What is it that's so horrifying about this story — besides the stark senseless shock of an innocent person's death? Is it the thought of someone who worked through Thanksgiving night being callously destroyed by a mob in search of cheap electronics? Is it the horror of the mob mentality? Is it the fact that people are so in need of bargains that they descend to this kind of frenzy? It's all of it, of course — and it's the complete fabrication that is Black Friday in the first place, a bizarre manipulation that the New York Times terms "a quintessentially American ritual of self-sacrifice at the altar of consumerism." But when that sacrifice becomes human, things have gone much, much too far.

The weird part is, apparently this was a subdued Black Friday: smaller crowds with smaller budgets, and smaller bargains than shoppers had expected. Black Friday's a day when a lot of stores make a profit: the frenzy of promotions and door-busting sales are no mere nod to consumerist tradition. Although it doesn't take a Lifetime "true spirit od Christmas" television movie to see that there might be something misplaced about making a family tradition of dawn-breaking bargain shopping — or the need for a treeful of expensive gifts — however offensive it might be to some sensibilities, it is not wrong. The people seeking bargains were not cold-blooded killers; question consumerism all you want, but anyone storming an already affordable Wal-Mart for bargain-basement prices is probably not flying private jets in his spare time. Doubtless anyone involved in this carnage, when they realized what had happened and the bargain-induced bloodlust had died down, was appalled and sickened. It is so easy to reduce tragedy to metaphor, but it feels horribly fitting here. It is a person's death, tragedy enough. And yet, why is there something of "The Lottery" about this horrible story, something that feels deeper and more disturbing than the sum of its parts?

Worker Dies At Long Island Wal-Mart After Being Trampled In Black Friday Stampede [New York Daily News]
Holiday Shopping At A Subdued Pace [New York Times]

If you're a bargain-hunter at a loose end this weekend, and you're anywhere near Secaucus, NJ, or Hebron, KY, then you should check out the two warehouse sales from those beautiful people at Design Within Reach.

They'll be offering up to 75% off on seconds, samples and overstocked products. Woooo! They'll also be open all day Saturday 17 and Sunday 18, and re-stocking as they go along, so you can totally blow a fortune on Saturday and then go back and blow another one the next day.

Oh, and they warn you to bring your own U-haul.

Shit, they must have seen us coming.

[Design porn]

And sometimes, we'll give you enough rope and watch with demented glee as you hang yourselves.

We're kind of leaning to the demented glee angle, with this one.

Now, we're not saying that you should ever wear Emilio Pucci purple stretch hotpants such as these:

In fact, we very much hope that you would have the sense to jab forks in your eyes rather than sport purple stretch hotpants, as the only people they will ever look good on are about 2lbs away from becoming the next dead anorexic model.

However, if you absolutely MUST, we would rather that you didn't cough up the full $285, when you can get them over at eluxury.com for just $85.

There. We now officially wash our hands of you.

[don't click here!]

.

It's reduced from a whopping $212, to an eminently more affordable $79, and it's knitted from baby alpaca. But nothing died, okay?

We briefly considered getting it before we remembered that our tits are far too big to carry it off, and anyway we'd just spill spaghetti sauce on it the first time we ever wore it and that would be it.

[We just love a bargain]