Door Crushers...

This is the first Christmas that I don't have any family members beside me. The experience is not as bad as I thought because friends invited me over to their Christmas dinners. This is the first boxing sales that I have the choice to go and buy whatever I want.

Since stores are closed on Boxing Day, boxing sales officially started today which is the twenty-seventh. I geared up myself yesterday night, hoping to get a LCD TV from Future Shop for $399. This is one of the door crusher promotions and I am informed that they will have at least 10 per store. I set my alarm clock at 5:30am because the store opens at 6am today. Well, after hard fought battle with my dream, I got to the future shop at 7am and the TVs were gone. I decided to buy some other door crusher items and I got a digital camera, some memory cards, a DVD recorder, a wireless router, and some accessory items. That costs a big fortune. Even worse, shopping is addictive and I spent like a thousand-naire the whole day. I got a pair of skates, a helmet, Christmas lights, cards and Christmas decorations. At the end of the day, I become a hundred-naire.

Having a giant sales event once a year helps stores to clear their unwanted inventories. Sales can be viewed as a type of price discrimination. This is far from perfect price discrimination, which is the most profitable for stores and most efficient for the society. When price discrimination is not feasible at all, take-it or leave-it pricing generates the most revenue for the stores. Take-it or leave-it pricing means there are no sales promotions and everyone, no matters who they are, always pay one identical price: Just take it or leave it.

Today, I experience the basic problem of economics: Wants are unlimited but resources are scarce. It is time for me to refocus myself and free myself from the shopping bugs... Casinos has some gambling prevention programs that forbid voluntary gambling addicts from entering the gaming facilities; should shopping malls introduce similar programs to discourage shop addicts from entering? Just a thought...