No story has ever annoyed me as much as the Black Friday death that occurred at a Long Island Wal-Mart last week. What’s worse is that, right now, it doesn’t look like the police will be able to identify the perpetrators. They’ll walk away scot-free, content with having bought some piece of garbage widget for $5 less than they would have paid on any other day. That, and having killed a man.
The New York Times has a profile of the victim, one Jdimytai Damour, who was 34 years old. His friends called him Jimbo. By all accounts, he was simply a nice guy looking to make a few extra dollars.
For its part, Wal-Mart is pleading ignorance. Since on-site security is the responsibility of a subcontractor, and since each store is responsible for its own security arrangements, Wal-Mart doesn’t really know what to say to allegations that security was lax. A spokesman called it an “unfortunate incident.”
Gee, thanks.
I don’t know, it’s pretty much the worst story ever, made worse by the fact that, you know, it was caused by people trying to save a few dollars on junk they don’t need.
I couldn’t agree more… I don’t know what it is but this story just completely infuriates me. Of course Wal-Mart should have had more security there, but hindsight is 20-20. The fact that people were pushing past police and EMTs, trying to perform emergency CPR on the victim, to get into the store is disgusting.
I hope those people spend the rest of their days walking some concentric circle in Dante’s Inferno.
Infuriates. Yeah, me too.
About two years ago I was about 10 people back from the beginning of the line at a Target on Black Friday. Never again.
When the doors opened it was crazy. People who had been waiting in the parking lot tried to cut in with the rest of the line. People started screaming and pushing. Crazy scary, man. Nothing fun about it. Mobs have no conscience.
Find those responsible? That’s easy — Walmart. Walmart created a dangerous situation, which it does every year (and with similar results nearly every year), placed an employee in an (obviously) dangerous situation, and a death resulted. How surprising!
Let’s keep in mind than thousands more Walmart employess were put in similar situations, all because of a marketing stunt. Let’s not forget that the (wacky) customers were also endangered — stampedes are a Bad Thing.
So yet again, let’s not regulate businesses. Let’s make sure Walmart employees are not allowed to unionize. Oh, and let’s support America by buying cheap Chinese crap from Walmart.
pfft, yeah walmart created a dangerous situation by pretending people had the sense to queue and exercise a little patience. so we can fill the world with more ‘freshly brewed coffee is hot’ warnings or expect adults to act conscientiously. the former breeds more idiots and the latter ends up in this type of situation. oh yay, now we get to play the blame game until everyone forgets about it.
Walmart as a company should be criminally negligent in this case. They created an environment and conditions that directly led to this event taking place. I guess a judge or jury would have to decide is they “encouraged” the resulting behavior of the crowd by creating the conditions.
Unfortunately, I don’t think you can punish any individuals in the line as it became a “mob mentality.”
The people running into the store are not necessarily the scum of the Earth, just incredibly stupid jagoffs.
Here is a mighty simple solution to at least help prevent something like this happen again. Make sure any specials are offered AT LEAST 1 hour after the store is opened. Let people wait in a single line in the store and let employees hand the merchandise/tickets to each person one by one.
Does Walmart realize they may wind up paying out more in lawsuit(s) now than they actually mad in profit in that first hour in all their stores across the US?
Doorbusters should remain metaphorical, not literal. Let’s see corporate responsibility.
Corporate responsibility? I’m not a Walmart lover, but how can you blame Walmart for people trampling the guy to death!? How could Walmart have known the people shopping at that specific store would be a whole bunch of sick f#ck$ with complete disregard of human life in favor of $40 off a POS Coby LCD TV?? It’s the people that are clearly at fault here, everyone knows Black Friday is nuts but who in there right mind thinks that people are going to get trampled to death and prepares for that??
