Try not to fight someone for a purse

Thanksgiving is almost upon us which means that most everyone will be gathering with family and friends to “give thanks” for the year and eat way too much food.

Some will follow this by watching football, watching a parade or watching the back of their eyelids. Others will begin to prep for an all-together different tradition, Black Friday shopping.

Let me first say that I have never been Black Friday shopping; however I am going this year. I’ve always found it ironic that the day after we celebrate all that we are thankful for we try to tear each other’s arms off for a new T.V. I know that real stories of crazy lunatic shoppers are not as common as people make them out to be, but some very concerning things have happened on this day of sales that people need to be aware of.

People have gotten into fights that have caused hospitalizations. People have been trampled to death. People have shot at each other. People have done this in the name of what? Getting a $100 discount on a new television?

Now don’t take me the wrong way. I’m not against Black Friday and I don’t think it should go away. I just think people should be a little bit more sensible whenever it comes to how they act in public. Especially considering when Black Friday falls on the calendar. And if you are one of those people who would get into a fight over a purse after Thanksgiving, you are a hypocrite.

Black Friday shopping needs to calm down. Just because you want to buy something and you are worried about being able to get it on time doesn’t mean that it is worth hurting another person or worse.

And yes these things do actually happen: in 2013 Jdimytai Damour was killed by a mob of shoppers after they trampled him to death; in 2008 a Wal-Mart employee was killed in a similar fashion in New York; in California two men shot each other two death after the women they were accompanying got into a fist fight.

This kind of behavior is insane and I cannot believe that it is happening and before you say “Well something like that would never happen where I live,” you might want to check the sales going on and think about how desperate people can get.

Occurrences like this may not happen everywhere and they may not even happen at all where you are from, but they do happen and something needs to be done about it. If I were a retail employee I would sooner quit than spend anytime near my store during Black Friday. It is almost like letting a herd of wildebeest loose in your store.

So as this Thanksgiving comes and goes try to look around at all that you have and realize that even if things don’t go perfect for you this Black Friday you shouldn’t get too worked up about it.

And if you can’t do that, maybe you should stick to Cyber Monday — at worse you’ll just punch your monitor really hard.

So hopefully I won’t have any experiences with trampling or aisle side fighting. I just want some new shirts. Wish me luck; hopefully I will make it out without injury and if not I’ll at least have a story.