1
00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:04,040
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, it's me Josh, and to get you in

2
00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:07,080
Speaker 1: the holiday spirit, I've selected for this week's s Y

3
00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,360
Speaker 1: s K selects our episode on Black Friday, classic episode

4
00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:14,720
Speaker 1: uh that I'm hoping you'll enjoy because it's apparently the

5
00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,680
Speaker 1: most deadly time of the year. Get in the grinchy

6
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,000
Speaker 1: spirit and listen to us basically demolish the most made

7
00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:25,680
Speaker 1: up sub holiday ever invented. It's as good as the

8
00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:32,000
Speaker 1: day it dropped. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know

9
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:40,800
Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to

10
00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:43,280
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and with me as always

11
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:47,640
Speaker 1: as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there, and that

12
00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:49,519
Speaker 1: makes this stuff you should have. That's that you just

13
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,120
Speaker 1: checked to make sure Jerry was there. She's very quiet.

14
00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:55,200
Speaker 1: You literally turned her head and body right. Yep, she's there.

15
00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:58,160
Speaker 1: I did the bigfoot thing like I had to turn

16
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:01,240
Speaker 1: my whole the whole side of my body to look

17
00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,280
Speaker 1: over my shoulder. That's how you know that was real footage. Well,

18
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:06,399
Speaker 1: typically when you know Jerry's here, because you can just

19
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,160
Speaker 1: smell like me so soup or something emanating from our

20
00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,600
Speaker 1: right side or my right side, your right side but

21
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: it's not emanating from you, it's coming from Jerry. Yeah,

22
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:20,319
Speaker 1: she stinks like me, so, which is actually a very

23
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:25,520
Speaker 1: pleasant smell, salty and new mommy. That's right. Uh so, Chuck. Yes,

24
00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:31,000
Speaker 1: have you ever been to a Black Friday sale? No? No,

25
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,479
Speaker 1: And I want to say, h no. Oh yeah, well,

26
00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,160
Speaker 1: I mean that's not for me. That's a decent qualifier though,

27
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,080
Speaker 1: because it's it's not like an average sale, and like,

28
00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 1: if you don't go to a Black Friday sale, uh,

29
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,400
Speaker 1: it's they're a pretty good reason. Why is because you're scared.

30
00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and I think this is one of those

31
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,800
Speaker 1: a very divisive topic. You're probably either really into going

32
00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:56,760
Speaker 1: or it's the last thing on earth you would rather do.

33
00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:58,840
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot of people are like, maybe

34
00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,520
Speaker 1: I'll go check out a doorbuster three am. I think

35
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,520
Speaker 1: there are people who who do have that kind of

36
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:08,400
Speaker 1: that idea, but maybe not at three am. Sure, there's

37
00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,880
Speaker 1: it's almost like a multifaceted creature like it is for

38
00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,000
Speaker 1: some people, like just in the middle of a normal

39
00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,000
Speaker 1: shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving, they'll go to

40
00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,160
Speaker 1: a store and it's fine and there's some sales or whatever,

41
00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,120
Speaker 1: But then you know hours earlier, these hardcore people you

42
00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:27,160
Speaker 1: know who would bathed in the blood or their fellow

43
00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:31,840
Speaker 1: shoppers sadly, yeah yeah, um had had already come through

44
00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:35,000
Speaker 1: and gotten all the best deals. But and then there's

45
00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:37,720
Speaker 1: those of us like us who are just like going out.

46
00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,240
Speaker 1: It is literally and I'm not overstating this because people

47
00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:42,960
Speaker 1: always say literally when they mean figurat figuratively, but is

48
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,399
Speaker 1: literally one of the last things I would ever ever

49
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:47,440
Speaker 1: do in my life. Yeah, I can't think of many.

50
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:49,640
Speaker 1: I'd rather go to the d m V then go

51
00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:54,119
Speaker 1: to a doorbuster the d m V in between North

52
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:56,840
Speaker 1: Korea and South Korea. No, no, no, no, that's the

53
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 1: d m Z right, Okay, I always get this. Who confused? Now,

54
00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,080
Speaker 1: I'd rather go take the last ticket from at the

55
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:05,960
Speaker 1: d m V and have to wait all day than

56
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,440
Speaker 1: go to a doorbuster sale. Yeah no, I don't blame you,

57
00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:11,840
Speaker 1: all right, So that's what we'll get to more hate

58
00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,680
Speaker 1: spewing about this layer, but right, and I should state

59
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:16,520
Speaker 1: my opinion. I feel like, if this is your thing,

60
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,119
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Well true, true, I'm not like cast dispurgence

61
00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 1: on people who disparaging remarks. Is dispurgence a word no,

62
00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:26,080
Speaker 1: it is no though, Uh, you're like your own like

63
00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:29,919
Speaker 1: an American dictionary, the New Chuck Dictionary. We should make

64
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 1: that up. I like it. Yeah, you could have like

65
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,280
Speaker 1: five or six words already, Chuck is um um, yeah, agreed.

66
00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:38,720
Speaker 1: I'm not saying like pooping people who do it. If

67
00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:40,800
Speaker 1: you're into it, great, as long as you conduct yourself

68
00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:43,000
Speaker 1: in a reasonable manner and you don't turn into a

69
00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,520
Speaker 1: monster like others do. Right, And but there is like

70
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,480
Speaker 1: there are obvious criticisms of the day too, which we'll

71
00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,680
Speaker 1: get into. But I think first, Chuck, we should explain

72
00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,400
Speaker 1: what the as you would say, h we're talking about

73
00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:57,680
Speaker 1: to the people who listen to this podcast and don't

74
00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:00,200
Speaker 1: live in the United States, because Black Friday is pty

75
00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,760
Speaker 1: much a uniquely American experience. It is I think most

76
00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:07,400
Speaker 1: people probably know, but just very quickly. It is the

77
00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,640
Speaker 1: day after Thanksgiving now in the United States is known

78
00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,080
Speaker 1: as Black Friday, and we'll get into the pretty interesting

79
00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:15,560
Speaker 1: history of it. But um, it's the biggest shopping day

80
00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:18,120
Speaker 1: of the year. And there are all these crazy specials

81
00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:20,080
Speaker 1: that they run and we'll get into that as well,

82
00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:22,599
Speaker 1: but quite simply, it is the busiest shopping day of

83
00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,600
Speaker 1: the year day after Thanksgiving, right, and um, it's it's origins. Well,

84
00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:30,039
Speaker 1: the origin of the term black Friday goes back kind

