OMG did you give it to him?

The New York Times

In a sign of consumer desperation amid a bleak economy, the annual rite of retailing known as Black Friday turned chaotic and deadly, as shoppers scrambled for holiday bargains.

A Wal-Mart worker on Long Island, N.Y., died after being trampled by customers who broke through the doors early Friday, and other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man. At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals.

Fights and injuries occurred elsewhere at other stores operated by Wal-Mart, the nation’s leading discount chain, which is one of the few retailers thriving in the current economy.

Meanwhile, two men at a crowded Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, Calif., pulled guns and shot each other to death after women with them brawled, witnesses said. The company released a statement late Friday saying the deaths were related to a personal dispute and not Black Friday shopping.

It was mainly only discount chains that were bustling long before sunrise. People showed up for a small number of limited-time “door-buster” deals, such as 32-inch flat-screen televisions for $388 and Intel laptops for $499. In many cases, after an initial onslaught, crowds dwindled after the few sought-after items had sold out.

While tussles and even broken bones are common when the doors open on Black Friday, this is apparently the first time someone was killed in the stampede. For some consumer psychologists, the mad scramble was a sign of the times.

“I think it ties into a sort of fear and panic of not having enough,” said Joe Priester, a professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a former president of the Society for Consumer Psychology. A herd mentality, he said, can lead individuals to feel anonymous, so much so that they are capable of trampling someone. “Fear combined with the group mentality?” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Actions “irrational”

Walter Loeb, president of Loeb Associates, a retail consultancy, said there was shopping mania at Wal-Mart every year. But this year, he said, it seems “people are becoming irrational in their actions.”

That seemed the case early Friday at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, on Long Island, where the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control about 3 a.m., and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.

Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared. By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault.

Witnesses and the police said the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Queens, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him.

Some workers fought their way through the surge to get to Damour, but he had been fatally injured, police said. Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, was pronounced dead an hour later at Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream.

Four other people, including a 28-year-old woman described as eight months pregnant, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries.

Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, who is in charge of the investigation for the Nassau County police, called the scene “utter chaos” and said the “crowd was out of control.” As for those who had run over the victim, criminal charges were possible, the lieutenant said. “I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not,” he said. “Certainly it was a foreseeable act.”

Some shoppers who had seen the stampede said they were shocked. One, Kimberly Cribbs of Queens, said the crowd had acted like “savages.” Shoppers’ behavior was bad even as the store was being cleared, she recalled.

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Cribbs said. “They kept shopping.”

Outbreaks weren’t restricted to New York. At a Wal-Mart in Columbus, Ohio, Nikki Nicely, 19, jumped onto a man’s back and pounded his shoulders when he tried to take a 40-inch Samsung flat-screen TV to which she had laid claim. “That’s my TV!” Nicely, 19, shouted. “That’s my TV!”

A police officer and security guard intervened, but not before Nicely took an elbow in the face. In the end, she was the one with the $798 television, marked down from $1,000. “That’s right,” she cried as her adversary walked away. “This here is my TV!”

From me: My heart and prayers go out to the family of Jdimytai Damour.

they should but it goes back to what i was sayin about people being selfish they dont care as long as they get paid

in situations such as this, with thousands of people showing up.. there should be a number system… and a time limit for how long they get in the store… this way, this kind of thing can be resolved long before it happens again.

Well I think the point is that life is NOT all about Mattel’s latest thing!
The consistent failure of western economics every few years is one indicator of that!

im like a computer.it just “does not compute”!!![/quote]

i think that everyone feeds off of each others energy people let all the bad things thats around them take the goodness thats in them away but sometimes you just have to be the bigger person

what life is all about, if by going to get a buy something could get u trampled to death?
dowe have so little regard for life that in order to get mattels latest offering we become killsers.

sorry,joy. i just got lost wondering what its all about when i see stories like todays.i wonder what its all about.

oh okay lol No worries.

In Australia we big sales on Boxing Day, Dec 26th.
Every Boxing Day you used to see on the news the big stores open really early and people would push each other down to get to the bargains.
And yes, people had crushed and killed some times too.

I think they may have done something about it now. Posted extra security or something.
But it is sad to think that some people have so little regard for others that their greed takes over :(

[quote Joy.]Greed does that to people I guess..[/quote]

fair enough but its like litter.who why what when and how????

why would u toss trash on teh ground?? it amazes me again.the planet is pretty ****** up as it is .make things better for everyone.DO UR BIT !![/quote]

exscuse me?

as the aboriginals say “sure we are only passing through” who knows what its all about

[quote Joy.]Greed does that to people I guess..[/quote]

fair enough but its like litter.who why what when and how????

why would u toss trash on teh ground?? it amazes me again.the planet is pretty ****** up as it is .make things better for everyone.DO UR BIT !!

im like a computer.it just “does not compute”!!!

Exactly. If start to ‘treat them how they treat you’ You’ll become just as bitter as them.

i think our thoughts and prayers should be with the families of those people killed

The way people were acting was barberic.

In their desperate attempts to make their families holidays ‘the perfect one, with everything they wanted’ they completely ruin another families chance of ever enjoying the holidays ever again.