12/4/2011 - by Chuck Monan, Preaching Minister

Avarice, the spur of industry.
—David Hume (1711-1776)

As I get older (and hopefully wiser), the appeal of Black Friday is increasingly diminished.  The notion of arising early to do urban battle is mystifying when the holiday season was so obviously created for giving thanks, drinking coffee, reading, eating, and watching football.

Apparently, I am in the minority.  Here are the numbers, according to Fashionista.com:

• $11.4 billion:  Total money spent by shoppers at retail stores and malls on Black Friday, according to the AP.
• $52.4 billion:  Total money spent by shoppers over the Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Fund.
• 226 million: Record-breaking number of shoppers who visited retailers or shopped online over the weekend, reported by the NRF.
• 90:  The percentage of shoppers who, according to a survey conducted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, planned to buy items for themselves of their families, compared to 10 percent of shoppers who said they planned on buying gifts for others.
• 20:  The number of shoppers injured after a woman fired pepper spray into a crowd in order to clear a path to a crate of Xbox video game players at the Porter Ranch Wal-Mart in California, according to CBS News.
• $398.62:  Average money spent per customer, reported by the NRF.
• $15,000:  Estimated amount of debt for the average American household, according to Capital Insider.
• 12AM:  The time when Target, Best Buy, Macy’s and Kohl’s opened their doors on Black Friday, earlier than ever before.
• 200,000:  Number of signatures an online petition garnered, urging Target to let their employees spend Thanksgiving Day dinner with their families, not their employer.
• 1:15AM:  The time when dozens of rabid bargain hunters stormed the Soho Hollister store, breaking through the door and looting armfuls of clothing, reports the New York Post.  Apparently, they had begun lining up outside the store hours earlier, not realizing that this particular location wasn’t opening until the next day – and clearly they were not pleased by the miscommunication.
• One:  The number of gunshot victims.  A man and his family were confronted outside a Wal-Mart in San Leandro by a group of men who demanded they hand over their purchases.  When the family refused, one of the thieves pulled a gun and shot the man, who is currently in critical but stable condition, according to Patch.com
• Two:  The number of suspects still being sought after gunfire erupted at a shopping center in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  There were luckily no injuries, reports the BBC.
• One:  The number of stabbing victims.  A man was stabbed after a fight broke out in front of a Macy’s department store at the Arden Fair Mall, reports the Washington Post.  The man was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
• One:  The number of men found dead at a Target in South Charleston.  The man collapsed from an apparent heart problem, reports the New York Daily News.  Scary: Shoppers ignored the fallen man, even at times stepping over his body.

Lest we think such heathenism is relegated to other places, there is a video on YouTube of a free-for-all battle royale at a local Wal-Mart as shoppers exploded into a riot, knocking each other out of the way in a desperate grab for $2 waffle makers.

If common decency and civility isn’t motivation enough to act like human beings, perhaps a little biblical teaching might help:  “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

Not even if one of those possessions is a $2 waffle maker.