85
00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:35,240
Speaker 1: of a ways, apparently to the the mid twentieth century,

86
00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,599
Speaker 1: but the idea of going shopping, starting your Christmas shopping

87
00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:41,680
Speaker 1: on the day after Thanksgiving actually goes back to the

88
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,320
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century early twentieth century. Um, thanks to the

89
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,200
Speaker 1: department stores like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and as

90
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,600
Speaker 1: a part of those parades, accident Macy's Parade, right exactly,

91
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,360
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it's still a good parade though, Um,

92
00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,280
Speaker 1: have you ever been? No, I haven't, Yeah, ever been

93
00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:02,000
Speaker 1: to the parade, but a couple of times, Emily and

94
00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:03,800
Speaker 1: I've gone to the day before when they blow up

95
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,279
Speaker 1: the which is really neat, very cool. You mean I

96
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,159
Speaker 1: have a friend who's actually holding one of the floats

97
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:13,000
Speaker 1: the balloons. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's fun to do. Although

98
00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,240
Speaker 1: we did it like eight or nine years ago and

99
00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:19,000
Speaker 1: it was it was really neat and sort of crowded,

100
00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:20,479
Speaker 1: and then we did it a couple of years ago

101
00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:22,960
Speaker 1: and it is nuts now, is it. It's yeah, it's

102
00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:25,800
Speaker 1: kind of gone overboard. The word got out. I think

103
00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,840
Speaker 1: I saw Yeah, I saw something last year in the news. Yeah. Yeah,

104
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,280
Speaker 1: it's not a place to go if you don't like strollers.

105
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,560
Speaker 1: Let's just say that. Oh yeah, oh yeah strollers with

106
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:38,800
Speaker 1: all train entires. Ye. Um. So, but the the idea

107
00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,160
Speaker 1: of going starting your Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving

108
00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:45,720
Speaker 1: came from those parades, and they came from those parades

109
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,480
Speaker 1: because all of those parades, pretty much to a parade

110
00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:52,400
Speaker 1: featured Santa Claus. Yeah, and usually at the end kind

111
00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,320
Speaker 1: of like bringing up the rear, and that means we're

112
00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:59,080
Speaker 1: kicking it off. That's the official start of the holiday season.

113
00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:02,440
Speaker 1: That's right, Santa Claus has made his first public appearance. So. Um,

114
00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:06,280
Speaker 1: from the association of those two came going holiday shopping

115
00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:09,839
Speaker 1: the day after Thanksgiving. That was in the late nineteenth century,

116
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:14,800
Speaker 1: in the fifties they think, or early sixties. Uh, well,

117
00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,719
Speaker 1: the fifties, calling the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday came about,

118
00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:20,880
Speaker 1: but it didn't necessarily have anything to do with shopping

119
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,279
Speaker 1: by then. It was from factory owners who apparently coined

120
00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:28,039
Speaker 1: the term. Yeah, and there's also the other competing theory

121
00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,400
Speaker 1: that it was the day that uh stores would go

122
00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:35,240
Speaker 1: into the black meaning start to show profit. But Um,

123
00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,719
Speaker 1: that's not quite right as it. No, so that's actually

124
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,760
Speaker 1: a well, it's a made up fallacy to gloss over

125
00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,520
Speaker 1: the original meaning of black Friday. Um. And it came

126
00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,000
Speaker 1: out of Philadelphia in the sixties, and the cops and

127
00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,040
Speaker 1: the bus drivers and the city workers who worked downtown

128
00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:56,719
Speaker 1: came up with calling that day black Friday because apparently

129
00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:59,480
Speaker 1: tons of out of towners would leave their homes on

130
00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:03,599
Speaker 1: Thanksgive converge on Philadelphia to watch the Army Navy games

131
00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:06,240
Speaker 1: on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but they had a day

132
00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:08,600
Speaker 1: to kill, so they all started doing their Christmas shopping

133
00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:11,200
Speaker 1: because there were sales in downtown Philly every year and

134
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:15,320
Speaker 1: the place would be nuts. Uh. And this was where

135
00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,200
Speaker 1: black Friday came from. Apparently the police department wanted to

136
00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:21,600
Speaker 1: basically keep people away, so they'd be like, well, you

137
00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,520
Speaker 1: don't want to go to downtown Philly, it's black Friday.

138
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,640
Speaker 1: And uh. That was the original um reason or origin

139
00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:30,840
Speaker 1: of the term. Yeah, I see you saw in here

140
00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,080
Speaker 1: article from the AP in nineteen five, a sales manager

141
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:38,120
Speaker 1: at Gimbal's UM was quoted as saying, that's why bus

142
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:41,680
Speaker 1: drivers and cab drivers call today black Friday. Uh. They

143
00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,160
Speaker 1: think in terms of the headaches that it gives them.

144
00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,640
Speaker 1: So I learned something new when I read this. Yeah,

145
00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:49,840
Speaker 1: and then had no idea it spread out of Philly.

146
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:54,360
Speaker 1: And then years later the retail lobbies and retailers themselves said,

147
00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:56,920
Speaker 1: we got to come up with a better, a better

148
00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:00,120
Speaker 1: origin story for this, because we want this to be

149
00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:01,640
Speaker 1: a day that people want to get out of their

150
00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:03,680
Speaker 1: house and go shopping. You know. But we should point

151
00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,560
Speaker 1: out even though it is not the day that companies

152
00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:08,960
Speaker 1: go into the black as it were, which, by the way,

153
00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:11,320
Speaker 1: it comes from when they did accounting by hand, you'd

154
00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,480
Speaker 1: write in red ink or black ink, depending on you

155
00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,080
Speaker 1: were ahead with money or behind red ink. Men you

156
00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,680
Speaker 1: were in the hole. Yeah, black man, everything's good exactly,

157
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,800
Speaker 1: even though it does not mean that. Um. The holiday

158
00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:26,120
Speaker 1: shopping season is when stores make up between twenty and

159
00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:29,840
Speaker 1: of their retail profits. So it's a lot. Yeah. I

160
00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,160
Speaker 1: mean even emily small business like the I don't know

161
00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:36,920
Speaker 1: about majority, but a large percentage of her yearly sales

162
00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:39,439
Speaker 1: or you know, a couple of months, you know. Uh,

163
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:43,600
Speaker 1: and it's not just her apparently. Um. In two thousand thirteen,

164
00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:49,520
Speaker 1: the National Retail Federation is predicting that Americans just in

165
00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:51,880
Speaker 1: November and December, Chuck, are you ready for this? Yeah,

166
00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,880
Speaker 1: Americans are going to spend six d and two billion

