Written by Joanna Huang

Black Friday is a frenzy. Sanity and health are taken over by materialism. What happens after this chaos?

Junior Ryan Lee went to Best Buy with his dad last year to find that out. They arrived six hours after Best Buy had opened at around 3 a.m. and walked past the empty tents outside that had been left there since midnight. Inside, there were few boxes or people present. Only some exhausted employees remained. Lee has seen Black Friday aftermath before, so he initially considered this post-Black Friday scene to be typical.

With closer inspection, however, Lee noticed a strange sight. He saw a red stain on the ground, which may or may not have been blood. He started to feel nauseous. “It was a pretty convincing bloody shade. It was pretty gross,” Lee said. Lee’s dad tried to convince him it was not blood by suggesting it was ketchup, but Lee could not see why someone would bring ketchup into a Best Buy.

Through this experience, Lee remembers to prioritize his well-being over greed. “Although Black Friday is a good deal in terms of price, I don’t think it’s a good deal in terms of your livelihood, your life, your health,” Lee said. “If I were to walk out with a fully-priced TV and healthy, versus a lesser-priced TV but my arm is broken, I’d rather have the fully-priced TV and an intact arm.”