It's not new.

It's Black Friday today, and you'll undoubtedly see news articles and social posts lamenting modern-day consumers' unparalleled and insatiable demand.

Yet, history suggests this isn't the case.

David Grann shares what happened in Cherokee Outlet in 1893 in his book The Killers of the Flower Moon.

“After the U.S. government purchased the land from the Cherokee, it announced that a settler would be able to claim one of the 42,000 parcels of land—if he or she got to the spot first!”

These "parcels of land" sat above potential oil fields worth millions.

So, just like shoppers outside stores today, tens of thousands of men and women camped up for days along the outlet boundary.

“Finally, after several “sooners” who’d tried to sneak across the line early had been shot, the starting gun sounded

A RACE FOR LAND SUCH AS WAS NEVER BEFORE WITNESSED ON EARTH, as one newspaper put it.

A reporter wrote, “Men knocked each other down as they rushed onward. Women shrieked and fell, fainting, only to be trampled and perhaps killed.”

The reporter continued, “Men, women and horses were laying all over the prairie. Here and there men were fighting to the death over claims which each maintained he was first to reach. Knives and guns were drawn—it was a terrible and exciting scene; no pen can do it justice”

Modern-day consumer behaviour isn't some post-social media evolution; it's a human age-old bias against scarce items.

So, don't beat yourself up for acting irrationally today—it's normal.

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Cheers,

Phill