A fine columnist is carried by the Waukesha Freeman!

BARGAIN BASEMENT MENTALITY

It’s beyond sad when cheap stuff drives people to trample one another
(Tim Schilke is the author of “Growing up Red” and lives in Grafton. His column runs Wednesdays in The Freeman.)
The Running of the Bulls happens once per year in Pamplona, Spain. The streets of the city are blocked off by barricades, creating a stampede route for dozens of bulls that are released to run through Pamplona, chasing anyone who is crazy enough to participate in the event. Before the release, the bulls are kept in a pen, where their frustration and anticipation grows, until the gate is opened and chaos breaks free in a wild, crowded run. The bulls run out of panic and fear, often trampling or even goring those individuals who are brave enough to stand in their way on the narrow course. Remarkably, only two participants have died in the event since 1980, and only 14 casualties have been recorded in 98 years of bull-running history. Far be it for me to compare early morning Black Friday shoppers to the bulls in Pamplona. Making such a comparison would be insulting to the bulls. The bulls don’t have a choice to participate or not, while the shoppers participate willingly in this craziness. The Running of the Crazed Black Friday Shoppers happens every year at thousands of stores and malls in the early morning hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving. In some cases, the participants in the Black Friday run show up at the event hours before the opening of the gates, the anticipation and excitement only trumped by large amounts of caffeine. The entrance to each of these stores is locked by store employees, who often double as security guards until the doors are opened. This causes an immediate mad rush toward discounted flatscreen televisions, DVD movies and other things that will become obsolete shelf dust collectors within one to two years of their purchase. The shoppers run out of holidayinspired panic and fear, often trampling anyone brave enough to stand in their way in the narrow store aisles. This year, a Walmart employee in a Long Island, N.Y., store was trampled to death as nearly 2,000 crazed shoppers broke a door off its hinges and began a mad rush to collect the post-Thanksgiving deals. The deals included a 50-inch plasma flat screen for $798, a Bissel compact upright vacuum for $28 and a Samsung 10.2 MegaPixel digital camera for $69. Shoppers could also buy DVDs of the new “Incredible Hulk” movie for $9, a film that scored only a 58 percent approval rating on the movie review Web site, Rotten Tomatoes. Is the acquisition of any of these items worthy of trampling someone? Does any item that can be bought meet the lofty qualifications posed by this question? Other employees of the store were also trampled, as they rushed to help their fallen co-worker. The throngs of maddened shoppers refused to make room for the fallen man to be rescued. When the store asked shoppers to leave for a few hours, so police could investigate the death of the employee, many of the shoppers complained and refused to leave, stating that they stood in line for too long to leave without first buying their latest and greatest future dust collectors. All of this happened in the name of “cheap.” So some additional perspective on the meaning of “cheap” might be in order. Considering the current economic situation in Wisconsin and around the country, the deals from Black Friday may soon constitute an expensive price. In the coming deflationary dark days of 2009, we may look back and wonder why anyone ever paid $798 for a 50-inch plasma flat-screen television. Seven years ago, before the flat-screen revolution, I paid thousands for a 50-inch rear projection television, cutting edge technology and a real bargain at the time of the sale. Now, I couldn’t pay someone to take that monstrosity off my hands. Why doesn’t anyone knit socks any more? It’s the beginning of another miserable winter in Wisconsin. Anyone in this part of the country can use a warm pair of socks to put on before trudging outside to clear the snow off the driveway yet again. You want cheap? Wool is about as cheap as it comes. Wool is even cheaper than an “Incredible Hulk” DVD. For that matter, whatever happened to cookies as a Christmas present? Homemade cookies make a great gift. If I got nothing but cookies from everyone who buys me a present this year, I’d be thrilled. And every night, when I settled down in a comfortable chair with a gingerbread man, I’d think of the person who took the time to frost each of his perfect little buttons. Best of all, cookies will never collect dust – at least not in my house.

TIM SCHILKE