Story here:
And all for a $29.00 DVD player.
Don’t even start about the hectic shopping season. It’s the lemming mentality of the season which is objectionable. What is so damned important about your miniscule piece of life on this planet that you would walk on another human being?
Even if you did accidentally bump someone and they lost their balance, couldn’t you put your feeding frenzy aside long enough to help them up?
We allege to be smarter than animals? Feh. Most of the animals I’ve met have more selfless love and caring in them than the pack of black-souled cretins at Mall-Wart.
Ya know, I kinda thought they would have just GIVEN here the damn DVD.
I’ve merged two threads about the same subject, for those who are scratching their heads now.
Lynn
That was my favorite part of the article too, ranking just ahead of the kids joking with their mom about taking the player from the unconscious, seizing woman. Good god, folks. Give her the DVD player and whatever the hell else she asks for.
It’ll be interesting to see whose version of the events the store cameras support.
Thanks, Lynn. Archergal posted first-I was still reviewing my vitriol. 
What, you think this phenomenon is unique to Wal-Mart? You haven’t read the news reports that pop up from time to time about some poor sod got hit by a car, and the following traffic just kept rolling over him?
I remember once back in Indiana ('bout seven years ago I guess), I was waiting to cross a busy street to get to the bus stop and an elderly woman on the other side tripped and fell. Not only did nobody in the passing cars stop to help, they wouldn’t even slow down so I could run across the street to help the lady (I think at least three near misses before I got to the other side.) She was alright, just a bit dusty, but still…
I have arrived at the conclusion that the mass of humanity is simply completely oblivious to their surroundings. Most folks oly see what they’re looking for, and nothing else, even if it’s directly in front of them. People get hit by cars here in Vegas because the traffic lights change before they can get across the street, and the cross-traffic just rolls when they see the light turn green, apparently unaware of the human being directly in front of their cars.
That said, I think the kid who joked that his mother was going to tke the fallen woman’s DVD player should be drowned.
While I do feel sorry for this lady, since nobody (well, ALMOST nobody) deserves to get trampled, keep in mind that she was part of the problem. By falling for the media-induced feeding frenzy, she became one of the nameless crowd herself, rushing headlong to buy that “perfect gift.”
I did not get trampled at Wally World, or anyplace else for that matter. Why? I refused to play. I was in retail for far too many years. This type of mad dash is EXACTLY the type of response the retailers want to induce. By creating a false sense of urgency, they create an aura of scarcity and they get you to spend spend spend without thinking about it.
And yes, they should have given her the damn player. Cheap bastards.
Bah, humbug.
I have been to that particular WalMart a few times and from my experiences, this is typical. The absolute rudest people I have ever seen seem to shop there.
This story was on the front page this morning.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a new thing. Am I the only one here who remembers the Cabbage Patch Kids riots of the early to mid 80’s? There were multiple people injured then, some of them very seriously.
From your link:
Not that this justifies anything, but how did he KNOW they won’t move because they were bargain shopping? I don’t know how condensed this crowd was, but it’s pretty damn hard to move when there are people all around you. It’s very different to be pushed along a crowd, as most crowds go when there is motion, and someone standing there saying “No! I am NOT moving! I want my DVD and I don’t care if this woman dies, I’m getting it!”
Wal-Mart is fucked up. Reminds me of this.
It does make me wonder.
I don’t much like shopping at Wal-Mart. The prices are okay, but for some reason, people seem to ACT differently there.
In particular, there are the people I have come to think of as the “Stevie Wonder People.” They get their name from their habit of suddenly stopping cold, in the middle of the aisle, and… slooowly… swinging their heads… baaaack… and… fooooorth… baaaack… and… fooooooooorth… apparently stunned into dull, cowlike amazement at the incredible, mindshattering cornucopia of bright shiny consumer goods confronting their shattered little minds.
Stevie Wonder People NEVER pull over to the side of the aisle. They are INVARIABLY found in the MIDDLE, often spread out or cocked across in such a way as to block traffic. On crowded occasions, like Black Friday or Sunday afternoons, it’s not uncommon to be unable to enter or leave a given aisle due to SWPeople blocking either end of it.
The main identifying mark of SWPeople is the fact that one must physically or verbally get their attention. “Hey, buddy, can I get past you here? You’re blocking the aisle.”
Similar to, but not as bad as the SWPeople are the Blind Lemon people. They behave similarly, but will notice you and step aside embarrassedly if you enter their Personal Space Zone with your cart or any part of your body. TRUE SWPeople, on the other hand, are utterly oblivious unless you tap them on the shoulder or speak to them. Many are oblivious to the spoken word, though. My wife complains that in ten years, you’ll have to, like, ram them with your cart or hit them upside the head with something to get their attention.
Now, here’s the kicker: I have never seen SWPeople anywhere except at Wal-Mart.
