Insane Shoppers, Irresponsible Store Management
UPDATE: I don’t know why this always seems to happen with mattt, but once again I have posted on a news item that mattt also posted on. Sorry, mattt. At least our two posts are somewhat different in focus.
UPDATED AGAIN: Two more people dead, at a Toys ‘r Us in Palm Desert, California, this time as the result of a fight between two customers that was settled with guns. “If this is shopping,” Mark Silva writes, “we might be better off with a recession.”
As James Joyner notes, this madness seems to be an annual occurrence at this time of year. Joyner also correctly faults the management of this Wal-Mart, as well as the mob of shoppers, for the conditions that led to “such predictable results.”
Libby puts it more strongly:
The 200 or so crazed shoppers literally took the doors off the building in their rush to get that $600 wide screen TV. The store should be held criminally responsible for the deaths for creating the shopping frenzy and failing to provide proper crowd control. Sending a couple of underpaid, overworked stock clerks to hold back the mob is nothing short of negligent homicide.
Maha drily reminds us that “big crowds can be dangerous.”
When people are densely packed, there’s always a danger that someone will accidentally be injured or even killed. As population on our planet is tending to both increase and concentrate in urban areas, we could use some public education aimed at people explaining why pushing and shoving and stampeding generally are not to be tolerated.
All true. But I’ve been thinking (being the analytical, rather than the pragmatic, sort) that there is deeper meaning behind this kind of unhinged response to coveted big-ticket “stuff” that normally costs thousands of dollars and for one day only can be had for only a few hundred. People have such a desperate need to have what everyone else has (or what they imagine everyone else has); that seems to be how we measure psychic belonging and emotional safety in our society.
Sometimes you can find someone thinking along the same lines in a place you would never, in a million years, expect to find commonality. Right now, that place is The Anchoress, a blog written by a woman who is quite far to the right — politically, socially, and religiously. I couldn’t believe it when I found myself recognizing some of my own thoughts in her post on Black Friday in general, and the Long Island Wal-Mart lethal stampede in particular, but there ya go — sweet mystery of life:
I wondered why things seemed so “quiet” on the internet and then remembered, oh yeah - Black Friday. I give all due credit to those hardy souls who are willing rise from their after-Thanksgiving exhaustion to brave the stores - particularly those awful “earlybird” sales - and get a large bit of Christmas shopping done. I tried it one year and decided, no. My abhorrence of crowds and my sense of personal dignity just couldn’t allow me to be herded about or shoved into running crowds to get 25% off on a sweater my niece probably would wear once.
Iron bowl
I once actually saw two women quarrel over an item, just like in the movies, while Christmas shopping. I was very young, and knew everything at the time, so I blamed it on American materialism and its corruptive influence on the soul. Materialism CAN corrupt the soul, of course - as can capitalism untempered by compassion - but as I’ve matured, I’ve come to reject the easy and cynical course that finds “America” and its values to be at the core of every negative situation I encounter. Instead, I have decided to think of the aggression of the battling shoppers to be rooted in vulnerability. They’ve decided they want to purchase a particular item for someone they love. Perhaps this is how they express love. Perhaps they believe, subconsciously, that this is the only way they can be loved back. Perhaps this is a budgeted item and the only way they can afford to purchase it is at a heavily reduced price and - because they love - they’re willing to fight for it.
Looked at in this way, the “crassness” of all of this consumer excess seems less clear, and one finds oneself - as one does all too often, if one is paying attention - in the middle of yet another Holy Mystery. Love is the highest human aspiration, but when it lacks anchoring in something bigger than itself, it tends to drift a bit and take on some detritus (doubt, hu
Related posts: Liberator, Zip codes, Mel gibson divorce, Media takeout, Johnny vegas
are you befuddled by the continuing presence of the lions on a nationally televised game every thanksgiving, despite the certainty that the last time the team was in any way watchable, no story knew who monica lewinsky was? (and yes, that was a transparent ploy to avoid a photo of the lions and make editor scrap happy. he’s bulky on cankles, and women that don’t quail.)highly, the epic investigative staff has left no stone unturned 
2. yet trying to deliver them back as regards the comedic value of their old silver leather helmets1. raw, undaunted, unrelenting pityclear wireless amber alerts on your phone.
