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walmart worker trampled to death on black friday

furcalchick

furcalchick

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 19, 2006
2,426
5
South Florida
even though this is very sad, part of me knew this was going to happen eventually with all of the trampling and such happening on black friday in recent years. just another reason why not to line up on the 5 am lines.

for full disclosure, i have gone early morning shopping before, but never for big ticket items. too much hustle and bustle, and i'm not willing to sit all night in chilly weather.
 
I too am not surprised, but still sad.
It is a total shame that this has to happen to save a few dollars. However, Wal-mart should know from tons of years past that they need to make special accomdations for people who do wish to fight for their savings. Perhaps next time a ticketing system is in order. I've seen it done tons of times before.
 
A few people get trampled every year, and it's really just wrong.

I hope Walmart (and every other retail that lets stampedes happen) has to pay a massive penalty for this, because they know this happens every year. Ticket systems work well (electronic stores use them) so I can't see why other retailers can't do the same.

Killed over pointless consumer goods...how sad. :(
 
Worker dies in Black Friday store rush

A Wal-Mart employee died and four others were hurt in the Black Friday rush to get into the Valley Stream store this morning.
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http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6529135

Just another reason to add to many on why black friday is horrible. I mean it just seems barbaric. This is what I do not like about American consumers. I mean if your willing to kill over some good deal at Walmart of all places... Wow. I don't know what else to say.
 
One more reason to embrace capitol punishment on retarded ppl. And I am not talking about the ones who truly have a disability, talking about ppl who are stupid and self centered enough to trample ppl to death just to get little Timmy the toy they've always wanted and then it gets sold at a yard sale 6 months later. :mad:
 
jonbravo77 said:
One more reason to embrace capitol punishment on retarded ppl. And I am not talking about the ones who truly have a disability, talking about ppl who are stupid and self centered enough to trample ppl to death just to get little Timmy the toy they've always wanted and then it gets sold at a yard sale 6 months later.
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You don't think that's just a little bit insensitive?
 
synth3tik said:
This is what I do not like about American consumers.
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It is quite sad, poor person and their family. :( On the other hand, I think comments like this not only ignore the evidentiary body but carry the danger of ignoring the underlying problem itself and allowing people to continue being hurt in order to feel better about ourselves.

This kind of violence happens everywhere in the world. The social psychology literature has again and again shown that these kinds of things happen as a result of social context and not as the result of one class of people or another class of people being evil.

Consumers from anywhere in the world put in this situation are going to be at risk for acting like this. I'm not saying blame Walmart either, although they created the scenario that caused this to happen. I'm merely saying demonizing consumers won't actually prevent these kinds of injuries or fatalities. You have to change the structure. If stores want to have Black Friday rush events, we cannot allow people to queue up at midnight and wait in the freezing cold for five hours, and then allow them to stampede through a tiny store entryway to grab a limited number of items and then expect no one to get hurt.

Concert venues used to have injuries like this all the time, that aren't really evidence of consumerism gone awry. They still do have stampedes. But they have taken steps to at least reduce the frequency of them. They don't just create an environment where violence is highly likely and then stand back and see what happens.
 
Much Ado said:
You don't think that's just a little bit insensitive?
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How did I know that someone would do that? There you go, not to be to insensitive but why don't you quote my entire post, and not the little bit that makes you look like you are just the example of political correctness?
 
I never have the chance to participate in black friday, it sounds like a lot of fun, unless your the guy getting trampled of course. I always end up blowing my money on newegg or in the mall.
 
jonbravo77 said:
How did I know that someone would do that? There you go, not to be to insensitive but why don't you quote my entire post, and not the little bit that makes you look like you are just the example of political correctness?
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Your whole post effectively said the overzealous shoppers should be killed, which given the circumstances seems unnecessarily insensitive. Somone has lost their life today, as some seem to forget.
 
mkrishnan said:
I'm not saying blame Walmart either
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I would. It's a clear neglect of health and safety and represents corporate manslaughter. This is what happens when worker's rights are neglected, or in the case of Walmart, actively discouraged.
 
waloshin said:
Of coarse people are animals!
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Animals in the philosophical meaning. Humans are the only life form on this earth that has the ability to reason, and we rush department stores to get 30% off something we don't need. In the process of which we destroy anything that slows down our wants. In this case a walmart employee.
 
