Back on track

[altivo]

J.B. Hiller (the ferret Hiller) takes on a disguise in order to ride the train without being recognized, and giving Roth a break from the routine trip.

Next installment here

Cumulative word count: 43121 (with four days left to read 50000)

Weather was decent today, and we got chores done early then headed over to Woodstock where I sat in on a rehearsal of Gary's Kishwaukee Ramblers. Managed to almost make up to Amy's new dog. At least she let me pet her a bit before we left.

Did not have turkey for dinner. ;p

Forecast calls for possible snow on Saturday night into Sunday, though it's hard to believe with things as warm as they are.

We've been seeing rats in the yard coming for the seed thrown from feeders by the birds. While we generally prefer not to interfere with the wildlife, this is unacceptable and especially so since where you see two rats there are probably 20 or more. Gary put out some traps and in broad daylight he caught four, just in the space of an hour or two. We'll set the traps out again overnight, but can't leave them out all the time lest they catch dogs or cats or perhaps even a bird or two.

I'm once again appalled at the news stories from "black Friday" as people fight each other for so-called "bargains" using their fists and in one reported case, a can of pepper-spray. The childish and uninhibited greed represented by this behavior is simply unbelievable. The lack of conscience on the part of retailers who goad people into such actions is unforgivable. I know Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy don't care what I think about them, but I won't be shopping there any time soon. Tomorrow we are going to see about giving some business to local independent retailers instead.

Comments

[schnee]

I'm once again appalled at the news stories from "black Friday" as people fight each other for so-called "bargains" using their fists and in one reported case, a can of pepper-spray.

The best part? A quote from article I just read: "She was competitive shopping."

Yeah... I guess that's one way to put it.

(At the same time, I'm not sure I see how retail chains are actively goading people into pepper-spraying others. Despite all the bad things that one can say about them in general, and about Black Friday in particular, the decision to bring and use pepper spray was squarely this woman's and noone else's.)

[altivo]

The retailers engage in a number of aggressive and disreputable advertising activities. They will advertise a ridiculously low price for some item, like a game console or some high cost and heavily promoted toy, and then "limit" the quantity available at each store. The so-called limit often turns out to be one or two per store but they don't necessarily say so in advance. Then they push ads for weeks to let people know that this "bargain" is going to be made available at midnight of the day after Thanksgiving.

It produces huge lines of lemmings camped outside the store waiting for the doors to open, when they will push and shove their way in and fight over the "bargain" item. They've turned shopping into a blood sport. I consider this irresponsible.

I also consider forcing store employees to forego a traditional family holiday in order to be at work by 11:00 pm to deal with unruly and vicious customers to be unforgivable. They claim they "have" to do this because the competitors are doing it, but that's pure bullshit. It's time to call a truce on this stupid business and make them all return to rational behavior.

Last year a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by one such unruly crowd of "shoppers." It is time for better regulation to prevent these excesses.

Yes, the shoppers bear part of the responsibility. But they wouldn't be acting this way had they not been enticed by dishonest and greedy behavior on the part of the retail establishment.

[schnee]

I agree with pretty much all you said, but my point remains unaddressed: the decision to bring and use pepper spray was in no way connected to anything the stores did.

[altivo]

Saying it was "in no way connected" is an exaggeration.

Sure the woman is absolutely guilty of anti-social and malicious assault. And they haven't caught her and probably never will.

But just as we have traffic laws and other regulations that keep anti-social individuals from being so aggressive, so we should limit the behaviors of retailers who create uncontrollable crowd situations. Sporting events and theatres are not permitted to do this sort of thing, and neither should retailers be allowed to do it. The retailers are every bit as much responsible for the 20 people who were hospitalized after that pepper spray incident as was the woman who used the pepper spray. They created what is often termed an "attractive nuisance" and if an individual did that, they could be fined or jailed. Corporations want to have all the legal rights of individuals, then they jolly well should have to take the same precautions and responsibilities that individuals do.