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Occupy targets retailers on Black Friday
The Occupy movement is taking on the biggest retail day of the season, calling on protesters to occupy major retailers on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
"OCCUPY BLACK FRIDAY by occupying/boycotting large chain stores and publicly traded retail" is the message posted on the website stopblackfriday.com.
The movement contends that 1% of the country is making money at the expense of the other 99%.
"The credit cards the 99% overcharge will allow the 1% to enrich themselves gluttonously on the backs of hardworking people who simply want to provide a memorable time for their families," the website says.
"So just imagine what would happen to the 1% if the 99% did not spend on Black Friday."
The site asks protesters to target only "publicly traded large businesses" and support small businesses "that serve our local communities."
The site lists Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon.com, AT&T Wireless, Burlington Coat Factory, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dollar Tree, The Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, Office Max, Toys "R" Us, Verizon Wireless and Wal-Mart as businesses that should be boycotted or occupied.
"We are NOT anti-capitalist, just anti-crapitalist," the site says.
Are you participating in an Occupy Black Friday protest? Send your iReport.
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Why is the Dollar Tree on there list? All I see are poor people going to Dollar Tree, trying to make what little money they have go as far as possible.
Because they are ignorant tools who don't even understand what they are supporting.
OK children. Playtime is over. Either find a cohesive and legitimate cause, or go play in some other sandbox. You are really looking foolish now.
We are the 98%, and WE say: "Focus, people! Focus!"
This is great!!!!! I always get bored waiting outside these stores. Now at least I will be occupied arguing or beating down some communist hippie! Thanks!
*LOL*
We have been living a delusion. There is no Santa Clause. Santa is really a big fat CEO with his powerful red suit on and his elf’s are really little Asian kids in sweatshops around Asia. His sled is actually a big Wall mart supply ship heading are way.
OWS against Black Friday shoppers. OWS are going to get hurt haha
Good luck with that JohnnyohBoy, when one of those protestors you think is a "communist hippy" turns out to be a battle-hardened veteran just home from his 5th tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, suffering from PTSD after being blownup by an IED for the 3rd time and just looking for an excuse to school some retard like you. I know I'll laugh when your beat down makes it onto youtube.
This has now arrived at rediculous. The group wants to further hurt the 99% by boycotting. Sure the corporations make a lot of money, but what about the needed money that the additional workers earn and that many of the sales people get commisions. They are hurting the ones they are claiming to want to help. Not to even mention that in the holiday season, we all drop some money into the charity baskets such as the Salvation Army outside many of these stores. The managers of these stores are not the 1%, what is the point you are trying to make. "I am upset with wallstreet, so I want to take out as many people as possible"???
I personally think this whole movement is ridiculous! I'm not rich...I live on a budget. I paid my car off over 4 years, and I'm working on paying off my credit card debt. I worked my way through college while raising a child as a single parent because I knew I had to in order to make a life for her. Sure, I now work for a big corporation after they purchased the small company I worked for, but it is still an income and provides benefits to my family. By boycotting the retailers, you are only hurting the workers. You say we need to hit their pocketbooks to get their attention? All they will do is cut costs to keep the profit level, and these cuts will come in the form of layoffs, cutting benefits to it's workers (i.e., putting more burden on the worker in terms of insurance deductibles in lower coverage insurance plans), raising prices, etc.
You're missing the point entirely. They are urging people to boycott the big businesses and shop at local, small business instead. The local, small businesses which are the actual engines of economic growth. The big businesses will layoff employees regardless of how they do on Black Friday so that they can continue to pour millions of dollars in campaign cash into the pockets of politicians to keep their corrupt systems going strong. Small businesses can't afford to spend millions buying politicians.
Well said. No one is forcing people to go shopping on Friday. The Holiday season is a make or break time of year for alot of retailers. Boycotting them will only lead to lay offs for the 99%. These "occupiers" are nothing but commie idiots.
No Lankard, you are the one that does not get it. This hurts innocent people and does nothing to help achieve OWS stated goals. These people are anti-capitalist. The corps have infiltrated goverment, no one is disputing that, but its the politicians that let the corps in the door. Blaming the corps instead of the politicians is like blaming your dog for eating a steak you left one the floor.
What is wrong with these people??? They act as if someone holds a gun to the 99% heads and forces them to charge things they can't afford onto their credit cards !! People please take SOME responsibility for YOUR OWN actions!!
It's not that the changes are happening instantly, but rather a gradual change that you have to pay attention to notice. But it's when you look back from a longer period of time that most will notice the change.
It's best not to think of the cost of items as a $ amount, but when you consider cost as how many hours you have to work to purchase an item.
Lets look at one notable comparison:
In 1999, a gallon of gas cost between 1.40 and 1.99 while minimum wage (in Michigan at least) was $5.25 per hour. In man-hour costs, a gallon of gas cost between 16 and 22.7 minutes of work at minimum wage.
