most helpful to merchants, as it will help them to understand what a consumer

Black Friday is the following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many workers have the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday, this increases the number of potential shoppers. Retailers often decorate for the Christmas and holiday season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open extremely early, with most of the retailers typically opening at 5 A.M. or even earlier. Retailers use Black Friday to kick off the holiday season to use much of their products to go from the red to the black.

Quickly, Black Friday began to catch on. This, however, eventually led to many shop owners “unsuccessfully chang[ing] it to Big Friday to remove the negative connotations” (Pruitt 1). The idea of Black Friday would then spread to the rest of the country quite a few years later. Instead, this time it would be portrayed differently. Black Friday would mark the day that