Black Friday Kills - WalMart employee and other retail related deaths

[One-Fang]

Well what exactly are we counting here? Shall we dig up the stories of all people that were killed in domestic disputes in the 48 hours past Thanksgiving?

If I'm not very much mistaken, the outrage in this thread is that enough customers placed their savings and purchase opportunities ahead of the value of human life and safety, that a man was killed by a horde lunging for the savings.

Two men in Toys R Us and a woman in Atlanta were killed in domestic disputes completely unrelated to shopping. The woman was not even killed on 'Black Friday'. They are all four tragic and senseless deaths, but I don't see any connection and I don't think it does any justice to the senselessness of the Walmart crowd killing to include a couple of domestic shoot-outs with them.

The total so far, of customer-caused "get the savings to hell with who dies" is:
Walmart - 1

[Rapscallion]

We're discussing (in the mod section) the idea of some sort of commemorative thread for those who die while working in retail - not just for one incident.

Rapscallion

[Tee]

Heard about this a couple of hours ago. What happened really is the ugly face of capitalism.

RIP

No, not Capitalism, just Humanity at it's finest.

You'll find the same thing anywhere you go.

If someone hasn't lost their faith in humanity yet...

[One-Fang]

Interesting idea Raps. Would that be for anyone who works in retail and dies, or would the death have to be a direct result of their retail career to admit them into the honorarium?

[Rapscallion]

Under discussion

Rapscallion

[CaroPhoenix]

The Toys R Us shooting

I'm with the congressman and the others: Who brings a gun into a store where people (never mind just the children, but the adults too) shop?

[powerboy]

The Toys R Us shooting

I'm with the congressman and the others: Who brings a gun into a store where people (never mind just the children, but the adults too) shop?

That was what I wondered, when I first read that. I have always thought that they should just stop opening hours before they normally do. I went to only one door buster sale and that was about 10 years ago. And whoever mentioned about the ticket system. That is would be a lot better

[BowserKoopa1]

Fucking sick bastards! This is just another example of how the goddam fucking customers don't give a dam at all about us! No, all they fucking care about is getting in the stupid store to get their shit! They don't even give a fuck that an employee got trampled on! What the hell do they care for?! I hope all these bastards get shot or maybe trampled on themselves, and I hope they go to hell!
Just when I thought the customers couldn't possibly get any more fucking stupid, they really outdid themselves by killing a man. Then they actualy have the balls to complain when the store closes because they trampled all over the poor guy?! Come on!
If I were the manager and they were trying to push the doors down, I would've told them to stop, or I would call the police and have them start making arrests, and then nobody will get into the store!
Normally I am not one to use this kind of language so much in a post and go on a tirade like this, and for that I would like to apologize, but this time I just cannot help it! This makes me so sick!
These customers suck worse than any customer I've ever heard about!

[Fox One]

Cops should have sealed everyone in, then charged them all with reckless manslaughter.

Because EVERY SINGLE PERSON DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTED TO HIS DEATH, right?

No. Forgive me for being the devil's advocate, but I'm seeing--understandably--a lot of emotion and not much actual sense being put into this.

As much as we'd all like to be vindicated, the sad fact is that it's probably never going to happen. In a trample situation, the assailants rarely realize that there's someONE not someTHING underfoot, and that's if they notice something's there at all. They're generally more concerned with not winding up the same way, with dozens of surging shoppers at their backs. Had someone tried to stop and help, we'd be reading about "Tragic Twin Deaths! Worker and Good Samaritan Trampled!" instead of this. Granted, it's disgusting that people wanted to continue shopping, but they probably believed that he was just injured--weren't even sure how--and that he'd be okay by the time they left.

This was a tragedy, not a direct affront to retail workers everywhere. Let the witch hunt drop, guys.

[Jaden]

This was a tragedy, not a direct affront to retail workers everywhere. Let the witch hunt drop, guys.

You're right, it wasn't a direct affront to retail workers everywhere, but it wasn't just a tragedy either.

The fact of the matter is, whether or not the people in front were propelled forward by the people behind them, there was still a mob rush into the store, strong enough to break the doors. It's not like everybody was just running from the person behind him - obviously at least a large group of that mob had to have been trying to surge into the store trying to get their mitts on a good discount. That's what makes them savages - they did charge in, with no regard to human safety, for the sake of saving a few bucks. Whether they'd killed anybody or not, they'd still be savages for their behaviour - and their savagery cost a man his life.

The fact that they refused to leave upon hearing about the store closing for the man's death just drives the nail in further.

[dendawg]

...it wasn't just a tragedy...

Tell that to the victim's family.

[Jaden]

Tell that to the victim's family.

Sorry, I think I may not have been quite clear. Of course it was a tragedy - what I was saying was that it wasn't JUST a tragedy, but something more. It was propelled by human forces. "Tragedy", to me, means something in which nobody is at fault, like an earthquake. I was in no way undermining the tragic nature of what happened.

[dendawg]

Okay, fair enough.

We now return you to our regulary scheduled thread, already in progress.

[Dreamstalker]

I saw this in the NJ paper on Sat. morning; everyone in the house was absolutely appalled. I didn't think my faith in humanity could fall any lower, but it has A $400 plasma (or whatever was on sale) is not worth a life.

Sales like this went on all over the place with nothing bad happening. What was unique about the crowd shopping at this one store that made it go wrong? Too desperate for things they don't need?

I hope that somebody is found responsible, and WM can be sued successfully. Temp worker or not, they were responsible for his safety as long as he was on the property. I'd be interested in finding out if he was in fact given any instructions on how to handle the hordes, or just left to deal.

I get twitchy when navigating upstream against large masses of people at normal walking speed. I can't imagine what it must have been like to face down that raging mob. My thoughts are with his family.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

A $400 plasma (or whatever was on sale) is not worth a life.

A $400 plasma TV isn't worth shit.

For Black Friday we had a 42-inch plasma TV by some real off-brand for $499. We had 6 of them in stock.

We sold 4 of them and 2 have already been returned as defective.

And this is something worth trampling a guy to death over? Didn't these people figure they weren't getting a top-of-the-line, name-brand TV for that price? I wouldn't have touched our $499 plasma even if I had the money for it.

This story gets weirder the more I hear about it.