167
00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:00,360
Speaker 1: dollars in November and December. That's cray, that's a lot

168
00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:04,400
Speaker 1: of cash. Yeah, in two months. Yeah. I don't spend

169
00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:09,199
Speaker 1: like I used to on Christmas. Um. Emily and I

170
00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:13,160
Speaker 1: sometimes will spend on gifts on each other or do

171
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:15,400
Speaker 1: that like a couple things where you like, go in

172
00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,320
Speaker 1: and just do something nice for your house. Uh. And

173
00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:20,079
Speaker 1: then like the adults on my side of the family,

174
00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:24,160
Speaker 1: you don't exchange gifts anymore. Um just dirty looks. Yeah,

175
00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,640
Speaker 1: exchange like my brother, my sister will chip in usually

176
00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:30,920
Speaker 1: and get my mom something kind of nice or give

177
00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:35,079
Speaker 1: her offer her a service, like last year we replaced

178
00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,160
Speaker 1: her fireplace with like a gas fireplace, or build her

179
00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:42,120
Speaker 1: a garden fence, or tile her kitchen like something like that.

180
00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,040
Speaker 1: Why got it? Yeah, she's an easy street is what

181
00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,600
Speaker 1: you call that. But Emily's family that they all still

182
00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:52,319
Speaker 1: exchange gifts. I still have my Christmas gift swapping Joan satisfied.

183
00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:59,000
Speaker 1: You know, yes, you get your Christmas present on Yeah okay,

184
00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:04,800
Speaker 1: Chuck so um. The the the idea of shopping after Thanksgiving

185
00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:07,720
Speaker 1: and then Black Friday. That day being called Black Friday.

186
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:09,880
Speaker 1: It's been around for a while, um, and it's a

187
00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:14,320
Speaker 1: really valuable day, you know, it kicks off that two

188
00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:16,760
Speaker 1: month period where six billion dollars is going to be

189
00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:21,640
Speaker 1: spent on stuff. But it was created, like Valentine's Day,

190
00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:23,960
Speaker 1: it was literally created, and then the myth kind of

191
00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:28,200
Speaker 1: became reality just because they said everyone's gonna shop to day.

192
00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,400
Speaker 1: It's the busiest day, and it became that. Yeah, it

193
00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:35,559
Speaker 1: wasn't until two thousand four. Usually the Saturday before Christmas

194
00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:38,400
Speaker 1: was actually the busiest shopping day of the year thanks

195
00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:41,720
Speaker 1: to me. But the Retail Federation and all the retailers

196
00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:44,560
Speaker 1: were like, well, we can't just we can't tout that

197
00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:47,280
Speaker 1: is the busiest shopping day of the year. We want

198
00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:49,679
Speaker 1: to like get people spending over the course of a

199
00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:53,400
Speaker 1: couple of months, not the Saturday before Christmas. So they

200
00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,760
Speaker 1: basically said Black Fridays the day, and it's, like you said,

201
00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,200
Speaker 1: it just kind of became true just from people's saying

202
00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,720
Speaker 1: it over time. I'm surprised that they haven't come up

203
00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:08,480
Speaker 1: with a catchy name for like Procrastinator's Day or something

204
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:11,520
Speaker 1: to like pump up that last Saturday again or something right,

205
00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:13,240
Speaker 1: or to keep you from it, so they call it

206
00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:16,840
Speaker 1: like Shame of the Nation Day something like that, to

207
00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:22,240
Speaker 1: make you like go go to Black Friday Saturday. Yeah. Um, so,

208
00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:27,320
Speaker 1: and there's this website called, um, Black Friday Archive dot com.

209
00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:30,400
Speaker 1: It's actually like kind of cool if you like nostalgic

210
00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:33,120
Speaker 1: ads or whatever, nostalgia going back to two thousand and seven,

211
00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,000
Speaker 1: I should say, but it's just like scans of Black

212
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,720
Speaker 1: Friday print ads from those years, which you're kind of neat.

213
00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:41,720
Speaker 1: If you're totally bored out of your mind, go check

214
00:11:41,720 --> 00:12:04,559
Speaker 1: out Black Friday Archive dot com. So Black Friday became

215
00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:07,440
Speaker 1: a smashing success, like two thousand and four, two five.

216
00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:10,960
Speaker 1: It's a relatively recent thing that it became what it

217
00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,280
Speaker 1: is today here in the States, which is an out

218
00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:19,520
Speaker 1: of controlled juggernaut shopping and consumeristic frenzy. Right. Um, But

219
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:25,959
Speaker 1: so it was so successful overnight that um, the retailer said, well,

220
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:29,000
Speaker 1: let's figure out ways to extend this whole week. So

221
00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:31,640
Speaker 1: they came up with cyber Monday in two thousand five. Yeah,

222
00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:35,520
Speaker 1: that's pretty recent, and it uh is the online shopping

223
00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:40,080
Speaker 1: version of Black Friday. Uh, the Monday after Thanksgiving and

224
00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:42,840
Speaker 1: that was another thing. They just made up another self

225
00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,960
Speaker 1: fulfilling myth that Um they said, that's the the workers

226
00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,880
Speaker 1: go back to their computer after Thanksgiving on Monday and

227
00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,320
Speaker 1: they do all their online shopping. Well, that wasn't really true,

228
00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,760
Speaker 1: but now it is because the retailer said it was

229
00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:58,360
Speaker 1: in the media reported it. Uh. And not to be outdone.

230
00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:03,360
Speaker 1: In two thousand ten, American Express invented Small Business Saturday,

231
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:05,800
Speaker 1: which is when you go out and support small businesses

232
00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:10,400
Speaker 1: with your money, especially ones that take American Express exactly. Uh.

233
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:14,560
Speaker 1: So there's it's interesting. They're literally creating days to tell

234
00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:17,920
Speaker 1: people basically, if you're not shopping a day, you're missing

235
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:22,360
Speaker 1: out on really good deals, right exactly. Um. And the

236
00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:27,160
Speaker 1: more days the better as far as retailers are concerned. Um.

237
00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:31,720
Speaker 1: But there's only so many days after Thanksgiving. So they

238
00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,360
Speaker 1: started to think recently like, well, what if we pushed

239
00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:37,760
Speaker 1: in the other direction rather from Friday on what's behind Friday?

240
00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:41,320
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Thanksgiving? We can't touch that for shame. Well,

241
00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:44,760
Speaker 1: starting in two thousand and twelve, they started touching it.

