As if the world needed any more proof that the average American consumer is a greedy troglodyte, the sad news over the weekend about the trampling death at a Wal-Mart in New York only confirms it. For the past couple holiday seasons, I’ve turned on the news the day after Thanksgiving and watched with embarrasment the all too familiar footage of hordes of shoppers storming and shoving their way through the doors of retailers at 6 AM. All to save a few bucks on a DVD player or the latest iteration of Rock Band. And to make matters even worse, many of the customers at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart complained that the store closed following the death.
What holiday spirit.
It’s high time that retailers abandon the Black Friday events. (So named because, according to some, it is usually the time when retailers finally turn a profit after operating at a loss for the rest of the year. Turning the red ink black, if you will.) A sale is not something worth dying for. Granted, given the day’s importance as the biggest shopping day of the year, ending the practice will likely not happen.
But surely there are alternative means to having a healthy Christmas shopping season without turning every store in America into a loony bin free for all. How about instead of putting everything on sale, only put certain rotating items on sale and spread it out over the course of several weeks? Instead of allowing everyone in at once, hand out tickets and make them stand in line and enter in groups with time limits. Hell, you could even hire some scary biker dudes as security and post them at the front. People might think twice about acting like savages when they see those tattoos and billy clubs.
I don’t know what the answer is, but something’s gotta change. And it would be nice if the retail industry would take it upon itself to do something about it, rather than reacting to the inevitable wrongful death suit that is no doubt coming Wal-Mart’s way very soon.
Comments
amanda Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I hope the people who killed this man realize a family is without a member this holiday season. I hope they realize this while using whatever it was that was so important they needed to buy so badly they killed a man.
suzin Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I am very horrified and saddened at what this country has become. How can we resort to such idiocy that you trample a man when shopping? Are we lacking morals? Are we becoming complacent? I hope this makes us realize that there are better things to life then shopping on black friday. I pray for the victim and their family. I also pray for the people who decided shopping was more important then helping a person who died from their hands.
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