Toys R Us and the Nightmare before Christmas
When I tell people I worked at a toy store, they tend to respond with, “Ah, that’s so cool,” or “So, you got to play with toys all day.” I had been known to perfect my video game skills and snag action figures, but a toy store is not as fun as you may think. Children looked at me as though I was the epitome of fun and enjoyment as I offered assistance in my blue vest with a huge transfer of Geoffrey the Giraffe on the back. Parents came to me thinking I was an encyclopedia of dolls and board games. Though there was some truth to these assumptions, the three years I spent working in toys exhausted me, forced me to encounter some bizarre people, and exposed me to situations I could not have conceived would occur in a store for children. Most importantly it helped me gain an understanding of the diverse behavior exhibited by shoppers and allowed me to realize I have an incredibly high tolerance for ignorance.
I officially became part of the “R Us family” when I started working for Toys R Us during the 1999 Christmas season. Prior to beginning my new job, I realized the difficulty in maintaining a smile and energy as hundreds of impatient, shop crazed parents destroyed isles of Legos and stuffed animals, while carting around crying infants, snotty toddlers and selfish adolescents. Regardless, I expected a personal reward in seeing children stand in awe of the mass amounts of toys the store kept in stock. Their happiness would bring me happiness. Plus, I would not have to get too involved with the children; they had parents that supervised them. I also felt a boost of Christmas spirit would be inspiring and much needed. How could I resist parents eager to buy Christmas gifts and children pointing out their favorite toys with smiles on their faces?
Within the few weeks that composed the busiest shopping time of the year, customers were able to diminish my joy for the holiday season. My first anti-holiday experience occurred when I was learning how to run the registers. At this time, I was also learning that parents tend to feel a great need to please their children by purchasing the trendiest toys and by spending hundreds of dollars on Christmas presents. One such “guest,” as we are encouraged to refer to customers, a thin woman with fluffed brown hair, came through my lane with a cart full of toys.
What boy hasn't wanted to chase their younger siblings around their house with pegs on all ten of their fingers pretending to be a monster/ we the movie, Edward Scissorhands (1990), scouts this captivating idea and basically turns it into a movie. The film was directed by Tim Burton, who also directed the movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Corpse Bride(2005), and Batman 1989. The film does a great job on highlighting the main message of the movie which is Difference. It is a classic movie when it comes to the utilisation of, visual language, film codes and narrative techniques.
...he holiday season. No imaginable Supreme Court is going to create obstacles to this consumer juggernaut. Nor is any Jewish group or Islamic group likely to finance a test case to bring down Christmas. They too are merchants" (p. 28-29).
When Charles Lazarus opened a furniture store for babies in 1948, he never dreamed it would turn into one of the biggest selling toy stores in the world. Charles named the store Children’s Bargain Town. As time passed, Charles added additional items, such as baby products, tricycles, books and toys for older children. Noticing that toys break and go out of style, Charles played upon this and added more toys to his stores. Nine years later in 1957, he opened a second store and decided to rename the chain, Toys “R” Us since the previous name would not fit on the sign.
Austin Ranney does not dread that low voting is hurting American democracy. Arend Lijphart believes that democracy is meaningless without voting. The fact that to many people do not vote for Presidential or Congressional elections concerns him. With numbers like 49 and 55 percent of the eligible population voting on Presidential elections, Lijphart questions the actual democracy in America. Low voting turnouts is giving large groups more control over government ideals. Lijphart thinks the best way to solve this problem is to raise turnouts in a variety of ways. Things like weekend voting and easier ways of acquiring absentee ballots will increase the number of voters. Also, having multiple elect...
The United States national elections have been experiencing a steady decline of eligible voters showing up to vote. This steady decline has been ongoing since experiencing a significant increase in voter turnout from 1948 through 1960. Over the years there has been significant, meticulous research done to try to pinpoint the cause of the decline in voter turnout over years. All of this research has led to the production of an enormous number of literatures written on the perceived causes. The vast amount of literature produced has led to a number of competing explanations about this decline. The quest for the answer to the question of, why this decline in voter turnout, is very important for an overwhelming majority of Americans and our democratic system because the people/voters can only truly be represented by our government if all eligible voters go out and vote. For this paper I will examine four theories that attempt to explain the decline. The four theories that I will discuss are voting barriers, campaign contributions, negative campaign advertising, and finally the cultural explanation. However, through thorough exploration and critiques of the strengths and weaknesses of these four theories, we will find that the cultural explanation theory is currently the most persuasive theory in the group. Finally, I will also explore some reasons as to why citizens do vote as well.
