# Wal-Mart Greeter Killed in Black Friday Stampede **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 28, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811 "2008-11-28T16:39:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/261 "2008-11-30T10:56:46Z")
[Jdimytai Damour was a big man – 270 pounds, by one account – but a gentle giant to his friends, who said he loved to chat about movies, Japanese animé and politics](http://www.startribune.com/nation/35262584.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF) ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/262 "2008-11-30T12:28:18Z")
> [@bassoonatic](#): > > This is the reason I try to avoid shopping at all after Thanksgiving- crazy mobs, traffic, and stupid greedy people. What I don’t understand is that this year, there was nothing ‘new’ out like Wii or PS3, **and** everything you could buy in the store on black Friday was available online (most with free delivery or in-store pickup) **on Thanksgiving Day for the same price!** Yeah, but lots of people look at Black Friday as a sport. It’s not about the price, necessarily, but about the lengths people will go to get it and how much they’ll fight for it. It’s sort of like getting into a sports argument. Things get bloody over low stakes. Robin ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/263 "2008-11-30T12:34:48Z")
> [@Darth\_Nader](#): > > [Jdimytai Damour was a big man – 270 pounds, by one account – but a gentle giant to his friends, who said he loved to chat about movies, Japanese animé and politics](http://www.startribune.com/nation/35262584.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF) Be careful. I clicked on that link and was immediately presented with a popup for some fraudulent antivirus scanner (Antivirus 2009, [pro-scanner-online.com](http://pro-scanner-online.com)) that tried to infect my computer. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/264 "2008-11-30T12:37:39Z")
Once in a while, a death can have comedic value but I don’t see anything funny about this particular death. The victim was apparently some poor schmuck, probably making minimum wage, just trying to do his job. I think a funny death requires (1) the victim to have some combination of massive stupidity, greed, or just plain evil; (2) the victim acts on said stupidity, greed, or evil; and (3) these acts bring about the victim’s death in a fitting or ironic or way. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/265 "2008-11-30T13:46:34Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I have a hard time believing that. I suppose “otherwise well-mannered housewives…turning into an aggressive and violent mob…” in the 1950’s may have resorted to a little “fuck you bitch” and some pushiness. but not to the level we have today. Your cites are welcome to dispel my ignorance, though. > > My impression is that average middle-class people were FAR more polite and well-behaved than they are today, on every level. > > When I hear my parents talk about “the golden years” or whatever, what I take from that mostly is a time when the general populace at large in America had a tendency to look out for one another’s children, and that vulgarity was a surprising event, not the norm we have now. > > Perhaps that’s just me. I’m not talking about sailors and longeshoremen, either. Just everyday working joes and their families, and how they were raised as opposed to today. Families with a stronger nucleus than we have today are what I wax nostalgic about. It’s just you. :rolleyes: When ever **I** hear people talk about the “golden days”, I think they’re full of shit. People were NOT more polite, families were NOT stronger, the only reason divorce might not have been as prevalent is that it was seen scandalous. So you had people stuck in miserable marriages and the like. That’s just super, isn’t it? > [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > Maybe you should stick to your “Me too” posts; they’re quicker to skip over. Thanks. You, of all people, should NOT be lecturing people on the quality of their posts. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/266 "2008-11-30T14:03:16Z")
This Fall, I took my son to a NINTENDO store event. Thousands and thousands of people waited in line for hours. One to two hours before the doors opened, Associates with colored rubberbands (wrist bands?) went through the line and give the first 200 people theirs. It was made clear that they got in first and that afterwards as someone else left, that number of people would be allowed it. Worked like a charm. [Jack McCoy jury closing]"My understanding is that using wrist bands is an ‘old hat’, well known way to handle lines and crowds. So, why doesn’t WALMART get it? What will it Take for WALMART to get it? When will they be held responsible? In your lifetime, when its your kids and grandkids working there between Semesters to make money before Christmas? Or right Here, right Now, while you can still go home and hug them and tell them you love them? Look over there at Mrs. Damours tears and tell me You want to sit in That seat…? The Prosecution rests, your honor. "[/Jack McCoy jury closing] ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/267 "2008-11-30T16:15:32Z")
Yeah- hubby went to our local Game Stop for the midnight roll-out of Wrath of the Lich King a few weeks ago, and hundreds of people, young and old, buzzed and sober, were very well-behaved. Not a single problem, even with all of the unsupervised teens milling about. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/268 "2008-11-30T16:45:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > It’s just you. > :rolleyes: When ever **I** hear people talk about the “golden days”, I think they’re full of shit. People were NOT more polite, families were NOT stronger, the only reason divorce might not have been as prevalent is that it was seen scandalous. So you had people stuck in miserable marriages and the like. That’s just super, isn’t it? > > You, of all people, should NOT be lecturing people on the quality of their posts. Noticing your location, I now understand the source of your general malaise, anger and discontent. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/269 "2008-11-30T16:58:43Z")