242
00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:50,000
Speaker 1: Walmart actually um opened at eight pm on Thanksgiving in

243
00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,000
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve. Um, and there was there was a

244
00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,520
Speaker 1: general strike called that we'll talk about later because of that.

245
00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,559
Speaker 1: Because these stores are not supposed to be open on Thanksgiving.

246
00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:02,960
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving is its own day. It's a day of being

247
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:07,120
Speaker 1: with family and celebrating and giving. Up until two thousand

248
00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,360
Speaker 1: and twelve, it was Sacra Sanc. Yeah, this year, Macy's

249
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,160
Speaker 1: and J. C. Penny for the first time are opening

250
00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,480
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving, and Sears and Toys are us as well

251
00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:20,440
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving evening. Uh. And Kmart is opening at six am

252
00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:27,160
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving, basically extending Black Friday through the weekend forty

253
00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:30,360
Speaker 1: one hours. That's not a day. That's how long Kmart

254
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:32,520
Speaker 1: is going to be open. Black Friday at Kmart last

255
00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:36,480
Speaker 1: forty one hours. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Uh. And at

256
00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,000
Speaker 1: shopping malls, um, you're gonna have some smaller stores doing

257
00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:44,080
Speaker 1: the same thing. And estimated will be open at eight

258
00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:47,920
Speaker 1: pm on Thanksgiving Day and two thirds will open at midnight.

259
00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:54,520
Speaker 1: So essentially what's happening is Thanksgiving evening is being ruined

260
00:14:55,800 --> 00:15:00,240
Speaker 1: by retail you know. Yeah, I think the retailers would say, well,

261
00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:03,400
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen that people, right, We've seen that

262
00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:08,040
Speaker 1: people start lining up Thanksgiving afternoon, Thanksgiving evening to wait

263
00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,680
Speaker 1: for us to open like that, you know, the next morning,

264
00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,880
Speaker 1: so why don't we just open? So, I mean I

265
00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:15,960
Speaker 1: think it's kind of um, it goes both ways, but

266
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,200
Speaker 1: I pretty much see where you're coming from. Yeah. Well,

267
00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:22,040
Speaker 1: this year it's a little trickier too, because Thanksgiving comes

268
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:25,440
Speaker 1: on November twenty eight, which is the latest has been

269
00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:31,960
Speaker 1: in eleven years. Yeah, is that right? Uh? Yeah, so

270
00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:37,120
Speaker 1: weirdly because they still sort of have to enforce Black Friday,

271
00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,160
Speaker 1: they're actually shortening their own shopping season a little bit

272
00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:41,840
Speaker 1: this year, right, which is probably why some of them

273
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:44,720
Speaker 1: are opening on Thanksgiving. That's exactly why it's it's six

274
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:49,520
Speaker 1: days shorter than usual this year. Um. So just by

275
00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:52,840
Speaker 1: the very existence by making up Black Friday, they've screwed

276
00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:55,360
Speaker 1: themselves this year a little bit. They have a week yeah,

277
00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:58,760
Speaker 1: because there's um in other countries like Canada, the UK,

278
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:04,160
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, countries, um that that observe the Christmas holidays

279
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,520
Speaker 1: like we do in America, meaning everybody gives everybody else

280
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:10,880
Speaker 1: presents and things like that, and they spend money. Um,

281
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,120
Speaker 1: but those countries don't have a Black Friday, a day

282
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:18,280
Speaker 1: that officially kicks off the holiday shopping season. Um, those

283
00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:22,000
Speaker 1: countries spend more over the course of the holiday season

284
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,800
Speaker 1: because they have a longer period of time to shop. Um,

285
00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:30,560
Speaker 1: so without Black Friday in America, the retailers would possibly

286
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:33,120
Speaker 1: make more money. So they've definitely painted themselves into a

287
00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:35,920
Speaker 1: corner by making Black Friday such a thing. And this

288
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:38,640
Speaker 1: year it's really kind of pointing out, like we may

289
00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:40,760
Speaker 1: be shooting ourselves in the foot here, so what can

290
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,360
Speaker 1: we do well. Their solution has been, well, we'll just

291
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 1: take over Thanksgiving to but that's not necessarily sustainable, and

292
00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:48,480
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who are saying Black Friday

293
00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:50,360
Speaker 1: is going to go the way of the dinosaur. Yeah.

294
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,000
Speaker 1: I read an interesting article in the New Yorker this

295
00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:55,960
Speaker 1: morning finance article. I think it was New Yorker, it

296
00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:58,760
Speaker 1: might have been New York Times, but um, this financial

297
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:02,520
Speaker 1: analyst was basically analyzed sing how the sales go and

298
00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:07,040
Speaker 1: sort of saying that it's really not financially the smartest

299
00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:11,440
Speaker 1: approach to take for shoppers or the for the retailers

300
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,520
Speaker 1: to offer these huge, deep discounts and sort of blow

301
00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,159
Speaker 1: it out in one day. A better, smarter financial approach

302
00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:21,720
Speaker 1: would be to elongate the seas shopping season at a

303
00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:25,640
Speaker 1: and not even discount things, maybe even raise prices. And

304
00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,040
Speaker 1: his contention is that they're shooting themselves in the foot.

305
00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:32,560
Speaker 1: But um, I think he's right. He probably is. But

306
00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:34,200
Speaker 1: at the same time, if you were one of those

307
00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:39,119
Speaker 1: people like um, like me frankly who went to the

308
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:43,520
Speaker 1: mall the day after Halloween and saw that the lights

309
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,080
Speaker 1: were up, the garland was out, Santa's workshop was ready

310
00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:49,919
Speaker 1: to go like Halloween, the November one, the place was

311
00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,840
Speaker 1: totally decked out for Christmas with Christmas Carol's piping through. Yeah,

312
00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:56,919
Speaker 1: see that's that's ridiculous. But see without but that was

313
00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:59,240
Speaker 1: the great thing about Black Fight. It's like you, you know,

314
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,120
Speaker 1: you had a month they're just kind of chilling out

315
00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:05,600
Speaker 1: everything getting ready between between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Then you

316
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 1: had Thanksgiving and in the holiday season started without Black Friday.

317
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:12,480
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this, um this damn that's holding

318
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:18,760
Speaker 1: back the holiday season from spilling into basically October. But

319
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:21,800
Speaker 1: with retailers figuring out that it's an impedence to them

320
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:26,520
Speaker 1: making money, it probably won't start the official season any longer.