Walmart knows that people go nuts on Black Friday. If you have ever been to ANY WalMart on a Black friday you know people are disgusting. I used to work retail for stores in big malls in Norther Virginia. I have personally seen fights over junk. I was shopping in a Walmart on Black friday a few years ago and witnesses humanity at its finest. A person had been injured and Paramedics with a stretcher were trying to get through. The EMT was pushing and yelling at people because no one would let move. Disgusting. Walmart should have done better. They should have told their people that if there is a mob, don’t make a “human chain” as one article put it. They should have told them to get out of the way if people are rushing the store. ECU in Greenville NC this year had a problem with Police beating students rushing the field. The school follows a policy of “get out of the way of mobs.” why couldn’t Walmart? They are responsible and I hope the punitive damages are enough to teach them a lesson.
The problem isn’t just at Wal-Mart, though – most stores have these “door buster” deals and very few handle them well at all. Sure, this incident happened at Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart is to blame as well – they failed to protect their employees and their customers. I fail to believe, however, that this wouldn’t have happened at another store.
I completely agree that corporations share the responsibility here in playing with fire. Individuals, however, must still give in to the mob mentality – they choose to go out there and fight for a $50 savings. Those people running into the store hold their fair share of responsibility here. Those people need to be held accountable too, right next to Wal-Mart.
Man thats just terrible and disgusting, makes you realize how obsessed with material things people have become
damn
I guess it really is frustrating to see a company so many of us spend money at seemingly care so little about another persons life. On the surface it’s easy to think another person died that i didn’t know, but for stupid walmart to pass the blame on to someone else feels cheap.
Save the corporation, blame someone else.
Terrible that such an unnecessary death and despicable event was allowed to happen for any reason, let alone the greed factor. My bossed tipped me to WakeUpWalMart dot com today and furthers my distaste of this retailer.
they knocked the door off the hendges then trampled the guy to death. someone said it was at a walmart by me. but its on the other side of the country.
Sure Walmart should have had more security, but these are grown adults that should have had some restraint and DECENCY. The people responsible are just pathetic and sad people, ignorant beyond imagination. I guess to be THAT ignorant is punishment enough?
the bad thing is, that as always, first something terrible has to happen before things are changed…
they probably only put one person there so only 1 person would get trampled. i think that there should be military officers at the gate guarding the entrance. i think its only way or a lot of policemen.
Whats terrible about this is that it honestly COULD have been prevented.
First, let me talk about Black Friday of last year. I went to Circuit City, along with several friends. It was a mess, people were trying to create unofficial “line order” charts, there wasn’t even a link near the door so much as a mass of people huddled around the doors.
Abut an hour before opening the manager came out and handed out tickets for the bigger items, people were shoving all around him to get one, he yelled out “What is wrong with you people? You are going to hurt someone, hurt someone over a bunch of electronics!” He also sent someone away after they tried to grab a ticket out of his hand. When the doors opened all hell broke loose, I had to shove to prevent myself from being slammed into the sharp doorframe.
After this expirence nobody wanted to go to Black Friday again this year, we shopped online.
Now, this was last year, two years ago however I went to a Best Buy.
They forced everybody to line up single file a few hours before opening, and made it clear people who broke the rules would be removed. They passed out tickets in a timely manner first-come-first-serve down the line. After this, when they opened, they only let a few people in at a time, something like 5 people every 10 minutes. All the big/limited items were already claimed through the tickets and they had more than enough of all the small items for everybody that wanted one. There was no pushing, no shoving, no danger, no people fighting over anything.
Clearly it CAN be done, why nobody else seems to show the restraint that this Best Buy did (I assume not all Best Buys are this organized) ill never know, just be firm and make it clear that unruly conduct will force people to be banned from the store will be enough of a threat for someone who has been waiting hours in the cold to behave.
Hell, when I stood in line for a Wii everybody was WILLINGLY waiting single-file and didn’t push or shove.
I went to a Best Buy 2 years ago, and it was like that as well. Very organized and very restrained. I stopped by the Target next door first, that opened an hour earlier, and it was completely different. Not the complete chaos as Wal-Mart, but definetly less organized and a mad rush and panic for the products.
This year I went at 7 a.m., and while the big ticket doorbuster items were gone, (which was fine, no mad cash for me this year), Wal-Mart was 3rd on my list, and still a mad house, especially in the electronics dept. at 9 a.m.
