Dear editor:

This year millions of shoppers spent a whopping $52.4 billion on Black Friday weekend. Several major companies, including Walmart and Target, have no moved heir Black Friday opening times to Thanksgiving Day, in an attempt to pull in greater profits. These companies take advantage of a raging consumerism that immediately follows Thanksgiving, which seems to reveal a hypocrisy in the American people; saying ?thank you? one day and ?gimme? the next.

Obviously, such blatant greed is not the motivation for all shoppers on Black Friday. However, the intensity of the shopping frenzy displays some of the baser human emotions such as greed and covetousness. Occurrences like fights, stabbings, and a pepper-spraying show complete disregard for the health of our fellow man. Also, increasing numbers of shoppers spend much of their money on themselves, instead of for gifts for others, the original purpose of Black Friday.

Consumers are not the only ones at fault on Black Friday. Many of the businesses involved encourage frantic shoppers with dramatic openings and huge sales. In, addition, many companies that open on Thanksgiving pull employees away from their homes, crushing the holiday’s family atmosphere.

While it is easy to point the finger at this materialistic behavior, many of us fail to overcome similar selfish attitudes by ignoring others, who go hungry while we feast. Fresno is one of the poorest city in America, and many people are out in the cold while we buy multiple coats. Remaining unmoved by the needs of others is equally self-centered as actively seeking unneeded belongings.

However, this pattern of consumerism can be broken with enough effort. If we gave just one of our discounted purchases to the poor, maybe companies would follow suit and donate a portion of their profits to charity. Perhaps this would make the materialistic blight on Thanksgiving fade.

For more letters about Black Friday, read the Dec. 2 article, LETTER: Black Friday greed.