321
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,240
Speaker 1: It'll probably be further back from now on. Yeah, well,

322
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,960
Speaker 1: I think we're in I don't know about well, technically

323
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:37,240
Speaker 1: slightly in the minority. Um. In two thousand, thirteen of

324
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,800
Speaker 1: the population of American adults said they will shop on

325
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,359
Speaker 1: Black Friday. So fifty three, Yeah, that puts us in

326
00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:46,040
Speaker 1: the minority by a bit. And two thousand eleven a

327
00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,960
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two Americans, uh millions, just a hundred,

328
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,000
Speaker 1: but they spent five hundred billion dollars. Yeah, hundred fifty

329
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,399
Speaker 1: two really rich Americans. Uh, A hundred fifty two million

330
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,919
Speaker 1: shopped on that day for an average of three hours

331
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:06,480
Speaker 1: at a time, which is uh not too long, but

332
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:10,919
Speaker 1: that's I mean, three hours is like ever. But I

333
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 1: saw a woman who did sixteen though, like a sixteen

334
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:17,200
Speaker 1: hour stretch of shopping. She better have gotten it all

335
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,840
Speaker 1: done at least, I hope. So you know, yeah, like

336
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:22,879
Speaker 1: if she's shop for sixteen hours and only got like

337
00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:26,760
Speaker 1: three gifts, it's not time amost spent. Um. There's also evidence,

338
00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:30,800
Speaker 1: uh that the internet is basically knocking on Black Friday's door.

339
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:35,840
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving days the fastest growing online shopping day. UM. And

340
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 1: I think like se of the people who said that

341
00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:40,239
Speaker 1: they're going to shop on Black Friday said they'll do

342
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:44,840
Speaker 1: some or most of it online. Um. So the Internet

343
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:47,159
Speaker 1: is still there for retailers to make money, but the

344
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:52,399
Speaker 1: idea of Black Friday in store sales going extinct is

345
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:56,680
Speaker 1: probably not going to happen because it's its own thing.

346
00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:01,240
Speaker 1: Like there's this one consumer psychologist or consumer analysts I

347
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,600
Speaker 1: think pointed out that it's it's a tradition number one

348
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,119
Speaker 1: nowadays uh and number two, there's a certain element of

349
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,199
Speaker 1: like sport to it. It's it's more than just getting

350
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,879
Speaker 1: a good deal. It's like, you know, throwing a fist

351
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 1: at somebody while you get a good dealers something to

352
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,679
Speaker 1: it that that transcends the whole thing. So we mentioned

353
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,000
Speaker 1: door Busters. It's a central part of the cog that

354
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:28,840
Speaker 1: is Black Friday, and it goes back in print, believe

355
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:32,760
Speaker 1: it or not, to the year nineteen seventeen in anecdotally,

356
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,240
Speaker 1: where in a retailer will basically say, you know what,

357
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:40,640
Speaker 1: we have one item or usually it's a few now,

358
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 1: but some really deep, deep and really super great deals

359
00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,200
Speaker 1: on just a few select items, so like, for example,

360
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:51,359
Speaker 1: a good laptop for a hundred and eighty dollars, and

361
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,800
Speaker 1: like deals like that iPods for half off, for a

362
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,160
Speaker 1: TV for like two really really like you said, very

363
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:02,479
Speaker 1: good discounts. But here's the deal. It's a scam people,

364
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,480
Speaker 1: it's a bait and switch. It's it's a bait and switch.

365
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 1: They they've only got a very limited amount of these

366
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: select items, which is why the violence happens, which we'll

367
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:14,119
Speaker 1: get to in a minute. Uh. And then after that

368
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,640
Speaker 1: they're hoping you get in there. You don't get that laptop,

369
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,760
Speaker 1: but you're like, screw it. I'm at Walmart at five am.

370
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 1: I might as well buy some stuff regular priced or

371
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:28,560
Speaker 1: slightly discounted items. Um. And you know that's how they

372
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,199
Speaker 1: get you in the store. That's how they get you.

373
00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:33,440
Speaker 1: It is, um, and it is It's true that there

374
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 1: these items do exist, and they are for that deal.

375
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:41,040
Speaker 1: There there there for that price, I should say, Um,

376
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,840
Speaker 1: but there's only like ten and in the fine print

377
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: it's like one person and that deals is for in

378
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 1: stock only, like you can't get a rain check or

379
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,760
Speaker 1: anything like that. But the the concept that these deals

380
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,080
Speaker 1: do exist for those items that are in the store,

381
00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:00,359
Speaker 1: coupled with whoever physically gets their hands on that item

382
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:05,639
Speaker 1: first gets that deal. Yeah, um, leads to doors actually

383
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 1: being busted. It's called recipe for disaster. Yeah. Um. All right,

384
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:13,280
Speaker 1: So before we get to the dark days and the

385
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 1: bad stuff that can happen. Truly, let's do a little

386
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:28,439
Speaker 1: message break. All right, let's go back a little bit

387
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,879
Speaker 1: to two thousand eight and probably the well I was

388
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 1: gonna say the darkest incident, but I think the Toys

389
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:36,399
Speaker 1: r US may be darker. I think this one's darker

390
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,159
Speaker 1: because people were involved. Yeah, that's true, all right. Two

391
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: thousand eight and Valley Stream, Long Island. Uh it was

392
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 1: at a Walmart and it was five pm on Thanksgiving. Um,

393
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 1: so basically people there the day before. Um it wasn't

394
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,760
Speaker 1: one of those days where it was open on Thanksgiving.

395
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: So they're there to wait until five am. So at

396
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 1: least twelve hours ahead of time, there were about a

397
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,560
Speaker 1: thousand people already set up there. Some people are camping

398
00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,440
Speaker 1: out intents, they're waiting, They got their coffee, they're probably

399
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:10,160
Speaker 1: slugging some jim Beam to warm the belly. And uh

400
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 1: so the police came out and said, you know what,

401
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,399
Speaker 1: let's set up a buffer zone, a barricade, which worked

402
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 1: till about two am when that was breached and the

403
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,719
Speaker 1: cops basically said, we're out of here. This isn't part

404
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,960
Speaker 1: of our job. Yeah, the crowd had turned angry. Um

405
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:27,639
Speaker 1: a little bit after that. Um, so one of the

406
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,720
Speaker 1: store employees had some family members come and like they

407
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,119
Speaker 1: took them out of the line and took them in

408
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 1: the store. Not a good idea. Yeah, But even even if,

409
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,520
Speaker 1: even if everyone in the crowd would have been cool

410
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: with it, I don't think everybody in the crowd realized

411
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,919
Speaker 1: that they were family members of an employee. So the

412
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 1: crowd actually turned like ugly. Yeah, they broke through the barricade, uh,

413
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 1: and we're squeezed against you know how the stores have

414
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,639
Speaker 1: the entrance and then that little glass in vestibule area before,

415
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 1: and then usually a second entrance right to get into

416
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:00,640
Speaker 1: the store itself. So there was about by this time,

417
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: there was about two thousand people waiting for the store

418
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: to open. It was four am. The store is gonna

419
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 1: open at five, and a couple of hundred were in

420
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 1: between this little buffer zone and those front exterior doors

421
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 1: and being pressed up, literally crushed to death. And there's

422
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: this fascinating article in the New Yorker by a guy

423
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 1: named John Seabrook called crush Point, and it's about not

424
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 1: just this incident, but um uh, just crushings in general.

