Posted on 12/01/2009 7:30:56 AM PST by John Leland 1789
Our man in America talks turkey about shopping stampede and greed
Wan Lixin
wanlixin@shanghaidaily.com
Editor's note: Shanghai Daily writer Wan Lixin is on a three-month study tour in Virginia, United States. This is the third of his impressions about the country.
THOUGH we did not partake in any turkey last Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, many of us felt very excited in anticipating of seeing how early-morning specials and door-busters would make Americans go crazy on Black Friday.
We were told three weeks ago when we first arrived here that the Friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, which marks the official start of the make-or-break holiday shopping season that lasts till late December.
It is called black because of the strength of steep discounts and frenzied shopping, retailers would start turning a profit, or they would be in the black.
Traditionally stores are expected to close during turkey day, but they open very early the next day with special deals. Some purchasers get up early and queue in front of the stores to get the limited best deals when the stores open.
Last year at 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by stampeding shoppers in New York shortly after the doors were opened at 5 a.m. Partly as a crowd control measure, Wal-Mart and many other retailers opened during the Thanksgiving Day this year.
Empty-handed
One female trainee in our group rushed to Best Buy and Macy's at 4:30 a.m., in time for Macy's morning specials from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., but returned home empty-handed, and concluded that the Thanksgiving Day seemed more like All Fool’s Day.
Although full-page Macy's discount advertisements appeared in several newspapers, my colleague, a seasoned shopper known for her impulse purchases, did not find anything worth buying.
The real bargains were probably 13 used books and magazines (including one illustrated copy of Chaucer’s "The Canterbury Tales") I got four US $3, at a nearby Arlington community Library, the day after Black Friday.
The holiday sales figures are closely watched by economists, for this is the season when retailers earn an important chunk of their revenue for the year, and whether Americans are willing to spend within a measure dictate the momentum of the economic recovery.
Few of us have been reminded that this holiday, like the Christmas, originally had little to do with shopping, but he is an occasion to gather with the family and to remember the things for which Americans should feel grateful.
Last Friday USA Today cited a national oral history project as suggesting that families sit down together and talk about their lives, instead of hunting for bargains.
Materialism
This quintessentially American holiday was originally meant to show the first Pilgrim's gratitude to the American Indians whose generosity had helped the first settlers survive the harsh conditions in the New World in early 1600s.
[This is what is taught in Chinese schools. Of course, they are not going to teach Chinese students that although Americans did thank the Indians for their help, their purpose for holding the feast was to offer thanks to God. ---John Leland]
Today Americans have more reasons to be grateful. Dana Milbank observed last Wednesday's Washington Post that "the nation's bankers have much to be thankful for as they sit down to their turkey dinners on Thursday."
As the financial sector has stabilized, these bankers, while feasting on their booty, are now trying hard to fight off any efforts at subjugating the rotten sector to stricter regulation. The explanations can go deeper.
As Armstrong Williams observed in his column in the Washington Times on Wednesday, "We call ourselves Christians because our parents call themselves Christians, somewhere along the line, we lost the ability to practice gratitude. Our sense of vanity and materialism get in the way, and prevents us from achieving the truly beautiful possibilities of life."
[The Chinese, practicing greed, vanity, materialism, and ungratefulness (Just make one trip to Shanghai to see) are very quick to criticize America’s greed, vanity, materialism and ungratefulness. ---John Leland]
When Americans are navigating their shopping cart through the labyrinth of goods they do not really need, and feel frustrated confronting so many choices, what is the correct attitude towards those who made these so abundantly, and cheaply, available to them?
[Now, how do you like this backhanded criticism against Americans – not having “the correct attitude” toward Chinese slave-laborers who are making cheap products for sale in America! ---John Leland]
It’s not even materialism. It’s consumerism. Hell, that’s how we’re referred to often as not—consumers. And we have an addiction to entertainment. TV is considered a necessity by most Americans. And wasn’t that the big item this year? New TVs?
Remember the papers and media are all controlled by the Communist Party. They will always portray America in a negative light.
Also, remember the “Leftists” still remaining in China (there are quite a few), who still have some fondness for the “good old days” when there wasn’t all this “free-enterprise” nonsense, tend to find their home in the state-run media.
“...............what is the correct attitude towards those who made these so abundantly, and cheaply, available to them?”
People of China! Throw off your evil task masters!
How’s that?
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