Much Ado said:
Your whole post effectively said the overzealous shoppers should be killed, which given the circumstances seems unnecessarily insensitive. Somone has lost their life today, as EVOLUTION seems to forget.
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Then quote the whole post and not just the "capitol punishment on retarded ppl". And there is a difference between overzealous shoppers and maniacs who don't care about anyone else and will do what it takes (including, but no limited to hurting others) to get what they want.

It should be a crime punishble to the fullest extent. There is NO excuse for those kinds of shoppers and there is no punishment for it as well. And before you say it, I know, when 2,000 ppl rush in how do you know who did it. Well you don't, but there still needs to be a law and a presidence.
 
jonbravo77 said:
Then quote the whole post and not just the "capitol punishment on retarded ppl".
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I have done.

Certainly blame Walmart, and blame our culture. But let's not sling "kill them all!" around so loosely when a family is coming to terms with such a pointless loss of life. Insensivitve to everyone, in my opinion.
 
Blue Velvet said:
I would. It's a clear neglect of health and safety and represents corporate manslaughter. This is what happens when worker's rights are neglected, or in the case of Walmart, actively discouraged.
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Ahem, I should have said, I wouldn't blame Walmart as having truly created the problem, since it does what others in its field do also. But I have no problem with targeting them for action, as they are in a position to fix it.

In fact, if I could recant farther... :eek: even if one could identify individuals whose physical bodies stampeded this poor person or the others injured, and somehow convince oneself that that particular individual was somehow responsible for the mob actions, there's no deterrent in it. I know of scant evidence that suggests doing so would actually cause a reduction in this kind of violence.

On the other hand, the benefit of targeting Walmart is that companies do respond to these things, and they can prevent them. If Walmart is targeted for this, for instance, it's likely that they and other large retailers with similar practices would change their Black Friday events in such a way as to easily and drastically reduce the violence.
 
mkrishnan said:
This kind of violence happens everywhere in the world. The social psychology literature has again and again shown that these kinds of things happen as a result of social context and not as the result of one class of people or another class of people being evil.
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I should have elaborated on that. It is true that a situation like this is not something that just happens in America, and I don't know if I would really even consider this evil. I don't think it was let on my greed or violent behavior. More so that ones self comes before everything else. Which is partially instinctual, but in a civilized society we should understand that this is not a matter of survival.

It just seems that Americans embrace this black friday thing a little too much. Letting the prospect of a good discount cloud over their judgment. Granted I have not experienced black Friday in any other country but the US, and I am sure there are mad rushes everywhere. It does seem though that we take it too the extreme.
 
This sad story just cements my growing disdain for what Christmas has become. It is a vile and twisted relic of its former self.

Poor guy just wanted to work, now he's dead because of the selfishness of others. My heart goes out to his family and friends. :(
 
Much Ado said:
I have done.

Certainly blame Walmart, and blame our culture. But let's not sling "kill them all!" around so loosely when a family is coming to terms with such a wasteless loss of life. Insensivitve to everyone, in my opinion.
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You are exactly right, someone has died in this. And that is a tragedy that should have never happend. Black Friday has been going on for years and the places that these things happen in should be held very much accountable. There is no excuse, they know what is going to happen but do nothing to prevent it.
 
synth3tik said:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6529135

Just another reason to add to many on why black friday is horrible. I mean it just seems barbaric. This is what I do not like about American consumers. I mean if your willing to kill over some good deal at Walmart of all places... Wow. I don't know what else to say.
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You don't seriously believe that this is just a thing that happens in America?

Columbine was a thing that was once said to happen only in America. Next it happened in the U.K. and in other countries as well. There are stupid people everywhere.
 
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