Boxing Day Blues

I went to one of the local malls on Boxing Day. Boxing Day, for those of you not in Canada, is the one day of the year when stores try to sell off their inventory at discounted prices – it is the first day after Xmas.

Many people will line up over night to get into the stores first thing, trying to land those extra special discounts.

Maybe I’ve grown too cynical over the years, but I don’t really believe in Boxing Day sales. I think most stores actually raise their prices a few months prior to Xmas, so that when they hold these Boxing Day “sales” all they are doing is lowering the prices to the normal price.

Think about it – Xmas is the time when retail stores make or break most of their profits for the year. If they don’t do well during the Xmas rush, they will probably be out of business in the New Year. So it only makes sense for the stores to take full advantage of doing whatever it takes, to stay in business.

Which probably means raising prices for Xmas, and then lowering them back to what they should be after Xmas.

Hence Boxing Day sales aren’t really sale prices, they just appear to be so.

Still, people will do anything to get those Boxing Day “sale” prices. When I was in the mall on Boxing Day, people were overflowing everywhere – it was too crowded. People were also rude, shoving and pushing their way through the crowds.

Though manners have fallen to the wayside over the years, on Boxing Day, it appears manners don’t exist. Pushing and shoving is hardly proper behaviour for anyone.

I remember in the 1980s, when Cabbage Patch Kids were all the rage. People would start fights over the last Cabbage Patch Kid on the shelf. Police would be called in, and these morons would end up on the evening news, being escorted in handcuffs to jail.

These days, the toy which is causing the same rage is the Tickle Me Elmo. How can parents set a good example of proper behaviour, when they themselves don’t behave properly?

Parents going out of their way to secure a Tickle Me Elmo – even by brute force – what are they teaching their kids?

No wonder our society is screwed up. Kids think it is okay to knock someone’s lights out, because they see mommy and daddy do it over a toy.

I think we should rename Boxing Day to taking parents to jail day – because that is what it has become.

Or even better, maybe we should eliminate Boxing Day all together – the sales aren’t real, but the violence is. And we don’t need either.