Me, Me, Me

I had a hard time finding a title for this post because all the adjectives I wanted to use would have taken up too much space.

First of all, I'm glad people (from the feedback I've received) understood my Thanksgiving post.
Second, my dad is doing good, but still in lots of pain, and he's having swelling in his feet.

Third, Doug and I did a bit of "Black Friday" shopping.  Therein lies the crux of this post.  I do not like crowds.  I do not go to any stores that are going to be super crowded.  We try to do a lot of local shopping... Doug did get up early to go to a few places (early like 6 AM, not 3 AM or worse yet, 2 days prior).  We saved some money.  It was great.

However.  When we watched the news that night, once again there were stories of pushing and trampling and shoving and injuries and police interventions and even a pepper spray incident.  And for what?  To save a few bucks.

I was appalled.  I was disgusted.  I was reminded just how abased and polluted our society is.  I mean, if people want to camp out in front of Best Buy for 3 days to save $100.00 on some new gadget, bully for them.  And, in my humble opinion, it should be first come first serve.  I must also say, in my humble opinion, that NOTHING of material substance is worth hours, let alone DAYS of MY time.  Are you kidding me?

But these stores, Walmart, Best Buy, Target....they need a better system.  Watching people shove and push and TRAMPLE other people to get "a deal" made me want to vomit.  I don't know why I should be surprised to see actions like that...some people beat their children, their spouses, their animals...some people rape and murder, lie, cheat, steal....we all have our faults.

I see things like this on TV and think, this is REAL.  This isn't a movie or some crazy story.  These are average, every day people, who are willing to trample over another human being to get Stuff.  Sickening. 

At the Target store in Holland, Michigan, police needed to be called to break up a fight over someone "cutting in line."  Once again at Walmart, someone making a beeline for a bargain fell, and was trampled and had to go to the hospital.  At a Walmart in Los Angeles, a woman sprayed the people around her with PEPPER SPRAY to ensure she got an X-box.   In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a woman was shot in the foot when a robber attempted to steal her Black Friday loot.  In Little Rock, Arkansas, I saw a video of people screaming and pushing and diving into a pile of $2.00 waffle makers.  Seriously? A waffle maker???

The depravity of mankind reaches new lows every day.  And I think the stores should be held partially accountable.  For example:  a local store here, Pamida, goes outside to the shoppers in line, and asks what "big-ticket" items or "super-sale" they are interested in.  They have a voucher for each item and give it to the people in line.  First come, first get.  So if you're 100th in line, and they only had 50 $2.00 waffle makers, well, you're SOL.  But no one gets stun-gunned or pepper-sprayed, or SHOT for crying out loud.

That would ELIMINATE all the pushing and shoving and trampling, because you'd have to have a voucher to get the item.  If you tried to buy it without the voucher, it wouldn't be sold to you.  Now, I'm a 40 year old Mid-Western housewife, and my small town Pamida store does this.  It's not rocket science.

Anyway. I'll get off my soap box now.  I just wish people would put 1/10th of the effort and energy they spend on Black Friday sales into doing something GOOD for SOMEONE ELSE instead of it always being "me first."