I think **Guin** is required by law to be as disdainful as possible when disagreeing with someone. Most of us ignore her; every now and again we’re reminded of why. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/270 "2008-11-30T17:05:35Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > I think **Guin** is required by law to be as disdainful as possible when disagreeing with someone. Most of us ignore her; every now and again we’re reminded of why. LOL. And from what I’ve read, the examples in this thread are pretty tame. Not that there isn’t a certain amount of irony in you making a statement about another poster’s requisite level of disdain! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/271 "2008-11-30T17:08:23Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > I think **Guin** is required by law to be as disdainful as possible when disagreeing with someone. I think she’s a good example of ways in which how you say something can be as important as what you say. There are others in this thread who are also good examples. ---
**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/272 "2008-11-30T19:04:24Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > I am not sure I am getting the reference in that article. They say it is because of the increased traffic, but why “black” Friday? Traffic left more smoke and soot, then? Black snow? Most customers were black in early 20C Philadelphia? Or just a general reference to the headache inducing rush? “Black” was used here as a humorous pejorative to denote disaster, gloom, and doom. Police, transit workers, and store clerks in Philadelphia had at least by the mid-'60s come to regard that hectic, crowded Friday (perhaps filled with out-of-towners) sandwiched between Thanksgiving and the Army-Navy football game as a day of “catastrophe” in the city center; certainly by 1965 they had begun applying the “Black Friday” moniker to this day. For the sake of comparison, a popular national and contemporaneous use of “Black Friday” (at least judging by its appearance in newspapers) served to identify a Friday the 13th. I think that comparison is more apt than the assocation with “black”-named financial crises mentioned in the Wikipedia piece. – Tammi Terrell ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/273 "2008-11-30T19:55:48Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > For those outside the U.S. who may be wondering about the origins of this event, a brief history: > > As “everyone” knows, commercialism dominates the U.S. celebration of Christmas. This is not a new phenomenon and extends back well over 60 years (where it plays a central role in the 1947 movie, Miracle on 34th Street and is documented in such phenomena as the Peanuts cartoon strip where, through the 1950s, the strip often featured characters talking about there being so many shopping days until Christmas. (In the 1950s, most retail outlets still closed on Sunday, so they counted down each week as a six day period during which one could shop.) > > One tradition that grew up in the 20th century was the four day holiday at Thanksgiving. Unlike Christmas or Independence Day that can be celebrated on any day of the week, Thanksgiving has long been celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Over the years, employees agitated to have the day after Thanksgiving be a day off from work so that it would be easier to use four days to travel and visit family. Once the day after Thanksgiving was more or less universally a day off work for most people, the merchants capitalized on that fact to promote sales and encourage people to spend their day of leisure getting their Christmas shopping out of the way several weeks before Christmas. > That day became a really big shopping day throughout the country and has come to be known as Black Friday because so many merchants operate at a loss (in the red) throughout much of the year while the sales on that day are enough to make many of them profitable (in the black) just on that day’s business. > Beginning about 20 years ago, and getting ridiculously crazy in the last few years, stores began trying to lure business from their competition by offering extreme discounts only to customers who shopped in the first few hours of business at their stores. As more stores ran early morning sales, they also began to open the stores several hours prior to their normal business hours (with even more extreme discounts) to get the jump on their competition. In recent years, the trend has gone to absurd lengths with stores being mobbed by people who believe that they are going to be able to buy all their Christmas presents at some incredibly low price, (or purchase some rare toy or gadget which the merchants may have in short supply), if they simply show up early enough in the morning–often waiting outside the stores for hours before opening so as to be the first ones into the stores. > > The incident in the OP was the result of a mob of people shoving into the store the moment it opened. > > (And, as noted, it was not really any worse or more stupid than the various trampellings that Yanks hear about occurring at soccer/futbol games through the years in the rest of the world.) Thanks for the explanation. We haven’t imported this american custom yet… But still I can’t understand why Dio blames the little baby Jesus for this: It’s like blaming the jews for the black death. > [@Hogwash](#): > > Black Friday is traditionally seen as the start of the Christmas shopping season. > > Now, do you want me to tell you where babies come from? In general I do, but in the case of your children I don’t: your wife says you are impotent so I can´t rule out divine intervention, France or your gardener. Fucker ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/274 "2008-11-30T20:43:39Z")
Yeah, but he can take a Viagra. You, on the other hand, are screwed; there ain’t no pill for stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/275 "2008-11-30T20:52:21Z")
Perhaps you are not following the thread. I asked a question and he made fun of me instead of answering it. This my be the BBQ but this is the straight dope and it’s motto is fighting ignorance not perpetuating it. So he is a fucker and so are you for defending him. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/276 "2008-11-30T21:10:14Z")
