This Is What We Have Become

A friend of mine posted this photo on Facebook this morning. This is the line outside of a local mall, where people are queued up in order to get a wristband that will allow them to purchase a pair of the new Air Jordans that come out today.

Yes, that's right. Shoes. These people are in line for shoes.

But they're not even in line for shoes, they're in line for the wristband that will give them the right to buy shoes. Knowing how things work these days, I imagine this is even a line for a wristband to allow them to buy a pair of shoes that they pre-registered to buy on the internet.

The sad part of it all? I would imagine that at least 25% of these people will not even put the shoes on their feet; either because they want to keep them pristine and in perfect condition in the box, or because they want to flip them for a quick profit. Still, that "profit" comes at the cost of having to stand in line for hours on a Thursday morning for shoes.

When did we become a line-waiting culture? How did this "get it before anyone else can" obsession spread to all parts of our consumer experience? I can condone it for something that has a spoiler aspect to it: movies, books, stuff like that. Yes, you want to see the movie before every jamoke on your Facebook timeline talks about how OMG the ending was, and your moviegoing experience is ruined. I get that.

An aside: usually going to the movies for one of the first showings of a movie is enough to ruin my moviegoing experience. But I'm a curmudgeon.

But shoes? Shoes? I can guarantee that every person in this line has seen pictures and probably videos of the shoes already. Some crazy Nike Jordan fanboys have probably even seen design specs. So what is the rush? Spoiler alert! The shoes are mid-tops! I'm the first to realize, these shoes have laces!

This makes about as much sense to me as all the commenters who flock to online newspapers, video hosting sites, etc. and leave one comment: "First". Because, after all, it doesn't matter if you watched the video or read the article (it matters even less if you have an opinion, especially an intelligent one) about what you read or saw, what matters is that you got there first.

And where does it all lead?

Apparently to a parking lot outside a shopping mall at 7:45 in the morning, waiting in the drizzle for a wristband for a pair of shoes you may never wear.