"Black Friday" Sales Off Significantly

Some stores started their Black Friday sales earlier than ever this year -- and the retail industry expected sales to top last year by as much as 5%. But that didn't happen. In fact, just the opposite happened, as sales dropped from $57.4 billion in 2013 to only $50.9 billion this year. That's a significant drop of $6.5 billion, or about 11.3%.

Why did this happen? Are all the social media campaigns against Black Friday having an effect? Are internet sales cutting into in-store sales this year? Or is this indicative of a public with less money to spend this holiday season? We won't know if that last reason is true or not for another couple of weeks, but I suspect both of the first two had at least some effect.

What do you think? Are the biggest days of Black Friday over -- or is this just a bad year?

A "Black Friday" Death

As a liberal, I generally believe that most people are good and really want to help their fellow man. But every now and then something so profane is done by human beings, that I have to wonder if I'm foolish and the human race is not really worth saving. One of those things happened yesterday -- on the very appropriately named "Black Friday".

It's insane enough that 2,000 people were lined up at the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart at five o'clock in the morning, but what happened next is truly perverse. As 34 year-old Jdimytai Damour was unlocking the doors to let the people in the store, the crowd surged forward, breaking down the doors, and trampling Damour to death.

Some of Damour's co-workers tried to get to him and help, but they were also trampled. Fortunately, they only received minor injuries. But no one in the crowd offered any help. They were far too busy trampling the poor man so they could get into the store and save a few dollars on some cheap merchandise made in China. Damour's life was not worth the few dollars they hoped to save.

After calling for emergency help and learning of the death, the store asked people to leave because they were closing for a while as requested by authorities. Did the people cooperate? Were they sorry for trampling a fellow human to death? Of course not!

The people were angry because the store was closing and they had to leave. After all, they had bargains to buy and later brag about to their friends and family. One witness to the scene said the shoppers were acting like "savages". She said, "When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning'. They kept shopping."

I realize we in a very bad economy, but is saving a few dollars or standing in line a few hours really more important than that young man's life? Sadly, these people don't even seem to be the least bit ashamed of their actions.

Well, I am. I'm ashamed that these people are fellow humans and fellow Americans.