There is nothing useful on this web site.
Even though the internet is the source of all truth, the only truth here is that everything else is a lie.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.- Oscar Wilde
In the days leading up to Christmas I saw a lot of xmas news, which are stories of interest, served up in the absence of real news.
In Calgary, these were features on how much shoppers spend at christmas and how Calgary leads the nation in per-capita gift-buying. Wal-mart stores were open 24 hours in the week leading up to Christmas to serve the demand.
I confess to visiting a Wal-mart at 5:45am Christmas eve. Still dealing with jet lag and having been up an hour already, I walked over to the local Wal-Mart to get some wrapping paper. I visited a Starbucks after and read the paper.
You might say I was part of the demand, but really, I made no demands. There was no expectation on my part, and there would have been no disappointment if Wal-mart was not open.
The store at the time was not very busy. This did not, however, mean you could breeze through a checkout and be on your way. There was still a 10 minute queue at each of the 2 cash registers in operation, staffed by people who seemed intent on winning the Slowest Cashier of the Month award. I digress.
Boxing Day once was a holiday for most. In Calgary it has been replaced by Boxing Week, a week long phony sales event. It all begins with Boxing Day madness.
Stores advertise below-cost deals with the catch phrase "limit of 6 per store" or some other such nonsense, which apparently is an acceptable form of bait and switch advertising. B&S used to be illegal. Maybe it still is. Who cares?
People line up hours early, sometimes at 4:00am, to be the first and few to get a killer deal.
I wish I was making this up. I think these people are idiots.
I also have this theory that the companies who plan (advertise) these events spend much more on advertising then do on any real customer "discounts". But then maybe I'm an idiot. It's all a matter of perception.
And it gets better, or worse, depending on your perception.
On Christmas Day, Walmart issued a press release that outlined plans to have stores open 24 hours a day for boxing week.
I'm not quite sure how their employees greeted this news or how many knew of it before Christmas. It's not hard to imagine a few Walmart people being called on Christmas day and informed of a change in plans, of a new night shift slot that needs to be staffed.
There was some comment in the news about these plans, but precious little social commentary on this shift to a 24 hour economy. Questions like "Is there a need for this?" are left unanswered.
Walmart is clearly the leader on this. Other stores will blindly follow suit, for fear of being crushed by the competition.
In the business news, it was rationalized that it does not take many more workers to open a store for customers when a night shift is already stocking the shelves, and it's a good way to serve the new 24 hour economy.
It was the kind of journalism that would feel comfortable making the economic case for clear cutting a forest. My own experience with Wal-mart is that it could use more employees during the day to stock empty shelves and tally sales when the most customers are in the store.
Walmart claims that its workforce associates can always refuse the nightshift and that nightshift workers also receive a $1/hour premium.
Right!
Merry Christmas Walmart workers. Merry Christmas Canada. We stand on guard for thee.
The stores in the Netherlands might be open 7 days a week but many are not, even some of the biggest. It's very typical to be closed on Sunday and open late only one night a week. And it's pointless to get upset if a shop closes early when the weather is nice. Someday it may be explained to you that you're the one who doesn't get it.
This is one of the most populated places on Earth, over 1000 people per square mile. The foot traffic past the shop windows on Sundays and holidays is staggering compared to North American mall standards. The same can be said for the variety of shops to be found in the Netherlands. Calgary, in contrast, has the almost same shops in every mall.
But guess what? There is very little 24 hour shopping in the Netherlands.
The need is not there. This same mindset holds for most of Europe. Here, it seems, you have a right to a life.
Walmart has not done well in Europe. Let's hope it never does.