Christmas has consumed itself. At its conception, it was a fine idea, and I imagine that at one point its execution worked very much as it was intended to. These days, however, its meaning has been perverted; its true purpose ignored and replaced with a purpose imagined by those who merely go through the motions, without actually knowing why they do so.
Inside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. Williams worked about six weeks at two toy stores, Diamond Toys and Toy Warehouse, long enough to be able to detect patterns in store operations and the interactions between the workers and the costumers. She wanted to attempt to describe and analyze the rules that govern giant toy stores. Her main goal was to understand how shopping was socially organized and how it might be transformed to enhance the lives of workers. During the twentieth century, toy stores became bigger and helped suburbanization and deregulation. Specialty toy stores existed but sold mainly to adults, not to children. Men used to be the workers at toy stores until it changed and became feminized, racially mixed, part time, and temporary. As box stores came and conquered the land, toy stores started catering to children and offering larger selections at low prices. The box stores became powerful in the flip-flop of the power going from manufacturers to the retailers. Now, the retail giants determine what they will sell and at what price they will sell it.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A. W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine, 1982.
I walked into the front of the store to see a crowd of people searching for a good grocery cart. One that wouldn’t wobble every second that you pushed it. I took a look at many of the faces as they were beginning or ending their shopping experience. The people walking in looking for a cart seemed unsure or not pleased to be there in the first place. While the people leaving looked happy and eager to get home. I took this as a clear sign that this was not the most enjoyable place to ...
The issue of low voter turnout is not an unfamiliar topic for most of us. We already know of this issue, but certainly we must not have cast a glance on the issue in the same perspective as Charles M Blow has written. He attracts the readers’ attention to the problem at the center at once, which is nothing but the voters’ ignorance. He deeply explores the question that why the same voter who knows that to solve most of his problems he would need the government of his choice does not show any enthusiasm when it comes to casting his valuable ballot. The same problems remain there year after year and election after e...
The well known holiday of Christmas today is far from what it was in it’s former being. Many aspects led to the change in Christmas, however Charles Dickens, a Victorian era author was arguably the most influential in the change. There was a time when christmas was not much more important than your average holiday. Without the work of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Regency Christmas would not have changed to be the way it is today. As we examine the Regency Christmas, the Christmas events in A Christmas Carol, new Christmas ideas, and today’s new christmas we will form the true Christmas.
Understand American voter turnout rates from a historical point of view. There are several near and chronicled riddles of political investment. Keeping in mind the end goal to perform this, the pool of qualified voters. In this way, the voting methods and the political conditions including the races in a given period ought to be tended to. One relative confuses represent the way that America's voter turnout lingers a great distance behind different vote based systems. Reasons may incorporate America's individual enlistment necessity, which makes it awkward for residents to enlist to vote. Various components may incorporate voter weakness majority choices and the two-party framework. The United States maintains significant amounts of nonvoting
Additionally, voter turnout today is the greatest puzzle among American voting behaviors. Similarly, Congress decided to propose and the states ratified the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. In turn, younger age males are less likely to vote in elections and this was the reason of reduced national turnout rates. Consequently, attitudes towards politics in general can also be a reason for the decline of voters. Identically, voters beliefs are that government choose to ignore citizens, that there are too many politicians, and that the campaigns are extremely long. Still, voter turnout will only increase if the government decides to do something to restore our fate in the political system. Moreover, voters feel a burden
The decline in voter participation consider by many scholars to start shortly after World War II, however between the years of 1960-1974 American voters started to lose trust of the national government. Ahead only of Italy in 1974 (Powell, 1986, p. 18) and dropped just below 10% up until 1980. However, trust was the least important of the four attitude variables (Powell, 1986, pp. 18-19). So the challenge is how best do we get better voter turnout not just solely when we elect a new President, but during the mid-term elections as well. Many Representatives (Democrats) would argue that our laws on registration are too strict and limit turnout of elderly, poor and minority voters. Party competition to mobilize lower class voters, for example
Since the beginning of time, toys have often been an indicator of the way a society behaves, and how they interact with their children. For example, in ancient Greece, artifacts recovered there testify that children were simply not given toys to play with as in the modern world. The cruel ritual of leaving a sick child on a hillside for dead, seems to indicate a lack of attention to the young (Lord 16). The same is true of today’s society. As you can see with the number of toy stores in our society, we find toys of great value to our lives and enjoy giving them to children as gifts. Ask just about any young girl what she wants for Christmas and you’ll undoubtedly get the same answer: “A Barbie.” But what exactly has caused this baby boomer Barbie craze, and how did the entire world get so caught up in it? The answer lies in Ruth Handler’s vision for the first children’s adult doll. Mrs. Handler’s eleven and one-half-inch chunk of plastic began causing problems even before it’s public debut in 1959, yet has managed to become one of America’s favorite dolls.