I swear I spend more time in the lines to check out than finding my items of purchase. On my way, I had heard about the poor guy trampled to death, (central time zone here), and agree with most that it was very dispicable, especially in hearing that no one seemed to even care and continued stepping on the guy. My condolences to the family, and I hope you win your case against the evil corportaion that is Wal-Mart. If I could afford it, I would shop at other places for my everyday items, but Target isn’t as close or has as many locations. If I could afford to, I would speak with my dollars more than I could, but reality is…
I think the whole “black friday” thing is aptly named, although “black-and-blue friday” might be more appropriate. I have NEVER gone shopping on black friday because I’m not dumb enough to put my life on the line for the latest new gadget that everybody seems to think they need. I hope this man’s family sues Wal-mart for everthing they can be sued for, that the other people who were injured survive, and that everybody who didn’t stop to think appreciate the cost every time they watch a movie on their nice, new, flat screen TV. Also, let me point out that two people have died so far, because one of the people trying to help the poor man was an eight month pregnant woman. She lost her baby. This incident only further proves that black friday should be shut down. Fist fights, pushing, shoving, trampling. . . how many people have to get hurt before the stupid thing will be illegalized? Since when is a man’s life worth less than a TV? You can get a TV at any time-BELIEVE me, they will still be making them.
Sorry, but I’m kinda choking on the irony here. Here’s a blog which is all about getting people overexcited about shit they don’t need professing outrage over, er, people getting overexcited about shit they don’t need.
Walmart doesn’t even sell low priced items. Learn to use the internet and you won’t get run over in the first place.
these people make me sick.. i agree walmart is partly to blame. and if they dont get sued over this, it will just continue!! next year it may be more people getting killed. but as someone said MANY MANY other stores also put their employees in danger NOT only walmart!! black friday needs to be more organized!! such as giving out tickets for the larger itmes that people THINK they need!!! i hope that every single one of those people that were breaking down the damn doors at walmart that morning, live with that guilt in their hearts that they may have been one those that killed that man trying to do his job, and that poor poor unborn baby.. (that no one even begins to mention)because we all know that no matter how much money the family gets for his death, and i think the poor pregnant lady who lost her baby should get some money too. its not going to be enough to break walmart. its the largest chain in the country.. its just gonna be a slap on the wrist. so i belive that us americans need to do something.. stay home on black friday, shop online! save peoples lives!!! its in our hands now!! its an outrage.. and something NEEDS to be done!
this is very sad.but who i think is at fault here is both walmart and the ppl.first off,walmart knows how wild it gets on black friday,and for them to not even have many security guards disgusts me.its like they get off from seeing ppl fight over merchandise.they should have waited atleast and hour or two after opening before putting on the sale instead of having it up before they even open up the doors.and second off,the people who trampled over him would have felt him.but no they wanted to buy crap they dont even need,for 5 dollars less.what was probably going through their minds was “oh i was the only person who stepped on him but no one else will so he will be ok” but he wasnt,infact he DIED.they should have stopped,helped him up and help him get out of the way of the mob,and then procede.but how they rushed in the was terrible.even when the paramedics were trying to save his life,they were still thinking about,”oh looky here its on sale”
they dont even need any of that stuff in there except for food and clothing but to go on a stampede like that, and to ignore the fact that he was under their feet,sickens me.
I’m surprised that nobody has brought this up but I was shocked how people reacted AFTER they found out. Wal-mart announced on the PA system that “they were closing the store because SOMEONE HAD DIED” and people refused to leave! They started shouting about how long they had waited in line and refused to leave the store. That just sickens me. Not only did they not bother to PREVENT him from being killed but they refused to leave the store once they found out. Once again shows how much a person’s life is valued compared to “Stuff”
This is disgusting.. i can’t believe some people would decide that items at a bargain are more important than a human life. And i cannot BELIEVE that those people inside the store refused to help, or even get shocked that someone had DIED. Those people who refused to do nothing are truly possessed by the devil.