Black and Blue Friday Essay examples

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.

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.

The North Hanover Mall is an average shopping center with various stores and small attractions. Typically, the mall is not over-crowded; however, during the evenings and weekends it is well-traveled. There are the average chain stores such as JCPenny’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hallmark, and Bath and Body Works. Likewise, there are some smaller, lesser known stores, for example, a few nail and hair salons, cafes, a pizza shop, and a sports apparel store. In general, there is a diverse mix of people shopping, from ethnicity to ages and group sizes. The night I choose to do my social observation the mall was much busier than I had anticipated. There was a Halloween event and an antique car show; both circumstances brought more individuals than usual into the shopping complex.

Quindlen starts her essay by stating that at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York, a worker was trampled to death by a horde of excited shoppers during Black Friday; the day after Thanksgiving when stores hold massive sales for the holiday season (Par. 2). She then goes on to talk about credit card debt and gives various examples of people buying different versions of items they

Norton, Anne. “The Signs of Shopping.” Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular

Black Friday has multiple reasons for it being named “Black Friday”. It traces back to the 1950’s when it was called “Black Friday” because of the surplus amounts of call-ins for employees trying to score a four-day weekend after Thanksgiving. In Philadelphia during 1961, the Friday after Thanksgiving was called Black Friday because it was the day when stores were coming out of the “red”, which was the downward shopping period between July and August. This was the biggest time retailors saw the numbers, “in the red”. The Friday after Thanksgiving marked when retailors saw the profit go up, “in the black”; therefore, the term Black Friday arose.

Black Saturday was a series of bushfires that occurred on Saturday, 7th of February, 2009. It was one of the most devastating bushfires in Australian history, and changed many Victorian lives forever. Three years later, the communities are rebuilding, the landscape is healing and flora and fauna are returning.

Thanksgiving traditions don't end on Thanksgiving Day. In the 1950s, the day after Thanksgiving was called Black Friday by factory managers because so many workers called in sick and the Philadelphia Police Department took to calling the day Black Friday to describe the traffic jams, crowds and shoplifters during the start of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday signals the start of the holiday shopping season, but it may be a tradition that's continuing to evolve as stores vie to be the earliest to open Thanksgiving Day.

The name they gave this day was “Black Thursday”. After these dark days in America, the stock markets had officially crashed and sent America’s economy plunging down the drain.

Well I find it ironic that I have chosen the topic of Civil Rights, and the fact that Black History month started today. The topic of civil rights hits very close to home, and I mean that literally. Growing up in the suburbs of Atlanta Georgia, I became especially acquainted with the topic of civil rights and equality. It was taught it frequently when I was in elementary school, and it carried on that way, until my graduation from high school. This being my topic, I wanted to write on a few important civil rights activist (Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King),and the role they still play in society.

After the Civil War the American economy became more and more industrialized, with many people and immigrants moving from rural areas to urban areas to find work in various industries. As a result of this rapid industrialization in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, there were many issues with this rapid growth. These problems included: unsafe working conditions, low wages, and very little representation for workers rights.

In the essay “Consumerism Minus Civilization,” the catalyst being described, is the effect of how Black Friday affects the general populous. The author goes on to describe the certain instances of how the holiday sale is actually harming humanity and the consumer market. The ads that are present are not something to be admired or amused by, but instead something to be feared because the affect of the season ruins humanity. The author then references major retail stores such as, “Target” and “Walmart” as some of the worst to breed this competition of Black Friday. With these ideals the author closes by explaining how everyone should take a break go shopping, and go a little later instead of immediately disbanding their homes to then flood

Color of Purple is a Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment, the novel was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular.

Thanksgiving Day, which is always the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, is a week from today (today is Nov. 15, 2012; Thanksgiving Day is Nov. 22 this year). The day after Thanksgiving Day is called “Black Friday” in the business world. “Black Friday” is the unofficial beginning of the Christmas and Hanukkah shopping season. The word “black” in “Black Friday” is an accounting term meaning “profit.” Businesses that have been operating “in the red” prior to Thanksgiving Day will hopefully be “in the black” as a result of all the shopping and buying that people do during the holiday (Christmas and Hanukkah) season.

The term Black Friday was used in the 1950s by cops in Philadelphia to describe the “chaos” that took place the following day of a special Thanksgiving(Pruitt 1). Shoppers and tourists from all around would come to the city before the Army-Navy football game that takes place the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The police officers in Philadelphia were given longer shifts to control the overwhelmingly large numbers of people and traffic. Shoplifters and people of all sorts began to take advantage of the big sales occurring Friday causing trouble for many police officers and security guards all over the city.