Americans by their very nature do not like long lines. You will thence not find one to get a train ticket (train what?) or an airplane reservation or a ghaslet (a crude form of crude used in developing nations) line or a burger line either.
There is one exception however. Tis called Black Friday. Here all rules are out the window and even the most advanced and apparently affluent society resorts to primitive hunting tactics. First there is lines - like the ones that would make an Apple eventee proud (oh - of course the apple product launch related lines are merely a passing fad so not included for purposes of comparing true cultural hoopla).
Now here the commonest of common man along with so called Affluent deal seekers (hey who does not like a good one - or so one would think) will arrive at wee hours to mob a store and even go to the extent of camping overnight if the store somehow decides to open at a realistic hour of say 5 AM.
This is then followed at times by a rush to seek out the so called Deal which is so well hidden it requires a military presence to guide fellow shoppers lest they Taser or Hammer or even better Shoot each other in the melee.
Variety of injuries and untoward incidents later the mob still waits - for that oh so cool Black Friday Deal. Now stores are upping the ante - as if there was more to be upped. So now Sears is starting to offer its so called Black deals 5 days early - at least on line if not in store. Now that should teach the other idiotic retailers a thing or two about marketing tactics. Beat them all to the punch so to speak.
Well - I suspect this lunacy will soon morph into a month early then a quarter early and finally a Winter clothes right before summer all out block buster DEAL mania. People with newly acquired ADD through use of FB or other addictions will now completely lose sight of what the calendar is and what month we are in - all sales cycles will be largely skewed and retailers will themselves be confused as to what they are selling. It is not different than the introductory 0% financing that Government Motors introduced and that became the staple for the American car makers. It will now always be BLACK Whatever DAY in America.
THATS THE DEAL!
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Stupid question- why is the Friday BLACK?
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