Front Page "News" on Black Friday

Black Friday did badly, says the Globe. For all I know, it's true, but the Globe's story is essentially a tale woven with nothing but anecdotal evidence and industry "experts" aka PR people. It's tough to get a sense of how the economy did on Black Friday when it's the Saturday after (not even, when that article was written). The Globe's piece reads more like recession spin and please-shop-pleas than anything journalistic, anything where we can actually learn something from.

If the Globe's into the lazy anecdotal stuff, allow me to explain just how packed the mall was at 7am in Peabody. A lot of people bought a lot of crap there and then, that's for sure - and it wasn't just electronics, for there's no Best Buys, Targets or Circuit City's there for people to buy those kinds of things.

Update: More asinine Black Friday stuff from the Globe (apparently one front-page Black Friday story isn't good enough). This is particularly offensive:

Call it the Black Friday Boycott.

They are the maxed-out, the debt-ridden, the recently unemployed.

Or how about the people who just didn't feel like herding around yesterday? Or the people with better things to do? Or the people who felt like shopping Saturday? Or the people who consider this a country of citizens, not just consumers?

There's nothing wrong with shopping on Black Friday, or buying an HD tv on sale, or whatever. But the Globe's quote says that anyone who didn't shop yesterday - or who outright boycotted it - did so because they were maxed-out, debt-ridden or unemployed. While I'm sure that describes some of the people who didn't shop yesterday, I'd wager there's far more people who just plain old didn't feel like it.

Update II: Just for extra fun, the Globe added another consumerism article on page one. Because, clearly, 10 "affordable" units at the Mandarin Oriental is front-page news. Truly, there's no good reason to buy the Globe today (or read it). You'd think with all these consumerism articles, they'd shine a light on the Walmart stampede and the employee it killed because of all the people Walmart got to line up outside before the store opened. Nope, that story got AP treatment and was buried.