425
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 1: Where somebody. Yeah, we covered that like years ago. It

426
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,640
Speaker 1: seems like it, Yeah, totally, but you check out that article. Yeah,

427
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: people literally yelling, pushed the doors in chanting this, and

428
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: just before five o'clock, it's it's a pretty bad scene.

429
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 1: And uh, workers in that vegetablebule area realized that there

430
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 1: was a pregnant lady name uh Leanna Lockley being crushed

431
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 1: against the doors, and so they're like, we gotta get

432
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,920
Speaker 1: this lady in here, opened the doors enough to squeeze

433
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,639
Speaker 1: her through. She got in um and then the crowd

434
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: surged forward and it's just kind of went downhill from there,

435
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:06,040
Speaker 1: and they still did the ten, nine eight countdown. Isn't

436
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: that mind boggling. It's mind boggling that they didn't. Well,

437
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,200
Speaker 1: first of all, that the cops left, Yeah they said.

438
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,879
Speaker 1: They said, apparently in a court deposition that the cops

439
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: when they left said, controlling the crowds not in our

440
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: job description. Good luck. Walmart had hired a security force

441
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 1: of two for the event. One person hadn't shown up,

442
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 1: the other one was inside the store not helping. So

443
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 1: they got a bunch of their stock guys, their their

444
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 1: biggest dudes that they could find and said come staying

445
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:34,440
Speaker 1: as vestibule and help anybody who like falls down or

446
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 1: if that's what I would have been, like, dude, that's

447
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: not in my job description exactly. Well they didn't say that. Um.

448
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:44,159
Speaker 1: And when the doors finally opened after the festive countdown,

449
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 1: while these people were being crushed against the front, unbelievable,

450
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 1: the doors started to open and right when they opened,

451
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,920
Speaker 1: they actually gave weight and were literally busted by this

452
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 1: wave of humanity. Yeah, and at that point the employees um,

453
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:02,919
Speaker 1: their little red rover line was completely ineffective. People are

454
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 1: getting knocked down, some of the workers are getting blown

455
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: out of the way. Some are jumping on vending machines.

456
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,880
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. Well, yeah, a couple of them like climbed

457
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 1: up the coke machine, like get out of the way, first,

458
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: safe harbor. One guy who was in the in the

459
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: way of the crowd when the doors gave way. Um,

460
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,159
Speaker 1: this article by John Sebrook puts it that he was

461
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 1: blown back. So again, there's a vestibule, there's the outer doors.

462
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 1: There's a vestibule, and then there's inner doors, and then

463
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 1: there's the store. This guy got blown from the outer

464
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: doors all the way through the vestibule through the inner

465
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: doors into the store by this wave of people, two

466
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 1: thousand people. Yeah, just coming in all at once, all

467
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 1: trying to get their hands on that doorbuster, you know,

468
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,399
Speaker 1: like an iPod or something. Yeah, so that's not the

469
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,800
Speaker 1: end of the story, sadly, Um, people are getting crushed.

470
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 1: This pregnant woman trips over some old woman. She's on

471
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,679
Speaker 1: the ground at this point, pregnant. Yeah. Leanna Lockley in

472
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,719
Speaker 1: danger of being you know, trampled to death. Uh. And

473
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,239
Speaker 1: then she somehow managed to get to her knees and

474
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 1: saw an employee, Um, do you know how to pronounce

475
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: his first name? Uh, Jim ta More, Jim tad More.

476
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 1: He uh was assigned to help people in case anyone

477
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: fell fell down next to her. The doors fell on

478
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: top of him, and two thousand people trampled over those

479
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: doors and killed him. Yeah, he was trampled to death.

480
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 1: He died of asphyxiation being crushed under the door. And

481
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,440
Speaker 1: he was a stop guy at six am, six or

482
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 1: three am. He was pronounced dead one hour after the

483
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,480
Speaker 1: festive countdown to let people get into shop, and that

484
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 1: was at the hospital an hour later, so he most

485
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 1: likely died on the scene. Um, and pretty awful. What's crazy, Chuck?

486
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:52,200
Speaker 1: If that story is not bad enough, tramplings are actually

487
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,960
Speaker 1: really common and like somebody might not die, You might

488
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:58,440
Speaker 1: not be asphyxiated, and he might not have died had

489
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 1: he not gotten caught under the door. Um, but the

490
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: people getting knocked down. If you want to see this,

491
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: just go on to YouTube and type in black Friday,

492
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: not even Black Friday tramplings. Just type in black Friday

493
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: and you will see tons of compilations of store security

494
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: footage of people coming in right when the story opens

495
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: on a Black Friday sale, just climbing over one another,

496
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: knocking each other down. Some people help other people up

497
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,159
Speaker 1: or drag them out of the way or whatever, but

498
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: just as frequently people just climb over the ones who

499
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,360
Speaker 1: are down for a sale. It's it's insane. I seriously

500
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: encourage everybody to go check out some video of it. Yeah,

501
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: I can't believe that after this incident that there wasn't

502
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: a law pass outlawing outright black Friday sales. You know

503
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: that is not happening. Well, but it's ridiculous because there's

504
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: it's economists and analysts have proven that you can have

505
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 1: like even it's not like they'd lose money. They would

506
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,479
Speaker 1: probably make more money if they didn't have these blockbuster sales.

507
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 1: So it's not like they could say, well, you can't,

508
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: you're keeping me from doing my business. I don't know.

509
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: I just can't believe they can't outlaw something like this.

510
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: So that was That was a pretty horrendous example of

511
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: a crowd crush and a trampling. Yea. Um, but other

512
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 1: things that happen. You mentioned the Toys r Us in

513
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 1: Palm Desert, California a couple of years back, right, Yeah,

514
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: that was in two thousand and eight. These two women

515
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: got in a fist fight and then their husbands got

516
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: into it. And basically, first of all, these two men

517
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 1: were carrying guns into a Toys r Us for Christmas shop,

518
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 1: which a little weird, uh, And they started a shootout

519
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: with each other, basically, and not a very skilled one apparently.

