Lion's Daily Blurb - Black Friday, Nov. 28

[Lion]

The day after Thanksgiving...also known as Black Friday here in the USA. Today is the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season, and in my neck of da woods, as in towns and cities all across America, people lined up at stores for the goodies. Most of the stores opened early, like at 4:00 or 5:00 A.M., but depending on how HOT the deals are at a particular store, some people camped out in lines the night before. At one of our local shopping strips, people stood in lines at Circuit City and the Staples office store for deals on laptop computers and TVs. The lines started forming at 10:00 P.M., six hours before the stores would even be open. I decided several years ago to NOT venture out on Black Friday. The scenes at some of the stores can be compared to a cattle stampede. I've been there and done it. In the past fights have broken out among overzealous shoppers. For instance, a hundred peeps could be standing in line to buy one particular item that the store has a limited supply of. So you could have 80 unhappy campers. The stores run these extravagant and unbelievable sales just to get you inside. They don't care if they run out of the sales item. They are hoping you decide to buy something else. Anyhoot, I usually wait till the last week or two before Christmas to do my shopping, and I always come out with great deals.

[Gaucho8788]

Same here. It just never seemed worth it to me to try and make it in to get a good deal on these items with how bad it can get sometimes. I usually get my Christmas shopping out of the way in the first or second week of December.

[Slapper]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/081128/us/usreport_us_usa_holidaysales_death_1

Well, im not sure what to say about this. This is about the most disgusting thing i think ive ever read. Wtf....over shopping? seriously, that is @#$%^# up.

Word of advice, come and shop in Canada, at least your not taking your life into your hands to do so. That is seriously crazy, for real about the most ugly thing i think one can imagine about other human beings.

#$%^ WalMart and what they stand for. No way they didnt create this panic crap....As of today, ill never step into another one again. Ill go elsewhere and pay a little more. enough is enough. We all have to draw the line sometimes. This is it for me.

Only in NYC i guess, thought they had all slowed down a bit since 9/11, guess not. Someone lost a son or a husband and a dad before xmas....I hope all those people that were there enjoy that toy or piece of material crap or if its food, they choke on it. Im incredulous at this moment and have been since i read this story. what the hell have we come to...

This word is a word ive used too many times to describe things and people...Greed, greed, greed, &*%#ing greed..Disgusting.

[Lion]

In New York on Friday morning a Wal-Mart worker was trampled and killed when the doors to the store were literally taken off the hinges and people stampeded the place.

You can read the story at the link below.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,458744,00.html

[Slapper]

Beat ya to it Big Kitty...:P

[Thumper]

makes me want to have words about capitolism. but it isnt capitolism is it? more like exploitation. i mean a 34 year old trampled to death by shoppers? I just cant picture a human stampede a 34 year old couldnt get out of. reminds me of playing left 4 dead recently. need to mount a minigun at the service desk.

[Slapper]

well, if youve ever been to a big Metal show, and been in the Mosh Pit, then you can picture quite easily how it happens...Its a mass of humanity that cannot be held back or controlled, mob mentality, but this situation is a little different, but the same as well.

[Coz]

I wouldn't place walmart as the causing factor period... It just happened to have happened at walmart when customers were stampeding every shopping center opening up at 4am in the morning. Can't pin it on walmart as the soul reason he died.

Ever since I got out of retail, I have sworn to never go shopping on black Friday as long as I live. It is literally the biggest weekend out of the year that shopping centers will get huge gains in money. If they don't compete, they'll get mediocre gains. Where I worked, which happened to be a walmart in BG, Ky, a typical day would gross anywhere from $200,000-$300,000. On black friday alone, they have seen over a million dollars. The last year I was there, it was $750,000.

It truly sucks to see humanity this low to the point of mob mentality... But if you want to see it, today was the day to do so first hand. :(

[KrasnyOktyabr]

im drunsk

[Gaucho8788]

It's definitely not a pretty site, seeing people fight over the "Deals" they want and, like coz said, getting to the point of mob mentality. It is definitely saddening. What can you do about it other than not participate.

[Slapper]

Ill debate the piont on whether WalMart is responsible.

After speaking to more than a few people about this, friends who live in the U.S, they tell me its a miracle it hasnt happened before now, as this is not the 1st black friday this could have easily happened. Its been luck and thats about it.

My 1 friend lives in upstate NY and his daughter worked at a WalMart as a cashier and she said she was not surprised about it at all. They hype this crap to no end, and she even said that the employees and security staff had been asking the managers to provide some kind of security for years now to keep the crazy mobs in check and moving in an orderly fashion when the doors opened on black friday. Their requests were duly ignored and they were told it was not necessary, as this is what they wanted. Thousands of people lined up and ready to spend money. This is a marketing strategy, no doubt about it. Somewhere in the halls of the rich and shameless, a WalMart exec is surely happy about this, it got people talking about WalMart and it did not stop people from going there to shop either.

They are singularly responsible in my book. For example, there are lineups at nightclubs that rival those numbers at WalMart, noone rushes the doors or breaks them down. Why? hmm..The 350 pound Gorillas they station outside the door to keep order is why. Not to mention the lines they make with stands and rope to double the lines back and forth...when its a large crowd. The Police are used when people protest in Times Square, hell, less than 1000 people demonstrating against corporate excess and peaceful protests at that, but yet the Police are there in force and crack skulls when necessary or arrest people, but they cannot Police 2000 plus people basically rushing and rioting in a retail store? Put some offensive lineman in the way of these people and keep them orderly ffs...

Something missing from the equation here: a brain? courtesy? common sense? respect? none of these were present in Wallyworld that day was there.

This has never happened in Canada, not even close, we tend to respect others and we tend to have common sense. Greed and saving a dollar does not pervade our thoughts or work itself into a frenzy enough to trample people for a chance to get that 1st deal...{ well, most of us anyways}

I like my American friends and ive really nothing against them in this age of America Bashing, but when i read things like this, i guess some ought to remember theres a reason youve gotten a bad rap in the last 8 years, this is just 1 example of it. Greed at its finest.