Turning Off TV

Novfire · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 10 Location: London, England

Now this one just had to get the treatment.

I went to an Argos superstore.
If you are not familiar with this shop, it is a catalogue company, there isn't much they don't sell to be honest. You basically go in and find what you want in the catalogue, write the code down, pay at the counter then wait for you number to be called or show up onscreen.

I saw the large screen displaying all the numbers from across the street. I wouldn't have bothered but they also had a huge TV wall, partly obscured by all the bored kids waiting for Mum and Dad to collect their goods.
Now this was instant chaos waiting to happen, first the whole TV wall switched off except for a line of 4 screens at the top.
Then the 'goods ready' numbers screen went off.

I left the store as the volume went up, as if by remote. Wink

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Novfire
England

Bring me Sunshine, in your smile,
Bring me Laughter, all the while

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject:

Well that's pretty pathetic, inconvienincing all those people who were just shopping and waiting to pick up their stuff. It's just not at all funny, what would've been funny is if someone had seen you do it and you'd been lynched by a group of angry Argos customers.

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:46 pm Post subject:

no way. thats one of the greatest things i've heard. who cares if some shoppers were inconvieninced when shopping and consumerism causes shit all over loads of peoples lives. thats being inconvieninced. i think that sort of thing should be used as a mass protest thing. lots of people go in to argos or a shop of your choice and switch the monitors and tvs off at the same time. quite hard to organize though.

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:03 pm Post subject:

so i suppose you've never shopped don't buy pc games or any form of commercial entertainment then. Funny how the majority of people who complain about all this seem to participate in it as well. What about all the jobs that argos provides? No shopping > no industry > no jobs > lots of poor people.

I have no problem with people choosing not to watch TV, that's their choice but it is wrong to impose this on other people.

Guest · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:34 am Post subject:

actually i dont shop(obviously its not that i've never shopped but people change) i dont buy PC games or any other games cos i dont have a console, i dont have a mobile phone or tv, this isnt even my computer.
the only things i buy are food (mostly fairtrade), clothes (very cheap) and other things across those lines. if i want to read something i go to a library or yeah sometimes i BUY one from a charity shop, if i want to listen to music i use the internet or stuff i've yes BOUGHT cheap second hand but i dont think any of that constitues what i was talking about, or tryin to. i might sound like a leech or parasite, but i am just your stereotypical anti consumerist cliche served to you on a platter.
if there was no shopping maybe thered be no industry then no jobs but so what then we probably wouldnt need money. then people wouldnt be poor.
and i'm sure that many people at argos wouldnt be to unhappy without a job there, aint exactly the garden of eden

justinwood · Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 1:51 am Post subject:

that sounds like insanity
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Justin Wood
Pomona, California

Novfire · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 10 Location: London, England

justinwood · Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:30 pm Post subject:

haha, yes, if we really want to have a lot of jobs to make money we could all go into prositution, simply because it provides jobs. Or perhaps tear down buildings and put new ones up because that provides jobs too. In California we try to provide jobs by building lots of freeways, which means tearing down lots of trees, old homes, displacing people in those homes, landscape, and all those things that... 'really don't matter.'

It's just that television, or the use of these attention-getting screens/images/sounds take away from experience and the system of humanity: sure, people need jobs to circulate the flow of everyone's livelihood, but the way in which we all do our jobs either enhances or diminishes the quality and the enjoyment of being at these places. It seems as though argos could do without the whole screen thing - especially if it will do just as well without it and will make a lot of people feel less inhibited.

Everyone could do their jobs with a little more grace and care if we understood the value of it actually happening. And I believe most of us would agree that any sort of televising and anti-human mechanism diminishes this sort of 'grace' and 'care' I am talking about.
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Justin Wood
Pomona, California

woodworm · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:22 pm Post subject:

Well being in Argos is close to being in hell IMHO (although not as bad as Ikea obviously Wink

)

BUT that wasn't v. nice. You have to understand that you go into some sort of mental stasis in there and your only letout is knowing that when your number is up you get to leave. It's like a penal colony's holding room for chavs (sorry users of argos, not you obviously, on ocassion I have been known to buy a toaster there you know!)

But if you fancy going to any of the stores in my town and zapping those blooming JML TV ads for magic mops, be my guest, no bugger watches them and they are just a waste of electricity!
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'You know, we could switch off and just *talk*'