Fire Sales and Grey’s Anatomy
In 1981, a tornado in Minnesota helped Richard Schulze turn Best Buy into the success it is today. The tornado ruined his store, but not his inventory, so he held a tornado sale creating excitement and urgency, with sales following. He kept up the “tornado sale” mentality realizing that people would continue to come back and so the Best Buy brand became a success. People gravitated continued to expect the “deals.”
This same phenomenon can be seen on TV as well. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy early on, before it took off with a post-Super Bowl drama-filled episode. It has kept me and more fans continuing to come back for more excitement. Prior to the show becoming popular, drama was on the back burner and the characters’ relationships were at the forefront. Grey’s season finale only highlighted the fact that the more excitement or drama the more people will watch. Their season finale included a disgruntled man shooting up the hospital, putting main characters in high tension situations and killing off minor characters left and right. I have noticed other shows, i.e. Desperate Housewives, that have followed similar paths. I wonder in this de-senstized world in which the most popular shows are filled with movie-like drama i.e. Law & Order, what this means for society’s psyche. Are we only responsive to the most stimulating messages? Does this mean we can’t go back to less drama filled shows or stores that don’t always offer deals?
Note: A small compliant about Desperate Housewives season finale…they completely overlooked a serial killer being jailed after holding Lynette hostage while she gave birth. I guess they had too many drama-filled subplots to wrap them all up.