JCC Tunick? Tunick! Wally World Black Friday worker boycott?

Today was worse. Horrific. Talk about key economic

Today was even worse. Talk about key economic indicators. I just hope to have my same job in 5 years. The only thing that keep me from moving on right now is my massive amounts of vacation/personal/sick time.

 

My Bass Pro beat last years Black Friday by 18%. And we didn't have any of the fools beating the crap out of each other for an X Box.

 

I find it dubious that the protestor side says hundreds nationwide went on strike but Walmart says less than 50 employees walked out nationwide.

I made deliveries yesterday and most of my stores did not make their day. One manager mentioned many employess will complain about the midenight and pre-midnight openings hurt them rather than helped. The manager of an American Eagle said people would walk up to her store and ask if they were handing out any free stuff, she would say no, and they would walk off.

 

did anybody bring up the possibility that the black friday numbers were down this year because the kinds of people who shop at wal-mart and such are also more likely to be the kind of superstitious people who believe the world is going to end before christmas?

 

Wouldn't that be even more of a motivation to spend money? Especially since the only apocalypse prophecy I'm aware of that is that imminent is the Mayan one, which doesn't really any sort of judgment element. I mean, isn't it just one of those "Eat, drink and by merry, for tomorrow you die" type of scenarios? Why will having foregone 3 weeks of an X-Box 360 help anyone?

 

I think tom is more getting at "Well why should I have to spend money on anybody else if the world's going to end before Christmas anyway?" Rather than "Well the world is going to end, better not spend money on myself."

 

yeah, but it's not like you have to shop for anyone else. and is it really worth it to stand in line at 4 in the morning so you can save 30% on a flat screen tv when we're all going to be dead in less than a month anyway? just go when there's no line and pay full price. charge it to one of your many credit cards.

 

I don't see how that's true. It would seem more important than ever to shop for other. You have less than one month to make all your amends, declared your unrequited love, reconnect with old friends, and make memories worth a lifetime with everyone else. I would get moving pretty quickly in that situation. I mean, by contrast, are you saying that if you died in 30 days, you would be content to say "yeah well at least I got to sleep in an extra two hours on the day after Thanksgiving?" Really?

 

i don't shop at wal-mart or partake in black friday, and when i try to put myself in the mind of the person that does i don't start from the assumption that they are the sort of rational, caring, romantic free spirits that you seem to be describing.

 

I usually bring a club. It gets me to the front of the line quicker. What was this about romantic free spirits?

 

Oh, I don't either. But imminent death focuses the mind. As Flannery O'Connor said "She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."

 

perhaps you're right. perhaps the approaching apocalypse has caused these people to rethink their lives, to become enlightened, and to shift their focus away from material possessions and toward the kind of truly meaningful moments with loved ones that you talked about earlier. this would also explain the low black friday numbers.

 

Touche.

 

well, if unicron is coming on december 21, then perhaps i should have stood in a black friday line to get a suit of armor so it will be slightly more difficult for unicron to chew me up with his deadly planet-rending teeth.

 

People here know that the whole Mayan Doomsday thing is bullspit, right?

 

yeah well when unicron arrives i'm going to look straight into your eyes as it dawns on you that you were SO WRONG and are about to die.

 

Mayan 1: "Hey, nice calendar, man, but why does it stop?"
Mayan 2: "Eh. My chiseling arm got tired. Besides.... that's thousands of years from now. We aren't going to live that long and they can make their OWN damn calendars!"

 

Ah, yes, the Mayan doomsday thing. Their calendar had nothing to do with the end of the world as predicted by Revelations; the conquering Spaniards added that idea to the Mayan calendar end of this calendar cycle thing.

My new landlady has heard on the internet that there will be a blackout of all electricity between 12/21 and 12/25/12. Has anyone else heard that?

And I thought I had gotten rid of the crazy landlady/roommates! I've had two so far that think that anything they hear on the internet is true.

 

Yes I heard that. Only the date was different. It was at the stroke of midnight 01/01/2000. Massive blackouts, planes falling out of the sky, nuclear power plants would spontaneously melt down, the rivers and waters would turn red and be as blood, followed by the zombie apocalypse....and all because some computer calendars would register "2000" as "00".

And I remember that there were at least ten survivalist magazine/catalogs on the newsstands at the local grocery store. Selling everything from water purification tablets and MREs to steel ammo boxes. And at least one ad for "dehydrated water".


EDIT -- Hey, one of their sites is still up after 13 years!
www.countdown.org/

 

Hey, at least those who bought survival stuff from one of those catalogues/websites were prepared for the natural disasters that have occured in the last 13 years if they were in any of those areas.

 

Dehydrated water??? Really!! Man, do we really need to upgrade our science education in this country!

Where on the internet did you find the info for 12/21-12/25/12? I'm interested in finding out what their basis for determining that range of dates is.