Shoppers crowd Macy’s, 34th St. in New York, on Black Friday.

ARE COMMERCIAL INCENTIVES TO SHOP EARLY
INFRINGING  ON  FAMILIES’  TOGETHERNESS?

Stores pull shoppers from holiday dinner table

STUFFED BIRDS  FORCED TO COMPETE
WITH EARLY-BIRD DEALS AT THE MALL
 
By David Maril
 
I don’t know about you, but the prospects have never appealed to me of navigating through jammed parking lots filled with cars and trucks of bargain-hunters. Even worse is what is taking place inside the stores, crammed with shoppers elbowing each other with more tenacity than the Ravens’ defensive line.

Early shopping estimates were that 140 million people would cram into stores between Thanksgiving Day and Sunday. The National Retail Federation predicted 33 million were planning to hit the stores on Thanksgiving Day alone.

I’d rate shopping on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday — and whatever other absurd shopping theme the marketing geniuses invent as appealing — like swimming laps in a pool-full of sharks or being forced to sit through a four-hour Zamfir concert.

How do you explain a nation of people who grumble about getting up at  6:30 a.m. for work, forming lines outside stores at extreme hours, some even days ahead, just to get the jump on a few bargains?

What possesses so many shoppers to brave the elements and wait in line for long periods of time?

Why would anyone even want to shop at a time when the stores are mobbed?

Is this the ultimate sign of how bad our economy is, with so many forced into jumping through hoops to save on purchasing gifts?

Standing room only, with no room for standing, on Small Business Saturday at Target.

But you know, I don’t blame the businesses for this commercialization of the holidays: People are making up their own minds to participate in this ridiculous shopping ritual.

Nobody is forcing them to behave foolishly. If con- sumers refused to shop at ridiculous times, stores would remain closed during the holidays.

The one big inequity, how- ever, are the workers who don’t want to ruin their holidays laboring away. They should have the freedom to decline the holiday paychecks without fear of losing their jobs.

Even if stores were giving everything away for free, I’d avoid shopping during these sale extrava- ganzas. If they had free giveaways, can you imagine the mob scenes, arrests and injuries?

Even now, we hear stories every year of shoppers getting into arguments and fights or nearly being trampled.

A few years ago, a woman fell during Black Friday in Michigan as people were rushing into the store for its 5 a.m. opening. Several stepped on her and a man had to push people away to keep her from getting crushed. The woman and a 13-year-old girl suffered minor injuries.

I recall reading a wire service story about a man in Orlando, Fla. who tried to cut in line to buy a heavily discounted computer item and was wrestled to the ground by other customers.

Is this any way to launch into the holiday season and prepare for Christmas?

This obsession with early-bird Christmas shopping is turning Thanksgiving into more of a training camp meal than a meaningful family holiday dinner. With too many people, the turkey and trimmings are becoming like the meal before running a marathon. For some, this year, it was also serving as a post-marathon celebration, following a morning of shopping.

Shoppers wait outside for store to open on Thanksgiving night...

                               ...then rush the front door the second it gets unlocked.

Will dieticians and training experts soon start advising shoppers to stuff their turkeys with pasta so they’ll have enough energy and endurance to hold their own when the pushing and shoving-for-position begins in the stores?

Instead of catching up at the dinner table on what all the family members have been doing,  the conversation will gravitate around what the selections are of merchandise available at discount prices. Newspaper advertising supplements will be examined more closely than gamblers studying racing forms at a track.

Instead of focusing on what we are thankful for, the theme is becoming how many discounts we’ll be grateful for.

How long will it be before Thanks- giving dinner time is moved ahead a few hours so shoppers can get an even earlier start to camp out at the malls?

It makes you wonder what will be next.

Everyone knows that fantastic bargains are offered on gift items the day after Christmas. Which merchandising chain will be the first to decide to promote Christmas shopping for the next year at 70-80-percent reduction in prices the day after Christmas? Buying on December 26th would thus give fanatical shoppers a chance to plot and plan for their next spree while the gifts for this season are still being unwrapped.

Another “classic” holiday story still fresh in my mind from a few years ago is the one about a 41- year-old Florida woman who wanted to buy a $29 DVD player, was first in line and was “knocked to the ground” by the shoppers behind her when a siren went off at 6 a.m. and the store’s doors opened.

The victim’s sister described the other shoppers walking over her, “like a herd of elephants.” By the time paramedics arrived, the woman was unconscious.

With consumers doing almost anything to gain an edge or take advantage of a bargain, it’s only a matter of time before offering discounts and special incentives becomes even more prevalent in our society.

Thanksgiving Weekend congestion to rival a traffic jam began Thursday night.

Imagine the lines outside Dunkin’ Donuts if they offered a free muffin to the first 100 customers who buy coffee every morning.

Want to eliminate the commuter-traffic problems in the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry Tunnels? — allow toll-free travel from midnight to 4 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. There would be enough frugal commuters who’d find a way to go in and out of Baltimore a couple hours early just to save on tolls, driving rush-hour traffic out of existence.

Think how quickly consumers would pay their bills if they were offered 10-percent discounts for settling up early. If you can make people believe they’re saving money or getting something extra, there’s no limit to how far they’ll go.

Maybe the answer for President Barack Obama to boost his struggling affordable healthcare signup campaign is to offer 25-percent discounts on policies if people sign up by an early deadline.

On second thought, that would cause even bigger Internet problems on the struggling website. Maybe instead, offer the discount if people sign up two months late, thereby giving the government more time to repair the website quagmire.

The bottom line is, it’s a mistake underestimating what consumers will do to take advantage of a bargain. There’s apparently no sacrifice too great to save a few bucks.
 
davidmaril@hermanmaril.com
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.

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