In 2011, a gallon of gas cost between 3.19 and 3.89 while minimum wage (Michigan again...) was $7.40 per hour. In man-hour costs, a gallon of gas cost 25.8 to 31.5 minutes of work at minimum wage.
When this change is repeatable in almost every basic commodity, It get's noticed by more than the vigilant.
OWS=anarchy.
OWS = stupidity and laziness it does not equal anarchy. Anarchy is a totally different idea.
These guys are being idiots, if they dont shop to hurt the "1%" more of the "99%" will lose there jobs! We need comerce , We need spending, We need people to work. The true "99%" are all the hardworking people, poor, middle class, upper middleclass, and rich who get up each morning work to make a living and support there families. The protestors seem to be younger kids, union reps trying to take attention away from cadillac benefit plans and overtime spiking and double dipping etc, and people on the system who dont want to work and collect from the system. Yes everyone should pay fair share, Yes rich can contribute more but the 1% pay 40% of all the taxes! In the US more than half of people dont pay taxes! ZERO! We have too many people who dont look for a job while on benefits until they run out, So Lets stop pension and Union Fraud, Stop tax evaders who dont report true income, Stop Social Security and Welfare fraud, increase taxes for some of the top earners a little, and make some cuts everyone is happy. The real 99% is the people who work every day and are getting squeezed ! The ones who will lose jobs if the protestors distrupt black friday. The ones who are effected most by the economy – remember the rich still have money, the Union employees still have great benefits and garanteed pensions, and the poor still have goverment assistance. The other middle class has to work and make ends meet! The 99% protestors arre more like 12% who can do something more productive than protest.
Only partly correct. Most jobs are created by small businesses – business owners that are PART of the 99%. Significantly hurting the top retailers profit margins would probably result in them cutting jobs, but if we instead drive the customers to small, local retailers, the money would stay in our local economy and create jobs to replace them, and the workers employed there would see more of the value of their labor in their paychecks.
What is stunning is reading the comments here and they are NOT in favor of the OW protesters. Yet, pResident Obama and the mainstream in his pocket keep telling us how they support this protest!
Your ability to selectively read only those comments which support your worldview says a lot about you.
Facts are Facts, just read the reports on different website news and compare. Though I believe some in the mainstream media like Chris Mathews of MSNBC has lost that thrill going up his leg!
OK, Occupiers, settle down. You enjoy a large amount of support, or at least toleration, from the average American. I can assure you, getting in a shopper's way on Black Friday is a public relations faux pas.
ATTENTION FELLOW OWS COMRADES ! You no like evil capitalism? Now that your feeble protest fail miserably, please come to lovely and glorious Peoples Republic of North Korea! You no work, glorious government give you everything. All free! You get little gray suit to wear, little gray cap with red star, little gray shoes with holes, free job in big gray factory, and free lunch of gray soup with dead fish. Please to leave hippie chicks at front gate for gender reassignment, and please to leave all evil green American dollars with government official for redistribution. You no like capitalism? You will love socialism, we promise!
That is a foolish statement.
LOL pretty funny.
Elan, you are correct, "it's not a crime to be wealthy." The "wealthy have insured that by lobbying lawmakers to pass legislation guaranteeing their right to be so, and greedy whenever they choose. Don't you think there is immorality involved when, for example, Nike pays $1.59 per pair of footwear produced in Indonesia, and sells each of those for $150 in their retail outlets? That's the question OWS is raising and confronting.
I'd say there is something less than perfectly ethical about the top hedge fund manager making over $1billion (yes, that's a "B") in personal income in 2009 by manipulating imaginary money and then only paying 15% capital gains taxes on it, while the rest of us pay significantly more and can't afford to buy our own politicians.
And yet with allll of this commentary, I have yet to see anyone do anything BUT complain about the situation. I would love to see people actually saying "what we're doing isn't working, I think that if we do *thus and such* America would be okay again". All I'm hearing is "whine whine whine, they bad evil terrible, things need to change!" but never any constructive ideas as to WHAT we should change, and HOW.
Anyone?
Most of the posts are missing the point. They are saying to support local businesses and not to charge on your credit card. How is that bad? Stop supporting companies who send jobs overseas. Buying locally made items and local businesses means more jobs for Americans. How is that bad?
It's bad because "Occupy" will be getting the faces of consumers trying to prevent them from making their own decisions. All they will accomplish is to p1ss a lot of people off.
Ok, Occupy just Jumped-the-Shark. This is silly and clearly anti-commerce, anti-business. They are validating the right wing narrative that calls them extreme leftists / communists. Occupy will continue to lose support with this nonsense. Let's close all businesses and equally share everything. Karl Marx would be proud.
It is a joke that the banks get 2-4% of every credit card transaction. I run a small business and it kills us.
jerrycc
It is a joke that the banks get 2-4% of every credit card transaction. I run a small business and it kills us.
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I wasn't aware that you were responsible for collecting the credit card debts from people who decide to charge up their cards and then renege. Are they in the business of working at a loss to allow you to accept credit cards?