People can’t get too excited about the mobs & scuffles in videos of Black Friday shoppers. It’s the same genre as “People of Walmart” videos. You just can’t read all sorts of existential things into them since it’s mostly working people not driven by the “consumerism” we’re always accused of but by a desire for a cheap deal. Just one example: toasters usually start at about $25 bucks. Today stores are selling them for $5. That’s quite a savings when you’re strapped for cash & some think it worth a tussle or two & a lot of elbowing.

It should also be added that on the day after Thanksgiving a good number of people come half in the wrapper. Booze never does bring out the best in people. A lot of the young just show up for the chaos like a ritual of passage. Let them have their fun.

You in Europe & elsewhere may think we’re nuts but there’s a rebuttal to that: think post-football riots.  From over here you don’t look so sane either.