Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromichi]

What is "purse-swinging edge"?

But bargain hunters competing for scarce quantities of �doorbuster� discounts have given this day an increasingly sharp-elbowed, close-fisted and purse-swinging edge.
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Hiromichi

[asterix]

There are always many sales at retail outlets in the USA on Thanksgiving.
Some of the items offered for sale are extremely low-priced "loss leaders" or "doorbusters". (Something sold at a loss to get people to go to the store). There is usually a limited amount of these available, so when the doors are opened for business you often get a rush of people behaving badly as they try to grab one of these items.
Purse swinging, elbowing, and punching each other are quite usual.
Greed, after all, is one of the human race's prime motivators.

[hiromichi]

asterix, Thank you, but I do not undrstand what purse swinging is. I can not imagine a cocrete action.
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Hiromichi

[CP]

The stripped-down sentence is that bargain hunters have given this day an edge.

In this case, the edge is not an advantage (as in, his superior education gave him an edge on the competition), but rather a color, an attribute, a particular quality (as in, the frequent car bombings have given the city a tense edge).

The purse swining means literally women swinging purses as weapons against each other to get at the scarce goods.

"This day" is not so much Thanksgiving as the day after Thanksgiving, so-called "Black Friday," traditionally the start of the buying season for Christmas. The "black" refers to black versus red ink on the books -- making a profit rather than turning a loss.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hiromichi]

CP, I now fully get it. Thank you very much for your answer.
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Hiromichi