520
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 1: I read about it like one guy forgot to cocas gun.

521
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,239
Speaker 1: The other guy like his didn't work either, So they

522
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: start chasing each other through the store, through the store,

523
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: shooting at each other. Luckily, no one else died, but

524
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: those two gentlemen shot each other and died. Yeah, and

525
00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: the toys are us because of their wife's got in

526
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 1: a fist fight on Black Friday at a toys rust

527
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 1: during Christmas shopping. I'm surprised no one else if they're

528
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: running through the store shooting. Uh. I think everybody cleared

529
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 1: out of the their way. Yeah, I I know, I

530
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: wouldn't follow him around and be like, hey, guys, what

531
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: are you doing? Where's the Doorbusters. In two thousand eleven,

532
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: a woman at a Los Angeles Walmart uh pepper sprayed

533
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 1: some people in the video games. Initially, the cops saw

534
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: it while this you know lady was some Black Friday jerk,

535
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 1: which would make her a pretty awful, awful person. Yeah,

536
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: but apparently the real story is and then she actually

537
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: got out of it. Um was that her children were attacked, uh, punched, kicked,

538
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 1: thrown to the ground by shoppers trying to get an

539
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 1: Xbox from these children, and so she defended her kids

540
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 1: by pepper spraying these jerks. Right, And this thing still

541
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: hasn't been settled. The most recent thing I saw was that,

542
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: Um a year on. So last year, UM, the cops

543
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: still hadn't filed charges, so I guess they believed her story.

544
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: But she shopped anyway after that happened and bought her items.

545
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: So she pepper sprayed a bunch of people, affects twenty people,

546
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: causes a bit of a trampling pandemonium. Uh. And then

547
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: two horrible things happened after that. One, like you said,

548
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: the lady took her kids and her items and went

549
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: to the store and checked out, bought her stuff. Uh. Second,

550
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: the people outside the immediate circle where sher pepper spray,

551
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 1: but still in that little area, stuck around, still tried

552
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: to get their hands on the sale item, and they're

553
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 1: like checking out in their eyes and those are watering,

554
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 1: and there's like just just ring it up. Let me

555
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: get home. Yeah. And then of course took there's um

556
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: the workers as well. Well yeah, I mean, no one

557
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 1: wants to work on Thanksgiving. And and this year, like

558
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: we said, a lot of retailers are opening on Thanksgiving

559
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:44,239
Speaker 1: and there's really not anything they can do about it

560
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: if they want to keep their job, which is really sad.

561
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: And Walmart Uh employees planned a strike I think last

562
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 1: year in two thousand twelve, and it didn't work. Only

563
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: twenty six stores reported striking employees. So for fear of

564
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: losing their jobs, probably they had to come to work anyway. Well,

565
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 1: Camart in particular was criticized this year for opening at

566
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 1: six am on Thanksgiving, and Camart said, these people don't

567
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 1: have to work, like, we're not forcing them to work,

568
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: and uh, their critics are saying, well, actually, that's not

569
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 1: necessarily true because you're using part time seasonal employees and

570
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: there's no federal mandate that those people have to have

571
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: holidays or time off. So therefore they're in a position

572
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 1: where they either work or you can fire them legally.

573
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 1: Uh so they kind of do have to work. There's

574
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: a lot of ugliness on Black Friday, but chuck, if

575
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 1: you are just the average normal person, like my brother

576
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: in law loves to go Black Friday shopping and he'll

577
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: he'll like, go at midnight, go to the Doorbuster sales.

578
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: But he's like, he's not crazy. Well, the majority of

579
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: them don't end in violence, because this happens all over

580
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: the country and these are isolated incidents, so it's not

581
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 1: like at every Doorbuster sale you're gonna get trampled. But

582
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 1: there is a risk there is, and um, the people

583
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: you want to look out for. Apparently there's a study

584
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: of consumer behavior at Black Friday sales and it was

585
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: a legitimate study. UM it said that you want to

586
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 1: look out for the people who have done a lot

587
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: of planning, because they exhibit the most anti social behavior

588
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: like shoving, pushing, yelling. They've got their plan in place

589
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: and nothing's going to alter that, and they feel like

590
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: they've really put the time in and they're not about

591
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: to lose that doorbuster who has never done it before

592
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 1: and just showed up, who just lucked into into line

593
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,720
Speaker 1: or whatever. You know that, Like remember the famous Who

594
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: concert in the seventies where the people were trampled. Yeah,

595
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 1: that's in that UM New York article. They got rid

596
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: of general emission seating after that, Like, why can't they

597
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: do something about this? You know, I think the law

598
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,479
Speaker 1: steps in and said, wait a minute, you can't just

599
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,000
Speaker 1: open the doors to a concert venue and say first

600
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 1: one in gets front row. Um, they still have general admission,

601
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: not for big arena shows. Oh yeah, yeah, Well you

602
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: know that there was like just one door open and

603
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: like four others locked, and people were getting crushed up

604
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 1: against the locked doors, and the people inside who are

605
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,240
Speaker 1: working at that concert like just never opened the doors

606
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 1: even though people were dying. So remember what we cover

607
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:15,959
Speaker 1: that in man is so like vivid in my mind

608
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 1: from way early on because we studied the the science

609
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 1: of crowd surges. I don't know what it was either,

610
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: because this article is not that old. It's just like

611
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 1: it definitely wasn't about this. I had to do with

612
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 1: something else. But um, yeah, dirty bad stuff. Or you

613
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,759
Speaker 1: can take another approach. Yeah this is this is a

614
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:37,879
Speaker 1: different approach, you could say. In the an artist named

615
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: Ted Dave gave birth to uh what's now called by

616
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:44,680
Speaker 1: Nothing Day, wherein the people are encouraged to not buy

617
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: anything for twenty four hours and to fight the power

618
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:52,840
Speaker 1: and consumerism by not showing up at all and not

619
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: just fight the power. The guy who created ted ted Dave.

