Did you shop on Black Friday? Do you wonder why people are so crazy about shopping during that day?

As I watched the news about shoppers the day after Thanksgiving, I wonder why people act so carelessly. There is plenty of footage showing people camping overnight at the stores or trampling people just to get inside the store.

Have you ever wondered why these great savings are only during the Friday after Thanksgiving?

One of the oldest techniques in advertisement, is the “limited resources” effect. We tend to value things by the level of availability. For example, the more scarce the commodity, the more valuable it is. That is why retailers use the “deadline technique“. This technique states that an item can be purchased only during a specific time for a specific price. Afterward, the price will go up. We tend to place a sense of urgency when things are scarce or limited. With the deadline technique, customers tend to do extreme things just to get that “unique” sale.

One of the things that always bother me about these selling techniques is how the stores encourage people’s careless behavior when it comes to shopping. Now, I’m not saying that they are overtly saying to trample people, but they have been slow to deter people from doing so. I always say, “not being vocal against it, is being silently for it“. Many stores open the doors and let people run like wild bulls around the store. We all have seen the videos where people fall and others continue to run over the fallen person. As the years pass by, it gets worse. Just look at the Wal-mart worker who died on one of those stampedes.

Now there are two elements that come into effect, one is the deadline technique and the other is diffusion of responsibility. As stated before, if stores do not label the sales as a scarce thing, people will take their time looking for better deals. The other factor comes into play from the consumer point of view. In the cases where people get trampled, NOBODY and I mean NOBODY stopped to help the injured person. People elected to get a good deal than prevent an injury or even the death of a person.

It is interesting the length that we are willing to go for us to acquire things that bring temporary pleasure. You never see that kind of patience for things that remove discomfort, but that is a topic we will discuss in the future.

For me, Black Friday does not represent an economic term. Black Friday represents one of the darkest times in consumer behavior.

What about you? What do you think about Black Friday? Do you shop until you drop?