Officers patrolling the shopping center overnight had had concerns about the size of the crowd, Fleming said, and had tried to get those in line better organized. Wal-Mart security officers were also present overnight, but he said he did not know how many.
"I don't know what it's worth to Wal-Mart or to any of these stores that run these sales events," Fleming said, "but it has become common knowledge that large crowds do gather on the Friday after Thanksgiving in response to these sales and in an effort to do their holiday shopping at the cheapest prices.
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"I think it is incumbent upon the commercial establishments to recognize that this has the potential to occur at any store. Today, it happened to be Wal-Mart. It could have been any other store where hundreds and hundreds of people gather."
Asked whether the security had been adequate, Fleming said, "In light of the outcome, in hindsight, the answer is obviously no. ... This crowd was out of control."
Id like to say that if anything, I hope retail outlets realize this particular Wal-Marts errors (and perhaps their own) and learn from them. Hand out tickets, keep things orderly. Otherwise, there is a very real chance this can happen.
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6 comments:
Did you know that an employee of a New York Wal-Mart was killed after being stomped on by customers? People were trying to push the doors open and the employee went to unlock the doors and he got trampled on by probably hundreds of people. Even the security guards were going through each aisle making the customers leave. Here is a link to the story http://www.huliq.com/1/73764/black-friday-walmart-death-worker-trampled
I think that this situation is alot bigger than errors on behalf of Walmart keeping order. I think the this occurence represents the absolute greed, and need for excess prevalent in American Society. The belief that in order for people to have a happy christmas is by giving them gifts that will deem old news before News years day rolls around.We are all victims of the capalist machine that makes us think we need everything, all the time.
To Newcomer, the two blog entries were about the Long Island trampling. Not sure how you missed that.
And Joshua, I touched on that briefly in the first entry. I think it does show how greedy we have become as a society that this isnt really shocking. Its upsetting, but not all that shocking.
After all, the good of Christmas is almost gone, turned instead into a shopping extravaganza in which retailers try to entice people to spend spend spend to improve their bottom line.
Some stores are so eager for the Christmas rush that they often have decorations and even food months in advance.
"I don't know what it's worth to Wal-Mart or to any of these stores that run these sales events," Fleming said, "but it has become common knowledge that large crowds do gather on the Friday after Thanksgiving in response to these sales and in an effort to do their holiday shopping at the cheapest prices."
Well DUH. Of course they are knowledgeable. On Thanksgiving Day, every commercial is about a blowout sale on Friday and how doors open up at 5 p.m. I couldn't believe any of that when I heard it. Are you in that much of a rush for a sale that you would stampede somebody to get a $200 laptop? And Bill, like you said, Christmas has long gone. The point of it isn't to get the best sale on merchandise, although our society apparently has come to think that it is.
I completely blame Wal Mart for allowing such a horrendous event to occur. Actually, I blame all big box retailers for invoking such fear in holiday shoppers. For example, Best Buy ran an offer for a very nice laptop computer on sale for $350 on black Friday. Of course they claimed to only have a limited few in stock, but what they neglected to disclose is that the same product would be available online for the same sale price with an unlimited supply.
Though creating panic and demand for a product drives business it is clearly not worth jeopardizing a human life.
As i mentioned though, Much Ado, Best Buy in my experience hands out tickets and makes sure people are let in in an orderly fashion. There is no mad-dash that causes these kinda incidents.
I do agree though that they should make their sales online more known. The hysteria caused by items in limited stock is a powerful thing.
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