> [@Tammi\_Terrell](#): > > “Black” was used here as a humorous pejorative to denote disaster, gloom, and doom. Police, transit workers, and store clerks in Philadelphia had at least by the mid-'60s come to regard that hectic, crowded Friday (perhaps filled with out-of-towners) sandwiched between Thanksgiving and the Army-Navy football game as a day of “catastrophe” in the city center; certainly by 1965 they had begun applying the “Black Friday” moniker to this day. > > For the sake of comparison, a popular national and contemporaneous use of “Black Friday” (at least judging by its appearance in newspapers) served to identify a Friday the 13th. I think that comparison is more apt than the assocation with “black”-named financial crises mentioned in the Wikipedia piece. > > – Tammi Terrell This all is making me giggle, because “Black Friday” was the one thing I used to point to when my friends would say, “Why does everything black have to have negative connotations?? Blackmail, Blacklist, Black ball, Black sheep, Black plague…” I really thought that ‘Black Friday’ referenced being back in the black, so it actually had no negative connotations that I could see. So, there goes that… Brazil84, that sounds like nonsense to my ears. If there are people anywhere at any time that are not taking proper measures of safety when their jobs require them to, because they ‘don’t like being called racist’, then they are greater morons than the nitwits that would accuse them of being racist for increasing security at store in a high crime neighborhood. No pity for a moron like that. Let’s say I knew that purple people were the type of people to molest their children. And it was my job to protect lil’ purple babies from their daddies getting dirty in the night. I could set up some kind of school programs maybe? I mean in the predominately purple neighborhoods that would teach the purple kiddies how to Say NO! Then Go! and Tell! (I think that is one of the programs I remember from school). If I didn’t really step up those efforts in the purple neighborhoods because I didn’t want anyone to accuse me of being racist against the purple people, then I would be the biggest fool. Not the hypersensitive purple people. ETA: To clarify, I meant, what if Purple People neighborhoods had the highest rate of child molestation. Not that the edit makes my analogy sound any less weird. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/277 "2008-11-30T21:22:45Z")
> [@Estilicon](#): > > But still I can’t understand why Dio blames the little baby Jesus for this: It’s like blaming the jews for the black death. Actually, he did not mention the baby Jesus. He noted that the people responsible were doing it as part of a celebration of “Peace on Earth, good will towards man.” Since “good will towards man” was supposed to have been one original purpose of the Christmas season and Thanksgiving is considered the start of the Christmas season, his comment was apropos. ETA: If you read his [actual post to which you responded](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10505997#post10505997), you will note that the only blame he assigned was to greedy people, not the actual season or its (purported) reason for existence. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/278 "2008-11-30T22:00:55Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Actually, he did not mention the baby Jesus. He noted that the people responsible were doing it as part of a celebration of “Peace on Earth, good will towards man.” > > Since “good will towards man” was supposed to have been one original purpose of the Christmas season and Thanksgiving is considered the start of the Christmas season, his comment was apropos. > ETA: If you read his [actual post to which you responded](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10505997#post10505997), you will note that the only blame he assigned was to greedy people, not the actual season or its (purported) reason for existence. [QUOTE=Diogenes the Cinic] This kind of thing represents both everything that’s **wrong with Christmas** and everything that’s wrong with Americans. Fucking greedy, brainless fat-asses literally killing people to get a few bucks off a nerf ball for their worthless fucking kids. Mindless, bestial consumerism, oblivious, sociopathic self-absorbtion, absolute lack of accountability. All for a few piddling, trivial discounts on CD players and cookware. It doesn’t sound like any of these people gave the slightest shit that they’d just killed somebody. [/QUOTE] To me Dio was blaming christmas or, at least, the way christmas is celebrated in America, but your interpretation of his post is better (that means I’m wrong). My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/279 "2008-11-30T22:10:11Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > And while I’m sorry the woman who was pregnant was hurt, she had no business risking her baby’s life by being in a madhouse like that. How could she have known it would get anything remotely like that crazy? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811/280 "2008-11-30T23:49:57Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Noticing your location, I now understand the source of your general malaise, anger and discontent. Huh? What the hell does being from Pittsburgh have to do with it? Am I being whooshed, somehow? And honestly, if you study history, you’ll see, the whole “Golden Era” is a myth. Times have not gotten worse-or gotten better. Just different. Some things have actually improved-ask any African American who lived through Jim Crow, or any gay invidual. And yes, some things have gotten worse. But honestly, anyone who does the whole, “Back in MY day, things were so much better, now things are going to hell in a handbasket, blah blah blah” is completely full of shit. And it’s one of my major pet peeves. (ETA: And I take it you’re not familiar with **Carol Stream**? Trust me, I’m probably not the only one who feels that way) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-greeter-killed-in-black-friday-stampede/474811.md?page=15)