Raw Capitalism Revealed

Last week I came face to face with raw capitalism. It was the day after Thanksgiving in a Kohl's store in Anderson, Indiana. At 7:01 a.m. It wasn't pretty. But it was.... educational.

For decades my Thanksgiving experiences have been the traditional overdose of turkey, followed by a second overdose of turkey (not neglecting, of course, the peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, apple pie, etc.). Then with a dose of tryptophan in my system up to the "Sleeping Beauty" level, I watched the usual Detroit Lions game whose outcome was irrelevant, and in which the Lions played "better than they had all season." But not only had I never participated in the "door-busting" deals in the stores the following day, I openly questioned the sanity of all who did.

This year, I joined the purchasing hordes. Kohl's had advertised special deals in several departments, including certain toys. (In case any of my children are reading this column aloud to a family gathering, I ask them to skip the next paragraph.)

Kohl's was having a huge sale on Legos. And certain of my grandchildren have a burgeoning addiction to those particular toys. Being the son of a Scottish father who would drive across town to save $10 on a pair of slacks, I was compelled to set the alarm clock and make the mad dash to the toy department.

Kohl's opened at 6:30 a.m. on "Black Friday," so-called because sales on the day after Thanksgiving are supposed to be the day when stores and chains of stores switch from being in the red to in the black for the year. My experience began as I drove into the parking lot a half hour after the opening gun. The lot was jammed. But I got to park near the front door, taking the spot of one of the well-targeted shoppers. These are the folks who got there right at the beginning, raided the departments with the exact products they wanted, and were out the door and on their way minutes later.

As I entered the store, I realized that "the face of America" had jammed the aisles. There were people of all ages, races, and presumably religions and politics. There was one great lack, however. This vast store contained exactly three elderly white males, me included.

In the linens department were an older man and his wife, probably married at least 30 years. On his face was that look that combined boredom and confusion and is common on the husbands dragooned into garage sales since time immemorial. The following conversation took place between them:

Wife: I'm looking for a duvet. Husband: What's a duvet? Wife: [Exasperated] A duvet is a cover for a down comforter.

I succeeded in acquiring the particular toys I'd come for, plus several other things I hadn't known I desperately needed until that very moment, and joined a check-out line that was already a dozen people deep as of 7:30. As I waited my turn I reflected on the scene around me.

I've watched the Discovery Channel. I know what a "feeding frenzy" is for sharks. Throw some bloody chum in the water, set the cameras, and wait for the show to start. Standing there amid the crowded checkout lines of Kohl's last Thursday at 7:25 a.m. I had an epiphany. I was surrounded by the retail equivalent of sharks. Drawn from miles around by the scent of "60% off" in the stream of commerce, they (and I) had joined in a "buying frenzy." And I realized that Ralph Waldo Emerson was dead wrong.

It was Emerson, of course, who wrote, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." In truth, if you build a better mousetrap in a cabin in the woods, you will then starve to death, surrounded by better mousetraps, unless you learn to MERCHANDISE.

Merchandising has two parts. The first is to develop something that people might buy. The second is to reach the people who might buy it, the "market" for that product. There is, of course, a third step achievable only by those who have perfect instincts. The third step is not just to find the market for your product, it is to create that market from the ground up. Ron Popeil, who stormed the airwaves with the "Vegematic" decades ago (as I recall) is the poster child for the third step.

On getting home with my purchases in my hot little hands, I watched the news through the weekend on the subject of the economic impact of Black Friday, and beyond. The predictions were that this year's sales would be 3% above, or 7% below, those from last year. One network reported that this year's sales would be $217 million, without mentioning what they were last year.

Of course this last report was another example of a so-called fact passing directly from the Teleprompter to the on-air broadcast without passing through the mind of the anchor. Anyone with even one brain cylinder firing would have realized that a mere $217 million in Christmas sales would mean the nation was in the grip of a bone-rattling Depression that would make the 1930s look like a day at the beach. What both the Teleprompter and the anchor should have said was $217 billion, with a “b.”

As I complete this column, the first reports of actual sales, rather than predictions, have come in. WalMart sold $1 billion all by itself, on Friday. Total sales nationwide on that day were up 4.8% over last year.

Some said that Black Friday would be the highest sales day of the year. Others said that the Saturday before Christmas would be the highest day. If that Saturday turns out to be larger than last Friday, the retail sector of the US economy will go from merely healthy to outstanding.

