How To End the Black Friday Madness

Everybody knows someone that stayed up all night on Thanksgiving in order to be the first inside the closest Walmart or Target or any of those other giant retail stores that opened their doors at insane hours on Thanksgiving night. In our own town of Hanover, I am pretty sure that there were numerous stores that were open at midnight on Thanksgiving in the hope to capture the most Black Friday Shoppers. As Robert Frank explains in his article, this Black Friday shopping has grown into a monster. In fact, this year it is not only Black Friday, but the shopping extends for 10 days in total (tomorrow, Monday, is known as online Monday, where people are encouraged to shop for anything that they are looking for online). However, it is not only the shoppers that must awaken at such early hours, but employees as well. Who would want to end their Thanksgiving early simply because they must go to bed at 4:00 pm just because they have to work at midnight? It just doesn't seem right to deprive people of their Thanksgiving just to get the best deal on a striped sweater.

In the beginning, it may seem as if Frank is simply complaining about the shopping fiasco, and if this were the case it probably would have been very annoying. But the article is titled "How To", which means that he does have a solution. He takes mostly an ethos appeal, questioning people as to why they would ever ruin their Thanksgiving just to shop at 1:00 in the morning. He also uses a logos appeal, as he mentions the nuclear arms race, and how it is similar to what is occurring with outlet malls. They all want to be the first to open, and so when somebody decides to open at 4:00 am, then somebody else must eventually decides to open at 3:00 am. This constant "race" to be the first to open is really what drives Frank crazy. The resolution to this "problem/solution" method that Frank uses in what he calls a "6-6-6" plan, which he takes from Herman Cain's idea for a "9-9-9" plan. He poses that a 6% sales tax be implemented on every item that is sold between 6:00 pm Thanksgiving night and 6:00 am on Black Friday morning. This way, he hopes that it would encourage more people to stay in bed on the morning following Thanksgiving, and put an end to this Black Friday craziness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/opinion/how-to-end-the-black-friday-madness.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss