Cyber Monday, The Biggest Online Shopping Day

If you didn't fall into the chaos of Black Friday, then on the Monday returning to work after the long holiday weekend, you may be one of the millions of people that is partaking in "Cyber Monday". What is Cyber Monday? Well it's the equivalent of what Black Friday is to shopping at the mall, but Cyber Monday is shopping online. The so-called Cyber Monday phenomenon once again played out as workers returned to their 9-5 grind taking advantage of high-speed connections at the office to continue shopping. Many people are saying "forget it" to driving out to retailers and instead are jumping aboard the information superhighway and giving e-tailers (electronic retailers) their business.

Traffic to retail websites by North American shoppers was up almost 50% on Cyber Monday as compared to a month ago. Peak online shopping traffic by online retailers reached more than 1.8 million visitors per minute in North America and more than 3.1 million visitors per minute worldwide, this according to the Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail. Sites like eBay, Best Buy and Target came in as top shopping sites. Now I should be giving you all the statistics like how much is spent online shopping, how long the average consumer spends online shopping for the holidays and all that other crap, but all this shopping talk is making me feel light headed. So let's just assume that big bucks are being passed thru cyberspace and that Betty over there tucked quietly in her cubical, well she has been on Amazon.com for 4 straight hours now. Forget the TPS reports, she's busy pricing out Xbox video games for her twin boys.

I will say this though on the topic of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you are crazy if you were one of the people who sought out this shitty laptop photographed above. Walmart is partially to blame for inducing those riots over the weekend due to the fact that they put out flyers advertising a $400 laptop, but yet they didn't understand the basic concept of supply and demand. Let me explain it to you for those that failed Economics in college. Any product is only as good as it's supply and demand tied to it. Basically, if you have an abundance of a product and there is no demand for it - the retailer loses because they can't move the product off the shelves. If you have a shortage of a product and the demand for it is overwhelming - the retailer either has to jack up the price to help curb the demand, or they may be facing some very angry shoppers. Such is the case Walmart found themselves in with this dirt cheap laptop.

There is a saying in life "you get what you pay for" and that statement is true. Who in their right mind believes this $400 Walmart no-brand laptop is any good? Trust me, it's crap. Don't think you are doing that computer illiterate person in your family a favor by getting this for them. You are doing them a disservice. Granny will go mad trying to get the thing to run right. Do me a favor, if you were dumb enough to pick this gift up, don't come to me when the thing doesn't work properly. I will be forced to smack you over the head with it for making such a foolish purchase in the first place. Hmm, maybe the Walmart laptop can serve a purpose after all - as a weapon.

Related posts of interest...

• 11/25/05 Black & Blue Friday
• 08/23/05 iBook Sale Turns To An Ugly Stampede
• 04/05/05 Studies Reveal Your Work Productivity or Lack Thereof