Gordon Forgey

It was the day after Thanksgiving a number of years ago. My son wanted to outfit his new college apartment. After a long icy drive, our Black Friday expedition started with us standing in line about a quarter of a mile from the store doors. It was still dark, and the wind, rain and sleet had everybody bundled up. Like horses, we all had our backs to the weather.

Some of those standing in line optimistically recounted their plans to get items they wanted. One even had a hand-drawn map of the store layout showing her route from item to item.

Eventually, the line started to move forward slowly. A...