Disturbing activity on Black Friday

[shesulsa]

There we were, my friend and I, shivering and entertaining ourselves people-watching and trading jokes with other chilly souls in line in the wee hours on Black Friday outside Kohl's when we were taken aback at something we hadn't seen before.

Several young men and one young lady showed up trying to register people to vote.

Even more incredibly - people were putting their names and addresses down on official-looking papers hauled by these young people.

I wanted to shout, "No! You can register at the Department of Licensing or a local school at any time - don't give out your physical address to people you don't know at 3:00 in the morning outside of a department store!"

Alas, I held me tongue.

Thoughts?

 

[Xue Sheng]

First thought....Black Friday is disturbing to me.

As for the rest, I most certainly would not have signed it and I may have asked them loudly for proof that they were who they claimed but not being there I real can not say what I would have done.

You know what they (whoever they are) Hindsight is 20/20

 

[Carol]

That's...just...bizarre...

I'm not sure what I would have done, but I certainly wouldn't have given them my physical address.

 

[morph4me]

It's amazing at how much information you can get from people just by asking questions, especially if you carry a clipboard.

 

[Big Don]

If you act like you know what you are doing and where you are going and carry a clipboard 98% of the time no one will question you.
I'm with Xue, Black Friday is bizarre enough without this.
Some voter registration drives are legit, some are run by ACORN...

 

[theletch1]

People, as a general rule, are stupid. A person can be brilliant but people are stupid. I was recently at an auto parts store that requests your address, phone number when you buy something. It has to do with their warranty program. There was a young lady in front of me that wasn't in their system and gave her name, phone number, address in a conversational tone of voice. She had just requested a part for a specific make and model of vehicle. Had I been a predator it would have been far to easy to find her. I discussed what had happened with the clerk (I've been buying from the guy for years) and he promised he'd begin offering a pad of paper to folks to write down the info from now on. Will he? Probably, but he's not the only guy in the store. What get's me, Georgia, is that when you point stuff like your observation and mine out as not being the smartest thing in the world you often get an odd luck and a dismissive "Oh, you're just paranoid." Frustrating.

 

[Tez3]

You are going to have to explain what Black Friday is and why anyone would be outside a department store at that time of the morning!

 

[celtic_crippler]

I would have put down something like
Fred Flintstone
100 Rock Lane
Bedrock, BC 00001

 

[CuongNhuka]

Tez, It's the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's the number one shopping day in the whole country, and a worker at a Walmart died last year because some fat cows were so exicted to do on that day the same ****ing thing they could do any day of there lives that they trampled him to death.

The whole event needs to be banned.

 

[grydth]

You are going to have to explain what Black Friday is and why anyone would be outside a department store at that time of the morning!

Tez, you don't want to know...... it reflects all the worst things about the modern USA and none of the good ones.

We get enough dumb trends/fads from other countries; let's hope the UK doesn't catch this one from us!

 

[CoryKS]

I'm curious to know who that group belonged to. Usually the voter registration canvassers tend to align politically with the kind of folks who like to look down their noses at the 'consumerist sheeple' who would participate in events like Black Friday, so it's puzzling to me who they are trying to get to the polls.

Of course, someone who would wait in line at 3am for a $50 dvd player might be just the kind of person who would vote for the guy who promised to give them free stuff.

 

[Tez3]

Must admit I don't understand the voter registration bit either. To vote in this country you have to be on the Electoral Register and every year an official form is sent to each house by post so you can register.
Black Friday sounds fun

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Must admit I don't understand the voter registration bit either. To vote in this country you have to be on the Electoral Register and every year an official form is sent to each house by post so you can register.
Black Friday sounds fun

In the US, since voting is handled by the state one lives in, voters generally have to go to a designated location to register to vote.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration#United_States

 

[grydth]

If you must know about the disease of Black Friday.... make one of the 'Brit Bashers' tell you.opcorn:

 

[Gary Crawford]

That IS disturbing. Obviously taking advantage of a captive audience(in line,not wanting to loose place). I am afraid that would have inspired the little jerk in me to come to the surface that questions exactly "Who do you work for and what is their phone number and address?" " Can I see some ID?" ect,ect...

 

[Gordon Nore]

Thoughts?

My first thought is that people who fell for that ploy to get names and addresses get to vote?

Curious if the people with the clipboards were checking IDs. On the one hand, it would be foolish to show ones ID to someone who hasn't demonstrated the right to ask for it. On the other, if these folks weren't checking IDs, how exactly would they be able to register someone?

As for not speaking up, Black Friday -- combined with stress, stupidity and greed -- has been the source of unpleasantness. We don't have Black Friday as such in Canada; however, retailers here rely on the Holiday shopping season to make their year, so we have our moments. My missus once witnessed a fistfight in December at the checkout at Toy R Us. I'd say the choice not to speak up was just as well.

You can't put a force field around people's foolishness.

 

[Deaf Smith]

I don't go around giving my address to anyone like the ones mentioned. Might give them a fake one though....

But still, that's a good way to have thieves come by (or worse.) And a beginning of a name theft (called true name fraud), especially if they get your birth date or SSN (and giving out your SSN is the height of stupidity.)

Beware people, between the holiday season and the recession, it's a great time to run into thieves (or worse!)

Deaf

 

[CuongNhuka]

Must admit I don't understand the voter registration bit either. To vote in this country you have to be on the Electoral Register and every year an official form is sent to each house by post so you can register.
Black Friday sounds fun

Thats because when America was made, it made sense to have individual states register there own people. When the British created the voting elements of there government, they looked at us, and realised how stupid it was. Unfortunatly, everyone is looking at America, but Americans only look at others when they want to make a profit.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Alas, I held me tongue.

Thoughts?

1) you can't cure stupid.
2) 3 A.M. is too bloody early to get into arguments with strangers.
3) if you carry some official looking papers and act like you belong, then 99% of the people will go along with it.

 

[shesulsa]

They didn't seem too aggressive about "getting out the vote" as it were and it's not as though they were trying to capture people as they were either walking in or walking out of the store - these people weren't going anywhere.

Why not address them en masse if the organization was legit?

And frankly, I didn't speak up because I didn't want to be on the news for starting, getting into or ending some sort of confrontation and as theletch1 pointed out, oftentimes when you try to help people they resent the hell out of you for it.