Attention Shoppers: Stay Alive!
Friday, November 28th, 2008A heady, “Good WorkAmerica!”, for such a delightful excercise in setting the example of restraint on this, the busiest shopping day of the year.
In the first few hours of today, not one but TWO stories came out about people getting killed during the Black Friday experience. One story, involving a shooting (they both died) in a Toys R Us, seems to be based around two people who didn’t care for each other and apparently the stress of toy shopping was too much. Ok, so they were probably going to shoot each other anyway, it’s just too bad that it happened in a toy store. It’s the second story that really amazes me….
Wal-Mart employee dies on Black Friday after being knocked down by shoppers:
It’s every Black Friday shopper’s and security guard’s worst nightmare.
Overeager shoppers jostling to get into a Wal-Mart on New York’s Long Island trampled an employee to death this morning in the rush to snatch some good deals.
Also caught in that chaos at the Valley Stream, N.Y., store: a 28-year-old pregnant woman and at least three other shoppers who suffered minor injuries.
The employee, a 34-year-old man, suffered “an undetermined death” when a “throng of shoppers … physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground,” according to the statement. He was declared dead at a nearby hospital at 6:03 a.m.
According to a police statement, the death happened at 5:03 a.m., minutes after Wal-Marts across the country opened their doors to the holiday rush.
It goes on. But seriously, “physically broke down the doors”?!?!? How much could the prices have possibly been “rolled back”? Did the clever eighty-eight pricing drive these people to madness?
I guess I can hope that there won’t be any other deaths on this crazy shopping day? That seems a bit cynical, but seriously…