Only one prediction seemed to be solid, because it was based on experience over the last decade or more. It was that 40% of all retail sales in the United States would again occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The visuals that went with these various stories included an overhead exterior shot of a WalMart store, in the dark hours before sunrise, somewhere outside Chicago (or wherever; the WalMarts are as interchangeable as bicycle parts). There was a line all the way around the store and trailing out into the parking lot, waiting for it to open. This made little sense initially, since the advertising just prior to Thanksgiving offered only a few selected bargains at WalMart. But on reflection, it explained itself.

The monstrous success of WalMart, becoming the largest retailer in the known universe, is based on the truth of its slogan, "Low Prices. Always." The veteran shopper with Scottish roots (Scottish in fact, or just in the wallet), knows that whatever you might buy, the WalMart price is almost always lowest. The veteran shopper knows that "You can’t buy just one thing." You may go in the store for a single bargain item, but there is a federal law somewhere that no one can leave one of those "big box" stores without at least a half a shopping cart full of "things I didn't know I needed until I went shopping."

And the biggest thing going for WalMart is the near-total lack of buyer's remorse. No matter what you buy there, no matter how impulsively, it is a near certainty that you will not subsequently find that product for sale anywhere else for a lower price. Not even on the Internet. (Trust me, I know these things.)

The American economy is rebounding because Americans have more money to spend. And if Americans have more money to spend, they WILL spend it. We are a nation of drunken sailors who have just hit port. It is a subject for another day that Americans have one of the lowest savings rates of any of the world's developed nations. Whether we should be so aggressively a consumer society is also a question for another day.

I used to think I understood capitalism, from the age of 15. In the summer of 1958 in Ocean City, Maryland, I sold newspapers; not delivered newspapers mind you, but sold them. We paperboys bought the daily papers for 3 cents and sold them for a nickel. On Sundays, we bought for a dime and sold for 15 cents. No returns were allowed, so we ate the losses on any unsold papers. In fact, my working career began the previous year when one of my brothers returned from a hard day's effort of peddling his papers with seven still in his basket. He gave me those papers, and I set foot on the Boardwalk and sold them, for a clear profit of 35 cents.

The process was simple; go where the people are. To the docks at 6:30 a.m. to catch the deep-sea fisherman about to leave. Then on the Boardwalk to catch the early-risers. Then into the apartment and motel complexes to wake people up by crying our papers, making sales (and enemies) in equal measure. But that was pure retail sales, finding the customers one by one.

Merchandising is a different world. When you have to go find the customers, the hours in the day are a hard outside limit on your ability to earn. When you discover the magic of merchandising, getting the customers to come to you, there is no limit on the ability to earn. Sam Walton discovered this, with WalMart. Fred Smith discovered this, with Federal Express. George Foreman discovered this, with his Foreman Grill. Henry Ford failed to discover this, and Ford Motor Company lost its lead to General Motors seventy years ago, and never regained it.

Starting on Black Friday and continuing for 26 more days, the merchandising lamp is lighted in all authorized places. Last Friday in Kohl's in Anderson, Indiana, I saw a scene that was repeated in a bazillion stores of all types, across the country. In its own, unique way, the American economy has gotten healthy again. As Mark Twain once said, it was a heart-warming spectacle.

About the Author: John Armor is an author and columnist on politics and history. He currently has an Exploratory Committee to run for Congress.

Now that the turkey lethargy has worn off, I thought FReepers would appreciate this column. Lemme know what you think.

John / Billybob

The announcer you quoted before your words that I captioned, was reading from the DNC talking points.

No matter how good the signs are for a booming economy, including everybody's personal witness of "Black Friday", the RATs and their propaganda arms at ABC,CBS,NBC,CNN, et al, will continue to spout the doom & gloom themes of 'soaring defecits', 'looming inflation', 'jobless recovery', etc.

Thankfully the people standing in those long lines know the truth about our economy.

Great stuff! But, like you, I refuse to make a personal visit to the local StuffMart on that day. If I must go, it will only be during the middle of the day and the middle of the week. But I am probably up to about 85% on-line now.

Then with a dose of tryptophan in my system up to the "Sleeping Beauty" level, I watched the usual Detroit Lions game whose outcome was irrelevant, and in which the Lions played "better than they had all season." But not only had I never participated in the "door-busting" deals in the stores the following day, I openly questioned the sanity of all who did.

Kudos to you sir. Excellent once again - you have a knack for this. I made that mistake once, Wal-Mart on Friday years ago, when the children were younger, I ventured forth to save a few bucks. It was the most insane situation I had ever been in - the aisles were full of "Conan the Barbarian" types, staking out their prizes, daring any and all to come within striking distance. And that was just the women.

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