Black Friday critics refuse to see shop-athon’s merit

There’s been a lot of tongue-clucking about the excesses of retailers and shoppers on Black Friday, but I’m not going to join in.

The pre-Christmas shop-athon that’s creeping earlier into Thanksgiving Day has been portrayed by critics as an orgy of greed, but their sanctimony isn’t much prettier.

Retailers face increasingly cutthroat competition — not only from other Hawaii merchants, but also from online outlets that operate 24/7 and sell to customers perusing their laptops and cellphones while the turkey is cooking and the pumpkin pie is digesting.

For brick-and-mortar merchants to completely stand down on Thanksgiving Day and give online competitors a full day’s head start on the holiday shopping rush is economic suicide, and it’s hard to fault them for fighting to survive.

As for the shoppers, they obviously find the door-buster bargains compelling enough to brave the crowds, and many seem to actually enjoy being part of the camping out and shopping pandemonium — the same as those who stay out in the cold all night in New York City to claim a spot to glimpse the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

These are tough times. If hard-working folks take advantage of an opportunity to stretch their dollars and provide a better Christmas for themselves, their families and friends, what’s wrong with that?

One of the local TV stations got a shot of the first shopper in line at Toys R Us, Kale Rego of Waianae, and the look on his face was joyful as he entered the store.

"The economy is kind of going back up a little bit, and plenty more kids came into the world in my family," he said. How can you not respect a guy who goes through so much trouble and gets so much pleasure from making kids happy?

The same with Taesia Love of Aiea, who was shopping for 15 children in her family in the hope that "I can be the cool auntie."

There were reports of horrible behavior by deranged customers on the mainland, such as a pepper-spraying and a shooting, but holiday madness was around long before Black Friday.

Critics complain that it all contributes to excessive materialism, and maybe we do covet our stuff a little too much.

But our quickness to judge the personal choices of others can also be too much, as with the Occupy Hono•lulu protesters who bailed on their own families to stand on the sidewalk lecturing shoppers that they ought to be home with their families.

Personally, I prefer to slow things down over the holidays to rest and contemplate, and nobody stopped me from doing that: I didn’t leave the house during the weekend.

To each his own.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.