CRAZED BARGAIN-HUNTING MOB STOMPS FELLOW SHOPPER



From the NY Daily News :

Sometimes the cost of being first is painful.

A Florida woman who was at the front of the line of a mob of Wal-Mart shoppers scrambling for $29 DVD players was knocked to the ground, trampled and suffered a seizure.

"She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants," said Linda Ellzey, who was just feet away from her 41-year-old sister, Patricia VanLester, when the wild-eyed crowd knocked her down Friday soon after a 6 a.m. siren blared for a holiday sale.

If you're like me, this story has left you shocked, outraged and flabbergasted. $29 for a DVD player?

If Ms. Van Lester had only been aware of Adbusters' "Buy Nothing Day", perhaps she'd still be hopping around like a healthy 41-year old. On the other hand, what's the point of being alive if you can't sleep overnight in front of Wal-Mart hoping for $29 DVD player?


(riot police, Downtown USA, turning the hoses on radical protesters who refuse to spend money)

I'm not impressed with Adbusters' campaign. If you're gonna take a stand against rampant consumerism and all-encompassing commercial exploitation of everything that moves, abstaining for a day is pretty fucking weak. How about "Buy Nothing EVER"? Certainly a more ambitious plan, but if you're gonna be cheap most of the time anyway, you might as well embrace an activist agenda (hopefully distracting others from your personality defects).

There is something on the Adbusters site about "Buy Nothing All Year" which eloquently talks about bartering for goods and services, but I've got two non-philosophical hang-ups with this :

1) my ISP isn't down with this bartering thing. They want cash, cheque or credit card payment in exchange for reading Adbusters' wildly entertaining fantasies. I offered to mow their lawn, but no dice.

2) the plan seems sensible, if a bit utopian. But nowhere does Adbusters explain how I'm supposed to get a $29 DVD player


Posted: Sat - November 29, 2003 at 06:33 PM      

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