Standing in line and waiting for our turn. Are there people who stand in line just for the purpose of standing in line? And when they get their turn they turn around and go back to the beginning of the line. If you are not a true flâneur you would not waste your time on it. You need a purpose. You want something. It does not matter if you need it. You want it. It is worth the wait – that is what you tell yourself – so you wait. This is the evaluation of the line. There are many like you who want it, so you all wait together. Each waits for his turn.

In this picture I took in the black Friday's week I caught a long line stretches along the street. It was a very cold day but that did not stop those hungry customers. They were ready to spend their money. Of course, they did the right decision. They are not fools. They are wise consumers because they decided to spend their money on Black Friday’s week and they going to get the best deal of the year! It does not matter if they need it, it is Black Friday’s week, and missing it would be a foolish act! Consumer culture at its finest. We cannot resist it! Just like Mouret knew how to utilize it for his profit, the modern marketing system knows how to manipulate us and at the same time makes us feel like we outsmarted the system. Because it is Black Friday’s week and we will be fools to miss it!

This photo was taken on a cold day on Black Friday’s weekend in the streets of NYC. While taking this photo I was wondering what everyone is waiting for? They must have a good reason if they are willing to wait in this cold weather. The focus in this picture, however, is the waiting itself. A group of people creates a line because they all share the same goal. They are waiting to get to the front of the line and fulfill what they desire. This is a clear example of the culture we have become – consumer culture. One more pair of shoes or the newest iPhone version - it is never enough, and we always want more.

With all the technological progress in today’s world, this exact picture could have been taken in nineteenth-century Paris. We might not have had a camera at hand back then to capture a moment like this, but we had Zola to share with us the right description for this photo as “architectural lines stretching into the distance to right and left at both ends of the street” (page 387), and eventually, a line is just “an ocean of heads foreshortened…swarming with ant-like activity” (page 253).