Historically, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. The people who put together the "Buy Nothing Day" campaign are upset with the Zombie Consumerism Mentality they see peak at this time of year, the endless marketing hype, and the endless lines of consumers (re)acting like mindless automata.

Sadly, noone told the folks at BuyNothingDay that this is what you get when you mix Free Market + Stupid People. I could sell freeze-dried shit on E-Bay and some fool would buy it. And if I mixed it with carbonated water, a pound of sugar, a little Emo/Rap/Hip/Pop sound, a catchy name (Poopsie? Croak? ShittyPop?) some cool marketing catch phrases (Stick it to the MAN! Drink who you ARE! Drink ShittyPop!"), and showed a teenage midriff or two, PEOPLE WOULD LINE UP FOR IT!

While I agree it makes one want to revoke your American citizinship (See my other blog post about that below), taking it out on the retailers is NOT the solution.

Their suggestion to walk around the stores clogging the isles dressed as Zombies is hysterical, but the practice of buying a bunch of stuff and then returning it immediately over and over is misdirected and wrong. They should know by now the 'stick it to the man' tactics like that only rebound to hurt everybody EXCEPT those whom they are intended for.

If you are upset that the Consumerist Zombies buy everything from WalMart because its cheaper there, there are other things you can do than impeding their freedom to make an uninformed decision. (And if you can't think of any, then you are a different kind of Zombie, and no better than the consumerist ones...)

Blog on,
-C

Labels: americans, Business Phenomena, consumerism, idiots