{"id":16241,"date":"2012-11-22T01:33:51","date_gmt":"2012-11-22T08:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=16241"},"modified":"2012-11-22T01:34:03","modified_gmt":"2012-11-22T08:34:03","slug":"black-friday-grey-thursday-before-the-flood-a-pensive-wednesday-night-at-walmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16241\/black-friday-grey-thursday-before-the-flood-a-pensive-wednesday-night-at-walmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Friday? Grey Thursday? Before the flood, a pensive Wednesday night at Walmart."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I love Walmart. I am very happy to call myself a member of the middle class, and I take huge delight in cruising the aisles at Walmart, scoping out all the incredible deals. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don’t buy a lot of stuff, though. Away from TechToyz, I lead a pretty Spartan existence. But I love to see all that incredible wealth stacked floor to ceiling, knowing that it is the much-maligned engine of freeish-market capitalism that makes all that stuff available to me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’m not a Black Friday kind of shopper. We’re not all that Christmas-y, and I do not like to be crowded, not ever. But the phenomenon of Black Friday, especially at Walmart, is fascinating to me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We had to stop in at a Super Walmart late Wednesday night, and I took the opportunity to snap a few dozen photos of that store’s preparations for Grey Thursday and Black Friday. Every wide aisle in the store was lined with pallets full of shrink-wrapped merchandise, millions of dollars worth of stuff waiting to be sold between now and Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There were more staffers than customers in the store, and they were all busy getting ready. Black Friday takes its name from the sad fact that the day after Thanksgiving is the day most retailers reach the stage of profitability for the calendar year. In other words, storekeepers large and small work almost eleven months of the year before they make any profit at all.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Walmart might do better than that. Apple’s retail presence does a lot better. But retail is a hard way to make an easy living, and my bet is that it will get harder as the parasitic weight of government crushes more and more of the economy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, smug people like to sneer at Walmart for selling Americans goods they want to buy at prices they want to pay. I’m happy that some people are so rich that they can afford to spurn and scorn Walmart. But I’m happier still that Walmart is around to provide incredible values every day for people who work hard for their money and want to make it go Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Walmart. I am very happy to call myself a member of the middle class, and I take huge delight in cruising the aisles at Walmart, scoping out all the incredible deals. I don’t buy a lot of stuff, though. Away from TechToyz, I lead a pretty Spartan existence. But I love to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17662,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17662\/overnight-news-take-that-nascar-walmart-grabs-top-dumbass-of-2020-prize-at-last-minute\/","url_meta":{"origin":16241,"position":0},"title":"Overnight News: Take that, NASCAR! Walmart grabs \u2018Top Dumbass of 2020\u2019 prize at last\u00a0minute.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My prediction for \u201cThe New Normal\u201d is that the Chief Diversity Officer will dominate companies, going forward, overseeing the progressively-accelerating looting of corporate America \u2013 this being the best-case scenario, with Trump continuing as President. But: It remains that entities like NASCAR and Walmart need a Chief Redneck Officer in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4872,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4872\/should-walmart-sell-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":16241,"position":1},"title":"Should Walmart Sell Real Estate?","author":"Thomas Hall","date":"October 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It appears that Coldwell Banker may be following the Walmart approach to real estate pricing - recommending that sellers cut their home prices 10% across the board - not locally, but nationwide.\u00a0 I can't help but find the similarity to the McCain approach to cut government spending - simply freeze\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3301,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3301\/wordpress-plugins-like-shopping-at-walmart\/","url_meta":{"origin":16241,"position":2},"title":"WordPress Plugins- Like Shopping at WalMart","author":"Stephanie Edwards-Musa","date":"June 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever gone to the store and found odds and ends of things that you just can't live without?\u00a0 How about a tape measure for $2, set of plates for $10, etc.-and then get home and wonder where the heck you are going to put all of it? That\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Project Blooodhound"","block_context":{"text":"Project Blooodhound","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/project-blooodhound\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15143,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15143\/south-park-on-sixty-minutes-is-cbs-chasing-relevance-or-are-we-about-to-find-out-how-to-monetize-new-media-content\/","url_meta":{"origin":16241,"position":3},"title":"South Park on Sixty Minutes: Is CBS chasing relevance, or are we about to find out how to monetize new-media content?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When I saw the bags of Cheesy Poofs at WalMart, I knew everything was about to change for South Park. After all, the boys told us that they were looking for ways to make new-media content pay. First the movies, then the South Park Studios web site, then the Broadway\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17613,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17613\/overnight-news-how-you-gonna-get-em-back-in-the-swarm-after-theyre-beehive-free\/","url_meta":{"origin":16241,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: How you gonna get \u2019em back in the swarm, after they\u2019re beehive-free?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I think getting the rank and file back into the office is going to prove impossible. Apple-polishers may yearn for the visibility, but a 45-minute commute each way translates to a whole work-day of extra free time every week. Better yet, you can live anywhere... 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Our customers are leaving us in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16243,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16241\/revisions\/16243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}