I heard a story earlier today about how a Wal-Mart employee died by a stampede caused by a mass of cash-happy bargain hunters. But what happened?
Right, for everyone who doesn’t know (including myself), today is Black Friday. It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving in America, which marks the start of the Christmas holiday season.
Lots of places have famous sales, such as the Apple Store or Macy’s on this one day, where it’s the day of super-low prices – the day to buy your Christmas presents. Obviously, this gives the American people (especially the shopaholic ones) another reason to buy material goods en masse.
In a Wal-Mart store in Long Island, it had to open at 5am to make sure there wasn’t too much of an ambush into the store. Even then, there were hundreds of people queuing up (Well, surging would be more the operative word) outside the store waiting to get little Johnny the train set they demand for Christmas.
The unfortunate soul who had to open the doors to these people was a little too unfortunate. The shoppers had actually broken through the doors and windows in an effort to get in first to buy a meaningless present. The surge knocked the employee down, while his efforts to get up or even breathe were thwarted by people running and stamping over him. A couple of shoppers tried to help, but they were only getting taken down too.
So I ask, really, was buying a present so important that you would literally kill a person to do it? It’s this sort of thing that makes me glad I’m not American – to have to have people like this as your country’s beacon. "This is how stupid we are. God help us".
I know you’re not all like that but really, was there any need for him to die?
This has got to be *the* most depressing way to die;
working at *WAL-MART*, crushed to death by people who want bargains.. and are so cheap they demand a bargain at *WAL-MART* which is the cheapest place, well, probably ever.
It’s true, Wal-Mart really is evil. Pure evil.
That’s insane.
(Layout comments : Love the footer
It’s exciting. And you need to align the search field with the search button pleaseeeehhhh)
Oh yes, from the well to do crowd, another swipe at the masses.
Yes, the same masses that voted for “change” in my USA.
The masses that do most of the working in the world, that love Wal-Mart.
I guess those people are evil too.
Thats a nasty way to die. I just can’t see why people would see a man being crushed and just ignore him over buying a present…