Occupy protests: Shop mom-and-pop on Black Friday

PORTLAND, Ore. — Occupy pro­test­ers want shop­pers to occupy some­thing besides door-buster sales and crowded mall park­ing lots on Black Fri­day. Some don’t want peo­ple to shop at all. Oth­ers just want to divert shop­pers from big chains and giant shop­ping malls to local mom-and-pops. And while the actions don’t appear coor­di­nated, they have sim­i­lar themes: sup­port­ing small busi­nesses while crit­i­ciz­ing the day’s ded­i­ca­tion to con­spic­u­ous con­sump­tion and the shop­ping frenzy that fuels big corporations.