Rick Raw: Walmart Stampede–Consumerism Run Amok (Dec. 11)

By Rick Grant Commentary http://www.rickatnight.com/ rickgrant01@comcast.net

The Black Friday Walmart stampede which resulted in the death of a store employee underscores how consumerism as turned to irrational hysteria. A throng of crazed shoppers physically broke down the doors, pushing their way into the Walmart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream. The 34 year old greeter was trying to protect a pregnant woman and was knocked to the floor and trampled to death.

A man had to die so someone could get 40% off on a flat screen TV. It’s a sad commentary on how Christmas has become over-commercialized, brain washing people to believe that if they don’t go out and buy gifts for relatives, their whole world will crumble. It’s holiday madness that has turned Christmas into a stressed out nightmare for what once was a happy time of being with one’s family.

This year, the desperate retailers’ advertising gimmicks offered enticing deals that drove people to behave in a panic mode to buy presents on a budget. The ongoing recession has caused people to search for extraordinary bargains so they could have at least a modest Christmas. Driven by tunnel vision, the glassy eyed shoppers at the Walmart had camped out over night to be first in line to grab the bargains when the store opened at 4:00 am. Juiced with adrenalin, ordinary people succumbed to a mob hysteria.

Long ago, I renounced the commercialization of Christmas and wished I could travel to La Paz, Bolivia until the crazy season was over. The 1940s era that inspired A Christmas Story was a simpler time just after WWII. I have fond memories of Christmastime when I was a kid. Gift giving was much more restrained. Receiving my first bicycle was a big deal or a Red Ryder BB gun or new pajamas. These were token gifts to make Christmas day exciting. I didn’t expect big ticket items. Money was tight.

Today, middle class people spend an average of a thousand dollars on Christmas whether they can afford it or not. That was unthinkable in my childhood. My parents went through the depression and World War II. Just being together and able to buy an abundance of food after the strict rationing of WWII was enough.

In our minds, we need to get back to that time and tone down the bad craziness of feeling like we have something to prove to our relatives and family. Since we’re all feeling the pain of this economic downturn, just tell the family and the creepy relatives not to expect gifts. My solution was to drop out of the gift giving game all together. Hey, call me Scrooge, but I sleep just fine and there are no ghosts showing up to freak me out.

Kids need to understand how the recession effects everyone financially. Today’s kids are already spoiled. Let them know the financial facts of life. If they want a Wii or an XBox then they should get a job and work for it. When I wanted a car, I was expected to work in the family business to cover the cost. Believe me, I paid for that car in spades working under the tyranny of my dad. It was tantamount to indentured servitude.

From yesteryear’s family gathering with simple gifts to today’s unrestrained spending spree at Christmastime, the whole idea of the holiday season has been corrupted by massive advertising hype. It’s so pervasive the subliminal message plants the seeds of rampant shopaholic mania. In the masses’ collective mindset, a switch is flipped on, sending them to the malls like junkies in search of a fix. Wake up and smell the conspiracy to get your money. Drop out of the fiendish Christmas pressure to buy gifts. Afer all, Christmas is just another day.