Desperate consumerism and public order
Published on
My friend L. sent me this link offering me to see a [yet another] "Lithuanian nightmare". The story is the following. The notorious"Maxima" decided to boost its revenues by inviting people to shop at night with discounts. The crisis and the subsequent tax reform have made household budgets shrink, so, of course, people were tempted to get what they need for living with a discount.
This was enough to keep them up at night. However, "Maxima" miscalculated the number of people who would be ready to sacrifice their sleep in exchange for cheap stuff. Thousands gathered in front of the supermarket, leaving little space for those who wanted to leave. The journalist in the video asks people how long they are standing there. Some say that about an hour. It's freezing cold in Lithuania at this time. Towards the end of the video you will see a girl who almost passed out.
The police interfered in order to make way for people willing to leave the supermarket. In the video, the police is saying "Everybody back off, otherwise you'll hurt each other!"
This is really terrible - I'm totally filled with grieve for people who sacrificed their night sleep to get cheap stuff, without even being guaranteed a chance to get in. Looks like a flashback from the USSR times, when there was a shortage of everything and people had to stand in long lines to get oranges or sausages. People are feeling uncertain and scared - they want to have a stock of goods in case the situation goes even worse.