That’s [url=http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html]half the population, more or less. (More, if you consider people in jails, hospitals, and nursing homes who presumably sat this out.)
That’s freaking nuts. Who are these people?
I wonder how many of them went only to see a movie or go to a restaurant? It was a 4 day weekend and the first day off for many since Labor Day.
…and all of them were at the Scarborough Town Centre this past Saturday.
I went there to meet my friends, and got off the subway, and went over the bridge into the mall by the food court, and honestly, there were places you could barely see the floor, the crowds were so great.
Where did you get this number? Does it count the same people twice (i.e. they went on multiple days).
(I went to the mall. but it was on Saturday, for only 20 minutes.)
Not me, no thanks. The money saved by not dealing with crazed crowds is way more than any sales, to me.
However, in my online Christmas perusals, I did find this gem. Tis the season…
People who needed to buy things?
I mean, we go to a mall of one sort or another every second week at least. Stock up on baby stuff, pet food, crap like that.
CBS News. They didn’t explain it, of course – that would take time and blunt the impact.
Here’s the link in the OP again: Population Clock
A friend of mine went to JoAnn’s (fabric/craft store) on Friday and spent five hours waiting to get some flannel cut. I am seriously trying to imagine a world in which my desire to save money on flannel would ever outweigh my desire to not wait in line for five hours.
I am glad and grateful to be able to say that I was not one of them. I hate crowds.
I do have to go tomorrow, though… <sigh>
Curious… I went to JoAnn’s today, and was out of the store in 20 minutes. (It helped, though, that I wasn’t actually shopping there, I was meeting a custom tailor to measure me for a costume.)
The closest I got to a mall the last four days was going to Thanksgiving Day dinner with a friend at K&W and then going out to see a movie. I gave up on trying to shop on Black Friday a few years ago, since the aggravation of dealing with the crowds isn’t worth the money I’d save. Besides, I don’t need anything that badly.
I went shopping all 3 days but not to any of the malls. That could only end in tears.
Man, you need to stop living in the 1960’s.
Not me, we only went to the local aquarium. I did do a little shopping online today.
And they all needed to do it at the same time? I would rather starve and wait it out until the Monday after Black Friday.
There is no way that number is even close to being right:
There are brain exercises where you have to work through the number of piano tuners in New York City for example. That type of thought would apply here.
There are about 300,000,000 people in the U.S.
Roughly 20% of those are under 18 and either can’t drive or need to be left with a babysitter.
Some people are in prison, others are in the hospital.
Many are old and just don’t go anywhere.
Some people live in remote places and don’t even have a mall to go to.
Some people had to work all weekend.
I could go on and on. Most people simply didn’t go to a mall.
50,000,000 people I could believe. 150,000,000 people is pure crap. There is a large rural population that doesn’t even live anywhere near a mall. Managing to get half the population of the U.S. to do anything specific in a small time window would be beyond miraculous. It didn’t happen.
I don’t mind crowds. I went to the mall to get a small blanket that was on sale at Penney’s ($19.95) because my partner is cold at night and I don’t want to add another full-sized blanket. While we were there (~30 minutes), she spotted a sweatshirt that our nephew might like ($35). Fa la la la la.
I didn’t go to the mall, but I went to Walmart for a dress for my daughter and a few groceries.
I got the greatest parking spot I’ve ever had at Walmart. It was right outside the door and next to the handicapped spot. Then, when I was done shopping, I saw a “20 items or less” lane with another shopper just walking away.
It was pure heaven, aside from the fact that I was in Walmart, anyway. 
Your numbers were amusingly similar to the predictions in some ways. You eliminated people who were too young to drive. The 147 million probably included them as people who went with others.
These were the predicted numbers.
from MarketWatch
And since holiday shopping started strongly, it’s not inconceivable that the 147 million number is accurate.
I didn’t go to the mall this weekend. But I did go to prison three times.