What is it about holiday shopping that makes people crazy?

I would rather have a root canal than go shopping on Black Friday. I am a bargain shopper but you will never see me shopping then. I will find my bargains at other times, thank you very much! I just saw on the news that someone died getting trampled on by shoppers at a WalMart.

Nothing like a little Christmas joy/spirit to start the holiday season!

@Daisy, that is the story I linked to. I’d like to think it would be a sobering thought for the crazed shoppers, but it won’t.

I really would like to see how someone who does shop on Black Friday explains the motivation. My imagination just doesn’t stretch to it.

I’m disgusted and cannot believe that no one in the crowd stopped to help this person and yell at everyone to chill the f*ck out! I cannot imagine being there, but there is now way in hell you would ever catch me at walmart at 5am. But seriously, this is awfully sad and it’s amazing the frenzy that occurs. Very very sad for the man and his family.

I agree w/ you emily….but if you have ever been in the middle of a crowd like that then something like that happens…it is very difficult to help w/out getting hurt yourself. Although, I believe that I would have screamed at the top of my lungs and done something to help the guy.

I hope the people who were there that day will at least take pause and think about their lack of inaction.

How tragic.

I went to my local consignment store. I was the only one in there…..perfect!

Okay, so, there are like four or five steps that must occur for a bystander to intervene in an emergency. When there are six people or more, the changes that all of those mental steps will occur is almost nothing. A man will stand in a room filling with smoke, filling out a form as long as the other people around him are being calm, someone can get stabbed on the street and no one helps, this man was trampled. The thing is, these all fit the patterns we know in human psychology. Bystander intervention in an emergency is incredibly rare.

Free advice: should you ever find yourself in a bad situation, put the people around you into a perceived risk or assign responsibility. Don’t scream, “Oh my god, call 911!” say “You with the blue and yellow shirt,” and once you have their attention, “call 911” or “help with this”. Thus it is that person’s job, they automatically shoulder some responsibility, they will stop. Similarly (though obviously in this situation a HORRIBLE idea) you are more likely to get help by shouting “fire!” which gets someone’s attention because it could put them at risk, than you are by just shouting “help!”.

Neither of those are fool proof, but statistically they have been chances of succeeding. Of course, anything is better than the more or less zero change you have for landing the one person willing to step outside and say “everyone here is wrong, this person needs help”.

Great answers to the question “What should you do if someone gets hurt in a mob situation?”

Now how about “What is it about holiday shopping that makes people crazy?”

@Jeruba, My bad! sorry, I didn’t read the link before I posted. This is truly a disgusting story. You would hope it would be a wake up call for people but every year we read stories like this. Usually not a death but many injuries during this frenzy of greed.

@Snoopy, that’s my kind of shopping.

To answer the question, I don’t know. I am not one of those shoppers.
My guess is that it is some game. See how much I can save on product x. Greater perceived savings, the greater the winner I am.
Pretty sad, right?

I went shopping today, but that was more out of boredom than anything else. And I like clothing far too much for my own good. I basically bought a dress and got the fuck out. And I got a free sweater. That was cool.