網誌分類：Bits and Bobs |
Black Friday, a bargain-hunting ritual with ugly chaotic shopping scenes, savage shoppers and even injuries, falls on the day after Thanksgiving (28 Nov) every year.
Wal-mart, like other stores in US opened early and offered steep discounts to encourage consumers to part with their cash on Black Fridays. Yesterday (29 Nov 08) at dawn, a long queue started to form outside Wal-mart at Long Island . At about 5: 00 a .m., more than 2,000 shoppers could no longer be held back. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors. Within split seconds, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker was hurled back, knocked to the ground and trampled to death.
The most tragic irony is - When the overeager shoppers were told to leave because someone was killed, some cold-blooded beasts were yelling - 'I've been on line since yesterday morning! ' They kept shopping.
The black humour is - A woman who sustained a cut on her leg when being knocked down by a crowd in another Wal-mart finished her shopping before filing the police report.
Is shopping that mesmerizing, which works like anaesthetic or a dose of Ecstasy?
Or is
the credit cruch the real culprit? Or is this simply greed?
All these are saddening, arent they?
