[..] things have gotten much worse. A friend of mine told me that when she worked at the local Staples, there was a family that would show up anytime anything was on sale, buy whatever the item maximum limit was, take them home, attempt to sell the items on eBay for a profit, and then later return anything they couldn't sell.
Worse? That's called arbitrage and it's been going on since the idea of commerce sprung up in human skulls. He seems to be passing a moral judgement on the practice but there's nothing wrong with it. If someone wants to spend their time buying, say, 10 laptops on sale at Best Buy for $299 and selling them on eBay for $349, that's (on the surface) an honest business, and gives people who don't want to go to the store an opportunity to buy at a price they still consider reasonable.
I think that his point is not that it's an unholy practice, but more so that, for general consumers, Black Friday isn't what it's portrayed to be.
It's one thing if a family wants to hop down to the local Best Buy after thanksgiving to see if they can find any good deals. It's another thing if that store is packed with people who had similar ideas.
It's a completely different thing if the store is made up entirely of professionals who have conducted advanced research, commissioned line placeholders, and are specifically targeting all the 'deals' for the purposes of arbitrage.
In other words, just because I like playing pickup basketball doesn't mean I'm morally opposed to professional ball. Additionally, it may be useful for me to know in advance that this weekend's "basketball in the park" day is actually a highly-competitive tournament.
Worse? That's called arbitrage and it's been going on since the idea of commerce sprung up in human skulls. He seems to be passing a moral judgement on the practice but there's nothing wrong with it. If someone wants to spend their time buying, say, 10 laptops on sale at Best Buy for $299 and selling them on eBay for $349, that's (on the surface) an honest business, and gives people who don't want to go to the store an opportunity to buy at a price they still consider reasonable.