This is a particularly competitive holiday season. Merchants are finding themselves overloaded with inventory and marking down prices to compete with competitors in similar situations.
Meanwhile, consumers are trying to score holiday gifts at good prices. By this point in December every year, the freeway exit into our local mall typically is backed up onto the travel lanes by midday every weekend. This year, the backup is even worse.
An Unfortunate Event
Yesterday there was an unnecessary and regrettable incident at another mall in New Jersey.
The parking lots were full, and a teenage woman (with a driver's license) located a parking spot that another shopper was preparing to leave. The young woman activated her turn signal and stopped to wait until the space was emptied so she could park.
Along came another woman, 48 years old, in her own car. She stole the newly empty space before the younger waiting woman could park her car in it.
I know what you're thinking: The waiting teenager got angry and made a scene.
But that is not what happened.
The woman who ignored the traditional parking etiquette of shopping malls got out of her car, carrying with her a 15-inch metal pipe.
When the younger woman remonstrated, the older woman swung her pipe and struck the teenager in the back of the head.
The older woman has been arrested, and the younger woman is nursing a head injury.
Here is the lesson: Holiday shopping is important, but it is not that important. It is not worth getting clocked with a heavy object. It is not worth getting a criminal record.
Friends and relatives of both women would prefer not to receive gifts than to receive gifts obtained under such perilous circumstances.
Why do I have to explain these things?
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