Black Friday. Cyber Monday. The numbers are still coming in for Cyber Monday, but early returns have already deemed Black Friday an economic success. The National Retail Federation reported that average spending increased by more than $20 a person this Thanksgiving weekend compared last year's numbers. This increase may be a sign of a recovering economy, but may also suggest that consumers are falling into the same traps that caused the recent economic crisis.
Without a doubt, the electronics industry has dominated Black Friday. People line up in front of Best Buy before they even eat their Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing. Usually, this would indicate that these people are waiting in line for first dibs at the cheapest electronics, but now it seems they are waiting in line to be the first to grab the new releases.
Nintendo sold over 1.5 million gaming consoles last week, 600,000 of which were Wiis. Microsoft, meanwhile, launched a similar system called the Kinect, while Apple upped its marketing for the iPad. Digital camera advertisements, on the other hand, continue to infiltrate our plasma HDTV, which is connected to the best surround sound system in the neighborhood. But if we take a step back, we would realize that this reckless and frivolous spending does more harm than good.
Like most students, I watched more television during the holiday break than I normally would at school and could not help but notice the number of fitness, dancing and singing video games being released this season. Among these include a dance video game for Michael Jackson: The Experience and an EA SPORTS exercise game called Active 2.
The absurdity of these commercials was dumbfounding. Will people actually buy these games? The same people who said the economy was their biggest concern last month during the midterm elections? Are advertisements and marketing tools that influential?
For people with the means, spending $50 on a video game is a mere drop in the bucket. Spending any amount of money on a game that instructs someone to run or to do pushups, however, is unreasonable. And paying to dance or sing at home is equally irrational. A free alternative for these games is simply lacing up a pair of sneakers and going outside or getting a mirror to watch yourself dance. There is no need for the aid of electronics. The games' conveniences do not outweigh their financial cost.
Another hot item is the iPad, which essentially is an oversized smart phone or a very fragile, slow laptop. Apple obviously is targeting the technologically savvy - people who probably already has a smart phone and a high-tech laptop. The high demand of the iPad despite its functional redundancy and goofish appearance is another reminder of what we should not be: wasteful spenders.
But one could argue that these are just fads; buying these products does not mean Americans have forgotten about the recession or unemployment. But there are inexpensive fads on the market. Silly Bandz - those colorful, shaped rubber bands that are popular among kids - for example, are relatively cheap toys. Adopting this fad would not put a financial burden on anyone. On the other end of the price spectrum are the $500 iPad, $90 EA Active 2 and the $50 Michael Jackson: The Experience. A couple of dollars on some rubber bands does not seem so bad in comparison.
Although tens - or hundreds - of dollars spent on unnecessary video games pale in comparison to the cost of a home, the misguided consumerism mentality is similar in both cases. The housing market collapse should have been a lesson for individuals to purchase within their means, which means resisting the urge to indulge in extravagant purchases.
Whenever I witness outrageous spending, I am reminded of the Allstate commercial in which Dennis Haysbert, the "Gecko" of Allstate Insurance, reminds the audience that "in the last year, we've learned a lot. We've learned that meatloaf and Jenga can actually be more fun than reservations and box seats. That who's around your TV is more important than how big it is." Have we already forgotten these lessons? The spirit of Thanksgiving is shifting from appreciation of the little things to selfish desires for trivial fads. Let us return to the meatloaf and Jenga that humbled us just a year ago.
Hung Vu's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.
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