The Day - How did we turn Christmas into this? | News from southeastern Connecticut:
By Paul Choiniere
Publication: The Day
Published 12/04/2011 12:00 AMUpdated 12/02/2011 11:22 PM
You want irony? Begin with a religious story that focuses on the birth of a child who believers accept as God incarnate. The setting for this birth is a stable, among farm animals. Doubling as the baby's crib is a feeding trough.
Whether you accept this story as an article of religious faith or consider it a myth, the symbolism is unmistakable; this God does not consider material possessions to be of much importance. This theme of the primacy of humility, servitude and repudiation of material things remain prominent in the adult life story of this itinerant spiritual teacher that followers consider a savior.
Fast forward a couple of millennium and how is this birth observed? It is the excuse for an orgy of year-end buying which, by some estimates, accounts for 25 percent of retail sales and 60 percent of retail profits in America. The ersatz holiday of this consumerist Christmas is Black Friday; when some are willing to trample or pepper spray their neighbor to buy things at bargain prices.
Now that's irony.
The deeply religious might see the work of the devil in this incongruous twist. The pragmatic will simply credit the genius of Madison Avenue marketers for developing Christmas as a commercial enterprise. Perhaps those alternate perspectives are a distinction without a difference.
Yet it might just be that this holiday indulgence is reaching its crescendo. The marketing strategies have perhaps become too clever by half. Black Friday was once an obscure term retailers used to describe the day after Thanksgiving, when consumers began their Christmas shopping in earnest and balance sheets shifted from red into the profitable black.
Now corporations go to extraordinary ends to convince consumers they have to camp out in lines outside stores to buy a few select products at a fraction of their normal cost. This season, waiting for Black Friday was not sufficient, with some stores opening late Thanksgiving night.
But the strategy has maybe become too effective, with consumers conditioned to expect their holiday shopping will involve only deep discounts. I suspect fewer shoppers each year fall for the bait-and-switch. When the products offered at near or even below cost prices are gone, they're not buying, awaiting further discounts.
While sales on Black Friday rose 6.6 percent from a year ago, generating a record $756 million in revenues according to early estimates, there are no assurances consumers will keep buying.
"Now, they're plotting more price cuts to keep wary consumers interested for the rest of the key retailing period," wrote the Wall Street Journal of retailers in its post-Black Friday story.
A cycle is set in motion. Consumers wait for deeply discounted items. Corporate retailers shrink the prices and cut the profit margin to keep sales going. Consumers demand yet greater bargains. Store employees, meanwhile, learn in January that despite all those great sales there is no money for raises and that health benefits (for those who have any) are being trimmed.
News organizations dutifully report how great all those Black Friday sales are for the economy. Really? It may be good for corporations and their investors, perhaps, but not so much for the rest of us. They manufacture most of this stuff overseas, primarily China, creating jobs there and providing China with more money that it then lends back to the U.S. government.
It doesn't seem to be doing much for the U.S. economy or job creation, however, no matter how much consumers run up their credit cards.
Perhaps this Christmas shopping season people will see fit to buy a few more gifts from local, small businesses, and a few less from the corporate retailers, even if it means paying a bit more. That keeps the money in the local economy and some of the items are actually made in the United States.
For those who observe it, a little less frenzy might allow a bit more time to appreciate the Christmas season, whether that is from a religious viewpoint or simply the childhood magic it can engender.
'via Blog this'
No comments:
Post a Comment