Once again we watch and wait as those “special” shopping days come and go. And, the question has to be; does it really save consumers money, or is it a retailer’s delight? I think that it is naïve to believe that the retail sector would risk profit to serve the buyer. It is just another advertising and marketing attempt to sell product. And, there is nothing wrong with that when we consider that they are in business to make money. But, it seems like the lemmings jumping off of the cliff is more of a factor than rational thinking. First, the media covers the opening events with the people waiting in line like it is real news. It happens every year! There is no news here at all. Second, we know that retailers plan well in advance what will be discounted and how many items will be available. They also have a 30% buffer on products, so a 30% break is still profitable. And third, the “door busters” are limited but it gets shoppers into the store to buy other non-markdown items.
But, more serious events do become note worthy but not unusual. And that is the trampling, fighting, shootings and stabbings, as the swarms having camped out all night rush the doors as they open. It is the worst result of the “saving” holiday season. Well, maybe not the worst as we now have stores opening on Thanksgiving Day. What we used to consider a family day becomes just another shopping day. And to add insult to injury, the media is referring to this new shopping day as “Brown Thursday”! But, the reality is that the best deals, if they really exist, occur in the two weeks just before Christmas. But I have to leave now to warm up my keyboard for Cyber Monday!

The old adage that says that the more things change, the more they stay the same is well illustrated by the image in the drawing. "The Commercial Vampire", is a Leon Barritt cartoon from the July 20, 1898, issue of Vim, a short-lived satirical weekly published in New York. The point was simply that the rise of the department stores across the country was destroying the small store that we now refer to as Mom and Pop stores. These new department store chains were moving into areas that were primarily serving small populations and were the basis of small store commerce.
But, the real impact of these department stores labeled with "greed", really did not become ubiquitous until the 1920's and 1930's. With the rapid growth of J C Penney, Sears, and others, the impact on the small store became apparent. It is possible that this cartoon was shown based on an earlier trend. In 1879, the Woolworth brothers opened the first five-cent store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Well, to be more accurate the first was in 1878 in Utica, New York, but it failed. But, the idea was so good that what we know as the five and dime stores was born.
We could have seen the same cartoon when the first strip malls were opened, the stores like Walmart and K-Mart began to flourish, or the big box stores were said to crush locally owned businesses. And now we have dollar stores. In a free-market economy there will always be a profit motive, so yes, the more things change...