Every day after Thanksgiving, thousands of shoppers wake up as early as 5 a.m. to participate in the madness we call Black Friday, the one day when stores have the “best deals” of the year. With so many shoppers in the same mall, the day can get pretty chaotic. My brother read an article on a guy that pepper sprayed four people in Wal-Mart for a video game. Seriously? That instance made me start thinking of how this single day turns people into crazies; it manipulates them into buying more items than they typically would buy.
The whole idea of a sale automatically puts you into a buying mood and faced with so many bargains, you will end up buying more things that you may not need. You may go in planning to buy a pair of jeans but when you notice there’s a “buy one get one half off” sale, you’ll end up buying a second pair of jeans simply because it seems like a good bargain. However, unless you were planning to buy two pairs of jeans, you just spent more money then you were originally planning to spend. My mom partook in this madness last year to “see what it would be like” and she ended up buying me a TV for my room, which was unnecessary because I already had a TV in my room. When I asked her why she bought it, she replied, “There was a really good deal on TVs, I had to get it.” I find it interesting how this entire day shows how easily people can be manipulated.
This is the same idea as the "limited edition" movies we discussed in class. When we think we won't have another chance to buy something, or get such a great deal, we buy it just in case we will want it later. As you pointed out, however, we simply end up spending more money because we are paying for things we wouldn't have bought otherwise. The Disney Vault, as we discussed, entices us to spend money on movies we may never watch, just in case we want to watch them later when they are no longer being sold. "Limited edition" movies and sales function in the same way: to convince consumers to spend money they weren't planning on spending.
ReplyDeleteTo further the skeptical nature of these deals, when observing the price of a good that is now half-off, I always wonder whether or not the product was simply marked up to a higher price just so that it would seem like it was now half off. For instance, the tv that has a four hundred dollar price tag slashed in half down to two hundred dollars might have always been sold for two hundred. How would the consumer know?
ReplyDeleteShould black Friday be as hectic as it is? There really is no need for so many people to throw courtesy out the window just for the sake of a good deal. Has anyone ever heard of cyber Monday? Its time for people to move out of the stone age and realize what is going on. Numerous people rush around when it is as easy as clicking a button. I just do not understand.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, someone was trampled to death in a Walmart on Black Friday. The media and our culture of consumerism have manipulated the American population into believing that a supposedly unbeatable sale is worth more than a person's life. That's a pretty high price to pay, in my opinion.
ReplyDelete