Black Friday Madness

This past Friday marked another one of the saddest traditions known to man-Black Friday.  On Black Friday, consumers rush into stores, pummeling and mauling others in an effort to get that 'great deal' or 'huge discount'.  This so-called holiday seems to get more chaotic and violent every year.  Check out this video of two women fighting over a 23in LCD TV in Wal-Mart:

After watching this I couldn't help but wonder, are the discounts on Black Friday great enough to warrant this type of behavior?  It would seem as though the common assumption is that retailers stock up on goods and mark down the ones that don't sell, thus benefitting the consumer.  But in reality, retail profit margins tend to be higher in the holiday season, despite all the promotions.  So while consumers think that flat screen TV for 40% off is worth trampling others over, the truth is that a lot of the discount is already priced into the product.  Retailers have trained consumers to shop for deals and be entranced by discounts.  Unfortunately, many do not understand this and that is why we witness the kind of behavior in the video above.