I shop at malls. I shop at Target. I shop at grocery stores, large chains and mom-&-pop ones. I shopped at K-Mart, at least until they ran screaming from Texas… but the SWPeople are found ONLY at Wal-Mart.
So what is it? Some sort of weird subsonic signal that hypnotizes certain dull-witted folk into buying anything that ain’t nailed down? Or is it that Wal-Mart just has narrower aisles, or something, and I am therefore forced to notice the SWPeople because I want to leave the aisle and am forced to shoot off a flare or set their pants on fire in order to draw their attention back to the Real World?
Although, to the best of my knowledge, SWPeople don’t travel in packs. And they certainly don’t stampede. In fact, based on my observations of their behavior, you’d have to trigger a nuclear bomb to GET them to stampede… so I guess this business in Florida counts as an “isolated incident.”
Although, now that I think about it, recently, Wal-Mart was selling DVD players for about $55.
This woman got trampled for a DVD player that was retailing for $29.
So, on the face of it, it’s WORTH the extra $26 to ME to not have to deal with all the craziness. Because if those cameras don’t support Wal-Mart’s official story, it’s gonna take a court order to get the tapes out of them… assuming they haven’t already been erased…
I’m saddened, but unsurprised. Humans are vicious animals when they’re in mobs.
“Stevie Wonder People.” 
Thank you , Master Wang-Ka, you made my day.
Yeah, I think that it is the narrow aisles at Wally World that makes them more noticeable. They gotta cram as much of that purchasable goodness into the store as humanly possible.
At the Wal-Mart where my sister works, one of the Associates was bitten by a shopper who absolutely could not wait to get at the merchandise stored inside a paper and plastic covered pallette until 6:00 a.m. when the sales started.
This shopper was so excited by the deals that they (I’m not sure if catsis said it was a man or woman) had to bite an employee of Wal-Mart.
Human bites are bad business. Nasty risks of disease and infection.
This argument might fly if the woman had been trampled just inside the entrance and the store had not been a SuperCenter. It is quite possible for people to be swept along by a crowd and trample someone when you have a large crowd/narrow endrance combination and the people behind, unaware that someone in front has fallen, keep pushing forward. So, if the doors had just opened and the crowd had just been coming in from outside, yes this might have been the case.
Wal-Mart SuperCenters are open 24 hours, and one of the articles stated that the woman had already been inside the store. As far as I can tell from the article, she was at the head a group of customers waiting near the display for the sale to start, an when the siren that announced the beginning of the Blitz sounded, everybody just charged.
Master Wang-Ka, I think you just notice the SW People at Wal-Mart because the aisles at most Wal-Marts are extremely narrow, the better to cram more merchandise in, my dear. IMO, they are narrow enough to create a safety hazard in an emergency situation. Hell, in the clothing department, the racks are so close together that your average customer, while browsing one rack, is usually brushing up against the rack behind, knocking items to the floor.
CrazyCatLady:
I was working retail, in the toy department of Sears during the Cabbage Patch riots, and yes, I have always called them this as well. I was threatned by more than a few people during this time. Physical threats, or at the very least lawsuits, simply because we did not have Cabbage Patch dolls.
Still, I was lucky. That same Christmas, at the K-mart down the mall, a clerk ended up barracading hinself in the stockroom to protect himself from the herd of rampaging consumers who had gotten wind of the CP dolls contained within. He ended up throwing them over the crowd's heads to divert their attention. This, no supprise, made the situation worse.
The next day, Sears finally got their shipment of these ugly little things. The store manager quietly place them in his office, and explained that under no circumstances were the public to be told of their existance. Employee's were allowed to purchase them for their families, but as far as the public knew, we still had not gotten them.
Not a great reatail practice, but Sears did not have to fix any damage to the store or employees that year. K-mart did.Yet another reason I hate Wal-Mart.
My favorite was the part where the spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said that “We want to keep her as a shopper.”
I’d tell Wal-Mart what they could do with their damned DVD player.
My Grandma remembers the Cabbage Patch kids… only because as she says “They are so ugly they are cute” and because she almost bought me one before the craze started but decided not to… until I became one of those children bugging their parents, grandparents and any person who would buy them presents for one.
Now I have 2, both well loved and dressed not in CP clothes but my old baby clothes which will soon be stripped off for my baby to wear and I’ll dig out some of their old outfits from wherever Mom stored them…
But enough of rambling. I’m glad I don’t work retail in the States… it’s bad enough during the holidays and Boxing Day (something akin to your Black Friday if you don’t know already) My brother braves West Edmonton Mall every year on that day… as does some of my braver relatives. I stay home every year… well except one… I went to a smaller mall and had the joy of watching a raving homeless fellow toss tables in the food court and scream about Jesus and something about money… I couldn’t quite hear all he said because of the acoustics, crashing tables and security taking him down…