Consumer culture
Objectives
Placement of direct and indirect objects; Subjunctive verbsReading
The
U.S. holiday shopping season is officially underway, with Black Friday
discounts drawing millions of shoppers in stores and online. From California to
New York - this is how the holiday shopping season begins -- the early lines,
the massive crowds - many of them lured in by Black Friday specials, from $99
flat-screen TVs to toys at less than half their usual price. It’s enough to
bring in the savvy shoppers and those just curious to see what all the fuss is
about.
Earlier start
But
Black Friday sales are no longer limited to the day after the Thanksgiving
holiday. This year the shopping frenzy started early - with some stores opening
as early as 6 a.m. Thanksgiving Day.
Online
retailers, such as Amazon, also launched Black Friday deals on Thursday. It's
when retailers hope to start moving into the black -- as in profits. This year,
the sales and the deep discounts started early with retailers hoping to take
advantage of improving consumer impulse and compulsive demand.
Retail sales
The
U.S. National Retail Federation forecasts holiday sales will increase 4.1
percent this year to nearly $617 billion. That is the biggest jump since 2011. Early
estimates show consumers spent more than $2 billion on Thanksgiving day. All
told, American consumers are expected to spend more than $600 billion by the
end of December – largely the result of accumulative demand and more spending
cash caused by low gasoline prices and an improving job picture, not to mention
the increasing number of coupons being used as a marketing tool for lower
prices.
Black
Friday totals won’t be known until next week, but the National Retail
Federation’s Kathy Grannis said the numbers are not as important as in previous
years. “Believe it or not, a good Black Friday is not indicative of an overall
healthy holiday season. It could mean that there are more people focused on
those deep discounts. Whereas if you were to see “normal” holiday shopping
levels it means that people are spreading out their shopping. They’re not only
focused on spontaneous buying and those 70, 75 percent off sales”.
Brits join in
And
Black Friday shopping is no longer just an American phenomenon. It is becoming
a tradition in Britain, too, which on Friday experienced the day's potential
for chaos.
British
police were called to stores across the country as the Black Friday frenzy led
to rowdy crowds and customer disputes over sold out items and false marketing
in window displays. Amazon is credited with introducing Black Friday to British
consumers in 2010.
Maintaining calm
Police
in the United States also were at work trying to regulate and keep Black Friday
shopping peaceful. As in previous years, it may not be the safest day to shop
-- as two shoppers fighting over a TV set at a Houston, Texas, Walmart found
out.
And
in Missouri, where protesters demanded stores shut down on Black Friday to
protest a Grand Jury’s decision not to indict a police officer who shot and
killed an unarmed teen. But for those who didn’t get a chance to shop during
the Black Friday weekend -- there’s always Cyber Monday -- now one of the
busiest online shopping days of the year, where free shipping can lead to
further impulse buying.
Violent history
The
name of the day itself actually alludes to a history of such darkness. A
linguistics researcher told VOA that many believe the "black" in
Black Friday refers to store profits. The term "into the black"
describes accounting ledgers going from negative values, known as "in the
red" for the red ink used to document them, which means stores are leading
closer to becoming bankrupt. Whereas, to positive values are traditionally
written in black ink.
But
Bonnie Taylor-Blake contends it appears the term "Black Friday"
actually originated among police officers, who described it that way because of
the large numbers of traffic incidents, sidewalk crowding and even violence it
triggered. In 2008, a Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled by a stampede
of shoppers.
(taken and adapted from https://www.voanews.com/usa/black-friday-holiday-shopping-kicks Nov. 2014)
