“Black Friday”: Scenes from the front

From James Wolcott:

The Baltimore TV stations likewise dispatched perky reporterettes to the nearby malls to interview shoppers who had camped out for hours to take advantage of “doorbuster” sales and were wheeling their loaded shopping carts to the parking lot, to feed the cargo space in their minivans and SUVs. It was all treated as wholesome, grinny, American ritual fun. But as I’ve said before and will say again, because it’s my blog: None of these shopping mall parking-lot TV correspondents ever interview the floor employees and managers of these stores, who have to cut their holiday short to stock and get ready for ever more nightowlish openings (Kohl’s, for example, opened its doors at 4 AM), or inquired about the additional security guards needed to ensure a riot doesn’t break out once the flat-screen TVs or $199 laptops are sold out.