According to the Urban Legends Reference Pages, Black Friday is only the fifth biggest shopping day of the year that leads to a sales shopping spree that climbs throughout the month of December. The report also said that this is the turning point for retailers’ statements because this period brings them out of the red into the black, meaning bigger profits.

Sales promotion days like Black Friday and Shop ‘Til You Drop sound like ones that may mean that if a shopper patronizes one, it may result in his demise.

I usually imagine Black Friday to mean that some shoppers will go to any extreme to purchase what they desire at record prices to the point of endangering other shoppers’ lives. I imagine Shop “Til You Drop to mean that the excitement and exhaustion that some shoppers experience while participating in them may make it too much for a weak heart to take.

If we followed the news about Black Friday, we could see what frantic behavior shoppers went to when the doors were opened to them on that day. People were knocked down, stomped on and some fought each other to retrieve a last item.

Days like this also draw races of people from all walks of life and some with severe mental problems, such as the one about a week ago who went on a shooting spree in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Wa., injuring six people. He even called 911 to let emergency operators know what he was going to do.

When he was captured a short time later, he told law enforcement officers that he didn’t know why he did it. This terrible incident brought me to another drastic thought.

Let’s suppose the shopper made one last purchase during a Black Friday or Shop ‘Til You Drop sales day, met with a terrible fate on one of these days, and purchased his last fabulous outfit on sale. The shopper’s family members may want to honor his memory of that day in that outfit when he is laid out in a horizontal position, with only one of two places to go. Hopefully, that particular fashion was not meant for hot weather. However, I hope nothing like this will ever happen and retailers will study situations that took place on the last Black Friday to make the next one safer.

As for me, I don’t avoid crowds entirely, but life is too short, so I don’t take part in sales promotion days and acquiring things and fashions are just not worth the sacrifice and energy on these particular days. However, I do realize that we can’t let people control how we live and what we do by their actions, which is the same logic that the President preaches about living a normal life when terrorists strike.

On a more positive note, a January White Sales Promotion Day is fast approaching and sounds a whole lot softer. So the shopper should go on and continue to enjoy what they love doing most.

I just think that it is disgusting the way shoppers usually act on Black Friday and Shop ‘Til You Drop days and the way they stampede into stores as soon as they fly open.

The reason that I associate this article with a shopper’s demise is due to the fact that the titles of the aforementioned sales days and stampedes on these days remind me of that old cemetery joke, “People are just dying to get in.”

Walls is a former News-Herald staff writer and regular contributor to this page.