We all have heard the recent horror story of a woman who sprayed mace in a crowd of other shoppers who were trying to get the XBox game she wanted. That isn't really the chaotic part, the chaotic part is when we read stories about Black Friday injuries, fights, and murders related to arguments and people stampeded by black friday crowds. The stories are just as horrible each year.
Black Friday is the icing on the cake. Underneath is a coat of corporate greed trying to push holiday profits. And here we are, standing in the sidelines, trying to jump into the game by getting a great deal on TV's or video games for our children and loved ones. But at what price? How much do you really save, and how important are these items? Consumerism has a very strong drive among people in our society.
I saw a bumper sticker today that said, "Save our Jobs, Buy American". I think what it should say is that, "Our Jobs Were Sold Out by Powerful Corporations". When corporations decide to go overseas to produce a product that could be made in America, they look at the much cheaper labor costs involved in production. Major corporations rarely have strong patriotic drive to support their country. The Premise of the sticker is wrong, because it is too late for us to get the jobs back.
Does this remind you of something? Maybe Redbox......hmmmmm. At first glance it is a wonderful idea, that is only possible with the advent of the DVD and modern electronics. Underneath all of the glitz an glamour is good old fashioned American downsizing, similar to huge cuts in labor in the car industry in Michigan, loss of jobs during the financial crisis, and the loss of jobs in the field of construction after the housing debacle. I can only imagine the amount of jobs that were lost when blockbuster closed their stores. The video store is definitely one of the things we will miss from the American Iconography.
I grew up in the 90's and I got a chance to know the stereotypical video rental store. I remember the small stores in the small town that I grew up in. You could rent a video, but candy, rent a nintendo game, and even buy movies or video games.
Just in case you haven't noticed lately, the neighborhood video store is becoming extinct. I see blockbuster videos closing regularly in my town. I have been to four video store liquidation sales. Why is the video store disappering?
The first answer is the invention of the DVD. This ushered in a new, much smaller medium for home movies. The DVD can be shipped cheaply, and can be stored in bulk in a much smaller space than the VHS.
The other answer is Netflix and Redbox. I personally started to catch on to redbox first, and was excited to pay one dollar for a DVD rental. The one in my neighborhood store has a line every evening, and seems extremely busy. I knew that Redbox was going to be huge once McDonald's bought the company.
Netflix took the video rental industry by storm. It is this innovation and creativity that makes our country great. Renting movies, and watching endless movies for one low monthly fee.
Well, goodbye to the video store. There are still some video stores, but they are disappearing. How can they compete?
Well it is definitley no secret, but Borders book store is closing. The retail chain had filed for bankruptcy in February, and now it has been decided that the stores will close. There were several offers that were made to purchase the stores and assets, but none of the offers could satisfy the creditors and closing down seems to be the only option. The shame of the matter is that a lot of jobs will be lost.
The even deeper question is this: Where are the books going? Several website and blog articles site the demise of Borders on their lack of marketing an electronic book reader, such as the Kindle. But the real focus should be on the vanishing of a classic educational facet: books. Even some online colleges don't require the purchase of a physical text, but rather purchase of an onling or PDF text. Some of the text books are even included with the classes in an electronic format. Books are disappearing before our very eyes.
Now that cursive is becoming obsolete, it is only logical that books should follow as well. There seems to be a much greater trend in our country to depersonalize human contact, with the proliferation of online social networking.
