A Tampa woman is camping out waiting for black Friday sales. Will she be pepper sprayed?

[bluethruandthru]

I think not. In fact, I'll bet if there were a thousand more campers in line behind her, the police would be protecting them - not spraying them with chemicals.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/black-friday-christine-orta-tampa-woman-9-days-before_n_1101808.html

[sandyd921]

1. Well now, she's just doing her patriotic duty

as a consumer, don't cha' know.

[MedleyMisty]

2. Hopefully she'll be shunned

for giving financial support to our enemies.

And it does my heart good that there's not a thousand more campers. We're in a war for the planet. We will not win this war by giving the corporations even more money to screw us and destroy us with.

[Lorien]

18. "Best Buy" is not "our enemy"

unless you can show that the CEO of Best Buy is actively swindling masses of taxpayers or lobbying congress to change laws o benefit themselves and harm the rest of us. Banks are doing that. Exxon-Mobil and BP are doing that. Best Buy? Not so much.

[malthaussen]

3. Damn, there goes the neighborhood

Those people should stay out of our nice Hoovervilles.

-- Mal

[FarCenter]

4. Looks like it is a free standing store, and not a mall location

Therefore, it is up to Best Buy management to ask the police to remove her.

[frazzled]

5. No, but they should have her head examined.

Maybe it's full of pepper.

[treestar]

6. Whoever's property she is trespassing on

Is unlikely to complain.

But if they wanted her off and called the police, the police would take the same steps they would normally take to remove her.

[hack89]

7. Well, considering it is private property and the owner has no problem with it, what do you think? n

[NYC_SKP]

8. Not if the store isn't complaining about it. (nt)

[HopeHoops]

9. That's just always made me shake my head in amazement.

The largest Sunday paper of the year is Thanksgiving day and it is only the "largest" because it is crammed full of black Friday ads. That makes it REALLY simple to sort through for recycling/reading. If they're out there right now, they don't even know what the hell will be "on sale". And I've always wondered how bathroom needs are addressed in those queues. Maybe I don't want to know.

[MADem]

10. She's on private property. If the store doesn't mind her there, she's good.

If the store doesn't want people on their property ahead of their big sale, she could have trouble. Of course, the store DOES want her there--why? The media is covering it. Spell the name of the store right, please--and repeat it often.

It's all down to self-interest; the store likes the free publicity, the customers like the excitement and esprit de corps they find from camping out with complete strangers for a common consumer cause--who doesn't like to boast about the "great deal" they got on something, as though they are smarter than the merchant? And of course, they thrill to the excitement of a potential purchase itself, for its own sake. Oooooh, the latest iCrap!!! My, my, my, a TV the size of an aircraft carrier! Who can live without these things?

In reality, when you factor in the value of their time (which they apparently undervalue) and the discomfort they are enduring, they are, in fact, saving a very small amount of money on a consumer item that will likely be deeply discounted after the new year.

It's just not germane, though, to compare getting in line for a consumer item to OWS protests. The only thing these two stories have in common is tents.

[Initech]

11. The one time I ventured out on Black Friday I turned my car around and immediately went home.

After I saw the line at Best Buy wrapping literally around the building, I was just like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc

[Rochester]

12. hahahaha. Check out these lines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD4ECvJ_U5U

[Initech]

15. That is freaky. I swear that's my Best Buy in that video.

:scared:

[Rochester]

16. Given your location, it's probably not, but they do mostly look similar.

[Initech]

17. That's true - they do look mostly similar - at least on the outside.

[malaise]

13. I asked that same question a few days ago

The responses were interesting

[tritsofme]

14. Analogy fail. nt