Black Friday Violence: Shame On You, America

Tis the season to trampled. Tis the season for toy-store gunfights. Does that not sound quite right to you? It’s increasinly becoming the reality of the holiday season, it seems. Every year, reports come in of accidental tramplings, violent squabbles over toys, and other disgraceful acts at the one time of year we’re supposed to put all that non-sense away and respect our fellow man. Shame on you, America.

Black Friday – Aptly Named

Tragedy unfolded Friday November 28th, 2008 when a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death during the initial wild rush by thousands of eager shoppes into the store, according to CNN. Here’s a man, at 34 years of age, doing nothing more than trying to pay the bills who will never see another Christmas. Thanks to what? Greed. The desire to save a few dollars on cheap electronic crap none of them needed in the first place. Is this really what Christmas has become? I hope not.

To make matters worse, after police arrived and shut down the store, many shoppers refused to leave because they had been “waiting all morning!” Is a life worth $50 off a plasma TV screen? To them, I suppose it is. Flexo from Consumerism Commentary has called for those responsible to be arrested and tried with second degree manslaughter and I can’t say I disagree. People need to learn that reckless endangerment of the lives of others will not be tolerated, especially not for reasons so selfish and petty.

Wal-Mart Is To Blame As Well

Wal-mart can’t escape its share of the responsibility for this. Other big-box retailers, such as Best Buy, institute a lottery system where you are only allowed to purchase a popular item if you have one of a limited number of coupons. Such common-sense measures help prevent mob scenes such as the one at Wal-mart from forming to begin with. Furthermore, Best Buy conducts mock training for employees in the days leading up to black friday in order to prepare them for the mad rush. Why didn’t Wal-mart institute any of these measures? By intentionally instigating this situation through advertising, Wal-mart shares a large part of the blame. They should have been prepared. Wal-mart should have had security and crowd-control measures in place well in advance. It’s not like they didn’t know there would be a dangerous stampede: it happens every year. Wal-mart’s negligence is inexcusable. They should be held accountable.