I've decided recently that I really don't like American irony. It's too...ironic. I'm tired of it.
I mean, the star of Fast and Furious dying in a car wreck?
Back to local...on Monday we had a worse day than usual. That is, fewer people shopped through our links and bought stuff on "Cyber Monday" than on a normal Monday. A mundane old nuthin' special Monday.
You know what they say: Oh well. Thanks to those of you who did.
I just don't like irony any more.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Arg: "You need a 'Like' button. Your posts are funny. Even when you're losing money. (Is that another irony?)"
Jack Nelson: "Maybe your typical TOP shopper is just a tad too sophisticated to pay attention to manufactured events like 'Cyber Monday.'"
Mike replies: Good point. After all, I can't picture TOP readers slugging it out on the floor of Wal-Mart on Black Friday.
Irony? Is that like brassy or silvery? : ]
Posted by: Roger Bradbury | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 12:54 PM
As a whole I thought the online sales for Monday were really lackluster. Especially from the major retailers, I bought a few things from smaller sites, such as the relaunched 20x200 (now at youshouldbuyart.com if you are interested). It seems like retailers extended their hours and retracting their sales. Probably a good thing though, I have more stuff than I need as it is.
Posted by: Tim | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 01:15 PM
You need a 'Like' button. Your posts are funny. Even when you're losing money. (Is that another irony?)
Posted by: Arg | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 01:17 PM
I shopped through your link on Sunday. Guess I should have waited another day?
Posted by: Steve L. | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 03:16 PM
Well, I did my part by buying a Panasonic G6 with two lenses from B&H. It was just coincidence that I bought it on Cyber Monday. By the way, I think Cyber Monday is already an anachronism that's being used for marketing and has little basis in reality. It started out because people shopped on Black Friday in brick and mortar stores and then on Monday (when back at work with better internet connections) they checked online stores to see if there were better deals. Now, for certain products, I don't think people shop brick and mortar at all and do a lot of their shopping on smart phones. That along with faster shipping means you can shop online till just a few days before Christmas.
Hopefully that means TOP does OK when you look at the results of the whole holiday season.
Posted by: Brian V. | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 03:25 PM
Maybe everyone took your advice and was enjoyimg the holiday and giving thanks. How did "small business Saturday" go?
Posted by: Darren | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 05:26 PM
Irony? Americans? They do that?
Posted by: Tim Bradshaw | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 05:46 PM
Sorry, I did cyber Monday on Friday. If I'd known it'd bum you out, I could of waited. I do like my new pocket camera, though, even more than I thought, and it was a very good deal, if you appreciate the monetary gains of being a little behind the times.
Posted by: Bron | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 06:16 PM
Well not only American then. An Italian motorbike racer died recently in a testimonial motor race made to commemorate the death, two year ago, of Simoncelli, a motorbike champion. And died exactly the same way, being overrun by other racers after falling. I don't like it either.
Posted by: Roberto | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 06:39 PM
re: low Cyber Monday sales -
I think the problem is that your sell is too soft (which is one reason why we love you so). I was absolutely bombarded with advertising email from all directions in the last week, like never before. In the cyber sales world, you're getting greatly out shouted.
Posted by: Mike Anderson | Wednesday, 04 December 2013 at 10:04 PM
Are you sure this is an example of irony?
It might be more of an ironic situation if the actor was driving the car. To me it's an example of being in the "wrong place at the wrong time".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony
Posted by: Sven W | Thursday, 05 December 2013 at 02:39 AM
The potential ToP customers are probably still in Casualty recovering from the brawling on Friday . . .
(Dohhhh, you sort-of alluded to this (im-)possibility, above. Ooops).
Posted by: MartinP | Thursday, 05 December 2013 at 05:42 AM
Well, I've bought most of what I'm going to get for Christmas anyway, though I did buy through your links on Saturday or Sunday.
I do hear some interesting anecdotes from suburban moms about how they no longer shop in stores for Christmas presents, but do everything online, and in fact, avoid the mall as much as possible. They point out that it is beyond tedious to take kids of a certain age with you on these shopping expeditions, and it is much easier to concentrate after 8pm when they are in bed. Also, they are either very clear on lead times needed for slow free shipping, or, alternatively, subscribe to Amazon Prime, and are very enthusiastic about the two day delivery window. One mom was telling me about how on their narrow, dead-end street, she saw the UPS truck alone make four separate trips yesterday.
It's possible that the culture has moved on and the pre-Christmas spend-a-thon has become spread rather thinly over the 35 days preceding Christmas. The over-commercialization of Christmas and Thanksgiving may have become self-defeating for retailers. The signal to buy comes so early and often that I think people have become much more attentive to when and exactly how much to spend. Certainly these folks, who have enough money to spend are very savvy about how they spend it. We've seen 40+ years of increasing productivity and innovation in cost cutting on the production side. I don't think it's accidental that the children of that generation are very good at cost management on the consumption side.
Will
Posted by: Will Frostmill | Thursday, 05 December 2013 at 08:00 AM
Now, it's Black Friday and Cyber Monday WEEK. I saw one graphic that proclaimed a site had Cyber Doorbusters. (Of course!)
When everything's always On Sale, it's all just For Sale.
I can empathize. Maybe next year you'll have a small banner on the site around Thanksgiving that links to the simple message of how to contribute to TOP. That way you won't depend on people visiting only on Monday. Just a thought.
Posted by: David | Thursday, 05 December 2013 at 08:27 AM
Perhaps more ironic (or moronic?) is this is the second high profile dual fatality crash of a Porsche Carrera GT in California. This was was at a track day at California Speedway several years ago:

An old friend was the accident investigator for Porsche USA. He says that half the Porsches crashes that are totaled happen in the first month of ownership.
Posted by: Jim | Thursday, 05 December 2013 at 04:51 PM