Black Friday Accident Takes The Life Of Walmart Employee

[Mr. DS]

video update...note the damage to the door...
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=10885567&src=news

[Ash]

What I keep thinking about is the guy who was killed.
The day before, he was probably happy and doing well.  Maybe he spent time with family and had a Thanksgiving dinner.  Maybe he played World of Warcraft.  Maybe he smoked a joint and got friendly with his girlfriend. (if he had one)  Who knows?
Little did he know that he was going to die the next morning.

I can imagine the 2000+ crowd streaming in, bleeting like sheep.  "Baaah!  Baaah!" 
Just following the herd...........
 
Seriously, who the hell waits in line in the freezing cold all night at WAL-MART of all places?
Don't they know that the items they want will eventually be in stock again?
And even if they aren't, can't they think of something else?  Perhaps something even better to buy their loved one for Christmas at a different store?

No, they can't.

I'd be willing to bet that the people who instigated this "push" for the ultimate bargain aren't very smart.  I understand that not everyone there meant to kill this man, but just by being there in the first place, they demonstrated their gullibility and blind stupidity.

[Doctor Menard]

I think a potential solution to avoid such a tragedy for future Black Fridays would be, for any Walmarts that are not open 24 hours (or closed Thanksgiving Day), is for the company to require the store manager to be the one who unlocks the doors for the customers. If that were the case, you could damn well bet there would be every safeguard in place. It would be a good policy for retailers in general to practice rather than a manager having a redshirt do it for their yellow ass.

[ghouck]

They didn't help matters putting up a sign that says "Blitz Line Starts Here". The police should have secured the place and not let anyone out until they investigate and look over the surveillance tapes to find out which individuals were responsible.

This is also why I do all my shopping online.

But. . I did go to Anchorage on Friday, the traffic was about on par with a summer weekend, not much more.

If I was the manager of a place like wal-mart, I would consider moving all the big sales to the NEXT friday. That way you get all the people the couldn't find what they needed on BF, and the ones that didn't feel like dealing with the huge crowds.

[Doctor Menard]

If I was the manager of a place like wal-mart, I would consider moving all the big sales to the NEXT friday. That way you get all the people the couldn't find what they needed on BF, and the ones that didn't feel like dealing with the huge crowds.

The problem with that is Black Friday is the day after a major holiday; a day when people can get away with shopping at Walmart as an excuse for coming in late to work.  The next Friday, is not that traditional shopper's day and would take a degree of social engineering to turn it into one.

The retailers aren't going to give up their big day, and frankly should not. Aside from the problem being with the store where it happened, and not the day itself, the executives in corporate with major retailers, who are truly soulless people, will write it off along the lines of 'too bad he didn't have better reflexes, oh well'.

People have been trampled in retail rushes before. Injuries have come about due to that, but this is the first time a death has resulted.

It seems to speak in volume of something could have been done at the store in question to have prevented this, but was not. A manager should have unlocked those doors rather than their cowardly ass sending a low-level employee to do it.

No competent manager, having known the size of that line, should have sent anybody to unlock the doors without first implementing crowd control. This was not the Chicago riots; 2000 people are not that difficult to control, if you implement control procedures, and they did not.

The manager of that store should be fired, without the option to resign.

[Jack]

The police should have secured the place and not let anyone out until they investigate and look over the surveillance tapes to find out which individuals were responsible.

At the very least they should have gotten the names and addresses of everyone in the store, and taken a picture of each person to help them identify them by what they were wearing in the surveillance tapes.  A person's death was caused by other people;  even if it was "accidental", it still needs to be investigated thoroughly.

[maria]

I hope they catch the people who did this there was nothing in there ad worth even standing in line for i hope who ever did this has a really bad Christmas's  i cant even imagine what his family is going through

[Torgo]

It's crazy insane stuff like this that ruins the holidays for a lot of people.