The Holiday Season: Consumerism Gone Mad?

Joe and Jenny Smith wake up at 5 am on the day after Thanksgiving. Joe heads to the end of the driveway and picks up the paper before waking the rest of his family. They have a busy day ahead. The kids are piled in the van, and they are off!

Like millions of other Americans, the Smith family will go shopping on this Black Friday, as it is dubbed by retailers. They will visit department stores, electronics stores, and specialty retailers selling every item under the sun. Perhaps they will visit one of Minnesota’s many malls. If the Smiths live in the suburbs, their stops might even include the mother of all shopping fortresses: the Mall of America.

No matter where they go, the Smiths are likely to encounter long lines, crowded aisles, and a noticeable lack of open parking spaces. You see, the day after Thanksgiving is huge, a day in which a store can make 80 percent of its profits for the entire year. It’s do or die. Why? Because the passage of Thanksgiving means there is only a month to go until Christmas.
That’s right, Christmas. And Christmas means gifts, which means people will buy things. People buy more stuff in the weeks before and immediately following Christmas than any other time of year. Toys, clothes, even big ticket items like cars. If it’s made, it sells on Christmas…even worthless, gimmicky crap, like singing and dancing Santas and Billy the Big Mouth Basses (remember those)?

So Joe, Jenny and the kids go to the jam packed mall, where they encounter store owner Stan. Stan wants the Smith family to shop at his store. But how does he get them to choose his over the hundred others under the mall’s roof? Simple, he offers a free gift just for being one of the first hundred in the store. Then, he gives them a free gift with purchase. But Stan doesn’t stop there, he offers door buster deals and deep discounts on all his merchandise. The better the deal Stan offers is, the more likely the Smiths are to spend their hard earned cash in his store.

Stan and the Smith family are symbolic of today’s society; materialistic and consumer driven. We want stuff, and retailers will do almost anything to get us to buy it. It doesn’t really matter what the stuff is, because the same scenario could play out in any store in the USA. Don’t blame the retailers, it’s their livelihood. Don’t blame the Smiths, they’re just doing as most of the rest of us do. Shopping for deals is commonplace, and so is gift giving.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, a gift once in a while is nice, as a token of appreciation or a reminder that someone cares. I can’t help but wonder, however, if our consumerist and materialistic ways have gotten out of control. Stores undercut prices, and shoppers literally fight over merchandise. Every year, cameras catch footage of people being trampled as they attempt to rush into the just-opened door of their favorite store. It’s downright pathetic.

How do we fix this epidemic? I don’t know. Maybe we need to take a step back and look at what the holidays are supposed to symbolize. Last time I checked, they were about giving thanks and spending time with those we care about, not about making and spending dollars. Think about it.