Black Friday and the Mass Production Line of Consumers.

I stood in a queue that lasted over an hour because there was no order, there was no etiquette - there was just shopping.

On the stroke of midnight on the evening of thanksgiving thousands of people took to the mall, to stand in whatever extreme weather condition their state of residence felt like throwing at them that night. In the state I was in, it was freezing temperatures, I cannot give you the exact temperature because I have the inability to convert fahrenheit to celsius. These people were not queueing for Harry Potter or hot tickets, they were queueing for clothes, for televisions, for lingerie, for make up, perfume, shoes, bags, hats, jeans, mobile phones, computers, and every other object that has been created for the sole purpose of being consumed.

As I walked in to the mall at a little after midnight three young people darted across the car park shouting 'I've gotta get to the sales.' It was their way of mocking the consumer world they understood to be a farce, how long would it be, however, until they were saying those words with sincerity. With age comes responsibility and does that, in effect, bring unnecessary consumption?

The mall was packed, every shop and fast food area was open - I couldn't believe it because it was the evening of a holiday (granted a holiday I don't celebrate being British and all). There was one shop in particular that had a queue outside of it, and my accompanying consumer wanted that shop. So we queued, and queued. As we did I watched the line of people travelling up a nearby escalator, the noise that the escalator made, as each person was deposited on another level of shops, sounded so mechanical and so rhythmic it was almost as if the people themselves were being spewed off of a mass production line.

Then I realised that they were. Every single one of us. We are moulded and shaped in to consumers. We no longer have the upper hand. We are told that we need need need. So we buy buy buy to fit those needs. The prices of certain objects in the United States are so high in comparison to those of Britain, why? Because the population of the United States have been told that they 'need' certain things, so they won't refuse to buy something based on price if they 'need' it - will they?

That is where Britain and the United States vary. The dense population of the U.S. is such that companies can charge what they like because there are enough people to buy products to keep their company in business. Where as the UK have to fight over the target market, which leads to price slashing and deals in favour of the consumer. It doesn't matter which way you look at it, both populations are being persuaded to buy.

Black Friday is a purely post-thanksgiving U.S/Canada day, but the UK have their January sales and the pre-Christmas spend. It all started when shopping centres started opening on a Sunday. I remember hearing the radio advertisements for the first rare and unheard of occurrence. It was a grimy winter back in the mid 90s. I can only hope that the future of Britain is not a day named after the mirkiest and hopeless of colours where people will risk their health to queue outside a store and fight for the products they are under the impression they need.