BlogWood: MT Archives

Wal-Mart shoppers anger gods

I’ve been blog-free for a few days. Lots of computer work over the holiday weekend. When it comes down to paying the rent or posting to BlogWood, paying the rent will usually eke out a win. Anyway, here’s a quick BND update post to get us all caught up on holiday shopping news, and I should have time today to put some more stuff up, so check back often!

People, I have strongly suggested that you observe this growing holiday. I have pumped it on my radio show, promoted it on my web site, and hassled all my friends about it. Now, we have concrete proof that ignoring Buy Nothing Day simply incites the wrath of the BND gods:

ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Patricia VanLester had her eye on a $29 DVD player, but when the siren blared at 6 a.m. Friday announcing the start to the post-Thanksgiving sale, the 41-year-old was knocked to the ground by the frenzy of shoppers behind her.

''She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants,'' said VanLester's sister, Linda Ellzey. ''I told them, 'Stop stepping on my sister! She's on the ground!' ''
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Paramedics called to the store found VanLester unconscious on top of a DVD player, surrounded by shoppers seemingly oblivious to her, said Mark O'Keefe, a spokesman for EVAC Ambulance.
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''She's all black and blue,'' Ellzey said. ''Patty doesn't remember anything. She still can't believe it all happened.''

Ellzey said Wal-Mart officials called later Friday to ask about her sister, and the store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her.

Well, at least she got the DVD player. She’ll have something to watch movies on during her recovery. Meanwhile, shoppers at a California Wal-Mart were also a little fired up:

TULARE -- This is no place for wimps.

It's the front of a line of at least 1,000 cold, anxious and cranky shoppers gathered in front of the Tulare Wal-Mart a half hour before the 6 a.m. start of its annual after-Thanksgiving sale.
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Before the doors opened Friday, a car caught fire in the parking lot, police were called twice to restrain eager shoppers (and wound up restraining overzealous private security guards hired by Wal-Mart), and in their rush to get inside once the store opened, shoppers literally broke the door down.

Car fire no obstacle

Nobody was injured in the car fire, and Tulare firefighters quickly put out the blaze.

Store manager Tobias Flores said the woman whose car burned later got back in line and shopped, a sign of the power of a big sale during the holiday season.

Security guards were less than thrilled, however, as they divided their time between preventing the shoppers from crushing in the front door and fielding complaints about people cutting in line.

At one point, a frazzled guard screamed to the crowd: "I have to get everyone to back away now! We need room to breathe!"

Tulare Police officer Jerod Boatman warned the guard to calm down. He sternly yelled at the crowd to get back and delayed the Wal-Mart staff from opening the store for a few minutes until everyone complied.
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Swept aside

Despite Boatman's best efforts, however, when the doors opened, he was nearly swept into the Wal-Mart by the sea of moving bodies, many so tightly packed that they literally had to squeeze through the double doors.

The hinges on one door snapped, as shoppers yanked it outward instead of inward and people trying to get in crushed against it.

Inside, there weren't the mad sprints to the toy section or shoppers grappling over blouses, as a few people in line feared. On the other hand, within a couple of minutes aisles were claustrophobically choked with people, and some shoppers could barely peek over stacks of two or three VCRs in their arms.

"Was it worth [the waiting]? Yeah, because I got what I wanted. There was still some left," said Stephanie Jackson of Tulare who had arrived here at 4:30 a.m. and got two $99 sets of car CD players and speakers.

"An old lady with a [shopping] basket hit me in the back hard," said her brother, Michael.

Then their sister, Tiffany, proudly displayed her find, a massive boom box for $79. "If you're going to put it on layaway, you've got to go out with a bang," she said.

Others weren't so lucky. While there seemed to be plenty of Nintendo Game Cubes and DVD/VCR combos to go ar-ound, the Care Bear plush dolls disappeared in about 20 minutes, as some shoppers stuffed as many as 10 in their shopping carts.

"We thought we'd beat some of this rush, and we didn't," Trisha Morphis of Visalia said, disappointed that she'd missed out on the $10 Care Bears. "So it's disappointing when we get here, and they don't have everything."

She asked her son, Jeff, "Where do we go from here?" on their search for gifts for her grandchildren.

"To hell," grumbled Jeff, who wondered why anyone would want to be here the day after Thanksgiving. "To save $2. It's the cattle at feeding time."
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It's hard to imagine that anyone would want to shop Friday after catching a glimpse of the line of customers that stretched the entire length of the store, across the parking lot and all the way to Hillman Street.
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Up near the front of the line, things were even livelier, as those in line the longest, some for hours despite the chill, chanted "Get back! Get back!" to people trying to cut in line.

"They were becoming agitated" from so many people cutting in line, and Tulare police were called out twice to calm things down, said Lt. Jerry Breckinridge, a police spokesman. "I can't remember us going out there in years past."

At the very front of the line stood Melissa Dixon. She had been there with a friend since 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Heavy coats, blankets, coffee and a portable heater brought by another early-arriving shopper kept them warm, and she managed to get about 45 minutes' sleep on a store bench during the night.

So it's no surprise she looked wild-eyed and thrilled as Wal-Mart sales associates prepared to unlock the doors even as other shoppers behind her began shoving forward and some wondered aloud if they might get trampled.