620
00:34:56,040 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: He's a Vancouver guy who came up within the nineties. Um,

621
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,319
Speaker 1: it was also not just to stick it to the man,

622
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 1: which I can only imagine if nobody bought anything in

623
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 1: America on Black Friday, what kind of crippling effect that

624
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: would have on the economy. But he was also saying personally,

625
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,520
Speaker 1: it's that's a good day to not buy anything and

626
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 1: be take stock of how much you do maybe waste

627
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 1: or spend or whatever. Just think about your consumer your

628
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 1: consumerism for one day and during that time, like don't

629
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 1: buy anything, and don't gas up your car the night before,

630
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: don't get a bunch of milk the night before, like

631
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: just just be normal. On one day of the year,

632
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 1: don't buy anything, and that's Buy Nothing Day. And it's

633
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:44,440
Speaker 1: kind of become this big thing ever since Adbusters, the

634
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 1: people who gave us Occupy Wall Street kind of found

635
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: out about it and adopted it and just took the

636
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,799
Speaker 1: whole thing worldwide. It's pretty amazing. It is. So if

637
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 1: you go to a Black Friday sale and you see

638
00:35:56,239 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 1: a bunch of people dressed as zombies, they're making fun

639
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:02,440
Speaker 1: of you. They're making fun of zombie consumers. Same with

640
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 1: the people who are dressed as sheep. Yeah. And then

641
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 1: there's Zenti clause. Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll dress

642
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 1: up as a sheep, yeah and just walk around and

643
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,839
Speaker 1: buy and people's faces. And then if I'm there, might

644
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,799
Speaker 1: you know, pick up a laptop right. Um. There's also

645
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 1: credit card cut up stations yeah, yeah, where you can

646
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: get rid of your credit card and just shook his consumerism. Yeah.

647
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 1: And then there's the my favorite, the what is it

648
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 1: the Worldly gig Congo line. Oh I haven't heard of

649
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 1: that is that two disrupt shoppers. The whole the whole

650
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: point is just kind of it serve as a mirror.

651
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,280
Speaker 1: I think two people like, look at yourselves. You're ridiculous.

652
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 1: You think I look stupid. You're the one that looks stupid.

653
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: We're not even buying anything. But yeah, so there's it's

654
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: kind of a twofold thing. It's one like just kind

655
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,239
Speaker 1: of reflecting personally slash sticking it to the man as

656
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:55,800
Speaker 1: an individual consumer, like realizing your power in the grand

657
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,719
Speaker 1: scheme of things. It's all kind of hinges on you

658
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,359
Speaker 1: spending your money and if you're O, then you're taking

659
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 1: the power back or pointing out to other people just

660
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: how ridiculous they're being at consumers. As consumers, people probably like,

661
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,800
Speaker 1: whered you get the cheap costume rite? Exactly? What was

662
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: that on? Um? So I've got one last thing? Uh

663
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: I noticed the other day. I've never heard of this before.

664
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 1: In China? Do you think we liked the shop? Chinese

665
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,120
Speaker 1: love the shop And they have something that they have

666
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:29,120
Speaker 1: created called Singles Day and it is on November eleven,

667
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 1: So eleven eleven. The four one's stand for single people

668
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,239
Speaker 1: and they're basically like, hey, because in China, I think

669
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: you're encouraged to marry. So this is like, hey, be single,

670
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:42,279
Speaker 1: go out and treat yourself to something online and buy

671
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 1: something because it's Singles Day and you should celebrate being single.

672
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:51,239
Speaker 1: And it's a huge deal. They spent uh, well, this

673
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,000
Speaker 1: e commerce platform in China called Ali Baba's the one

674
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,720
Speaker 1: who really got behind it recently, and they spent five

675
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: point seven billion dollars on Singles Day this year, which

676
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 1: dwarfs Cyber Monday by three times almost and it's the

677
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,239
Speaker 1: biggest online shopping day in the world. And in the

678
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,879
Speaker 1: first six minutes this year, just a couple of weeks ago,

679
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 1: they spent a hundred and sixty million dollars in the

680
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 1: first six minutes wow online in China, just to celebrate

681
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 1: being single, and they're encouraged the shop for themselves, which

682
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:27,080
Speaker 1: I don't think. We pointed out a lot of people

683
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 1: on Black Friday when um, when I asked, say that

684
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,840
Speaker 1: they do some of the shopping for themselves, all gifts.

685
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,720
Speaker 1: It's like I want that laptop. I think forty forty

686
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 1: seven percent or forty one of people who said they're

687
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: gonna stop on Black Friday said they'll do most of

688
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 1: the shopping for themselves. I usually do that whenever I

689
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,879
Speaker 1: go out, like genuinely Christmas shopping, I'll pick up something

690
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 1: for myself. But these people are saying they're mostly shopping

691
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,359
Speaker 1: for themselves. Now I don't mostly, but I'll just I'll

692
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:56,239
Speaker 1: just treat myself. And I want to say, Chuck, we're not.

693
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,399
Speaker 1: We don't begrudge anybody going to Black Friday sales. If

694
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,160
Speaker 1: that's your thing, yeah, enjoy it, that's fine. Just act

695
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 1: like a human being. Yeah, don't take anyone's life. No,

696
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 1: don't trample over somebody who's fallen down. Uh. And most importantly,

697
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 1: I have a very nice Thanksgiving. Enjoy the people you're with,

698
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:19,239
Speaker 1: whether they're friends, family, old acquaintances, new acquaintances. Take some

699
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 1: time to really enjoy this Thanksgiving day and relax and

700
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 1: and just be I agree, my friend, it's Thanksgiving. Be

701
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 1: with your family, turn off your smartphone, maybe even wow,

702
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,439
Speaker 1: really get crazy and just be in the moment. Yeah,

703
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:37,040
Speaker 1: how about that. Um, And we give you permission to

704
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:40,239
Speaker 1: shout down anybody who says that trip to fan is

705
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,920
Speaker 1: what makes you sleepy. That's right, you go ahead and

706
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: send them straight. Yep. So happy Happy Turkey Day, Americans

707
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,239
Speaker 1: and uh and other parts of the world. Whatever you're doing,

708
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 1: I hope you're will Yeah, nice, Chuck and Chuck. We

709
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,760
Speaker 1: should say that as usual. If everyone wants to send

710
00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 1: us happy Thanksgiving wishes, they can tweet to us at

711
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,880
Speaker 1: s y s K podcast. UM, they can join us

712
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know you

713
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 1: can um, and if you want to know more about

714
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 1: Black Friday, you can go to how stuff works dot com.

715
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 1: I think there's like a ten worst moments in Black

716
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 1: Friday history an article up there. UM. You can send

717
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 1: us an email directly to Stuff Podcast at how stuff

718
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 1: works dot com. And as always, you can join us

719
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 1: at our very festive and thankful home on the web,

720
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this

721
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works

722
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 1: dot com