Shopping Zombies Revisited

Like an old cat toy, I was dragged to Twelve Oaks Mall today while passing through Thunderville. Luckily, I arrived late, about 8:30 p.m. The crowd of shopping zombies was thin because of the late hour, or possibly because of the deflated, overspent consumer-oriented economy. Hard to tell.

By nine o'clock, the gates to the store fronts started to come down. I could only look at the unneeded, cheap, plastic crap through the windows. The overpriced, ridiculous clothing made in third world countries by slave labor were out of reach. When these stores fail to open after the commercialized Christmas season, no explanation will be needed from the Wall Street Journal, NPR, or any talking heads of other news outlets.

The scene at Twelve Oaks brought back memories when, a year ago, I covered the invasion of the Shopping Zombies at Meridian Mall in Okemos, Michigan. It was one of the best actions I've seen. Check out the pictures below. These Shopping Zombies invaded the mall's territory with a message about over-consumption. I was frank in my observations that the shoppers and the Zombies became indistinguishable after a while. They blended in perfectly. It was scary.

Well, I received word tonight that a Wal-Mart worker in Long Island was stampeded to death as shoppers stormed the doors at 5 a.m. These brazen consumers did not hesitate on the way to the bargain selves. These shoppers even rushed past rescue workers trying to assist the fallen worker. I find no humor in this tragic story whatsoever. In last year's action at Meridian Mall, art imitated life. This year, someone literally paid with his life.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

2007 Shopping Zombies Revisited

Shopping Zombies: Real and Imagined

I had a dreaded task today: Going to the shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving. However, I was looking for exclusive news for the podcast, not price bargains on some poison-painted trinkets made in China.

I received a hot news tip via e-mail that some activist Shopping Zombies would be down at the mall about 2 p.m. I try to avoid the mall as much as possible, especially during the Christmas season, which now seems to extend from Fourth of July through New Year's Eve. This news tip, however, was good reason to leave the comfy confines of the hearth. I was not disappointed.

I found about 14 Shopping Zombies at the mall entrance. You can see my pictures at this link to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/gp/9042461@N06/128Gyp





It's a joy when good performance art meets public policy. This piece of “street theater” in the halls of Meridian Mall was quite clever in recognizing “Buy Nothing Day.” I found the action successful when I got to a point where I actually could not distinguish the Shopping Zombies from the hoards of real shopping zombies. It was obvious the mall security could not distinguish between the fake and real zombies either because the activists wound all the way through most of the mall – leafleting about the sweatshop products sold at Old Navy, GAP, Walt Disney, and other places – until they happened upon a single security guard at the food court.

The mall management probably scheduled the poor security guard for a whiz test when he squawked a report over the radio that some zombies were in the food court. So what else is new on the day after Thanksgiving?

The gig was up. The 14 Shopping Zombies were peacefully escorted out of the mall, leaving still hundreds more behind.

The final outcome:

Money Spent at the Mall: $0

Looks on Peoples’ Faces: Priceless

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Postscript from the Zombies: "This jerk (security guard) ended up calling the cops caus we didn't walk fast enough. They ended up pulling over one car and harassing them. No charges though. We then proceeded to Wal-Mart and that action lasted all of 3 minutes!"