The term Black Friday has a new and darker meaning this year when three people were killed on the shopper’s savings day.
Two men shot and killed each other inside a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, Calif., after two women got into a fistfight. Police have said the incident was probably not related to a dispute over a purchase, but two people shot each other in the middle of a toy store on the biggest shopping day of the year. Something isn’t right.
The economy is suffering, people are looking to save money as the holiday season approaches but shooting each other in a Toys R Us hardly seems civil. Nor does trampling a Wal-Mart clerk in Valley Stream in Long Island, Ny.
“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,†co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, said in the New York Daily News. “He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too … I literally had to fight people off my back.â€
Trampled by people as he opened the doors at 5 a.m. on Black Friday. Trampled by people trying to save a few dollars.
If Black Friday is any indication, society has sunk to a new low.
Granted, the shopping day in most places around the country was fairly civil. But American shoppers who put early-morning savings ahead of people’s lives need to step back and reprioritize. Regardless of economic suffering, retail savings shouldn’t cost people their lives.
“Customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death,†MSNBC reported of the Wal-Mart incident.
Irate because they couldn’t make their purchases. Irate and selfish and unaffected by the death of a man.
Consider how this holiday season will be for that Wal-Mart clerk’s family. No amount of money they saved on gifts for their loved ones will be enough to fill the loss of their brother, son or friend.
Here is a lesson for the future: no bargain or sale is worth endangering another person’s life. For all those who were out waiting at 4 a.m. for stores to open, exercise some patience and use common sense. Be prepared to be angry and frustrated at various times throughout the day.
In times like these — and in the economic hardships this country will surely face in the upcoming years — America must behave rationally, and avoid acting like barbaric, greedy savages.
It was not a clerk but a Walmart security guard. New York is NY, not Ny.
Well, okay the proof reader missed that one.
Your editorial needs to be stronger. One person run over by a crowd of shoppers. It is the most impossible grusome story to start off the holiday season. I want to know how a person is killed when he is “trampled” because that will help the reader to understand the horror of it. I know it is hard to get all the information from a wire, but maybe some research might have helped this editorial comment. However, the first sentence is very good. It was an important editorial to run. How is a mob created? Why does this happen with average people? Lots more questions. We know, after we read this editorial, every one of us could have been in that group of shoppers turned mob. That is the really scary part.
I completely agree with this article. With regards to the statement above about the position of the employee, although it may be inaccurate, it, with all respect shouldn’t matter. Honestly, who cares about his position? A MAN WAS KILLED FOR HEAVENS SAKE!!! This just goes to show how careless people can be and how materialistic we have become; we have reached a point where Christmas is nothing more than a name for a given period out of the year where parents go crazy about getting the “perfect” gift for their children, when instead, we should be focusing on spending time with our families. I truly wish Christmas would return to the way it was when my parents were children, when all the might get was a stocking-full of goodies and one gift. I believe that would truly let us examine what family is and what it means to our lives. The fact that a man was trampled due to the greed of some people during the Christmas season is horrifying and sad. I agree with you Priscilla, it is very scary that someone is actually dead just because people are trying to get a bargain. It is even scarier, although this doesn’t apply to the article, that someone might go to the extent of fighting or even shooting and killing me and you just to get a gift for a child.
I give my condolences to the family of this poor gentleman, and I also hope that this will bring light to the fact that we need to change things about our beliefs in the Christmas season and how the birth of a baby two millenia ago is pertinent to us and our families today.
I know it is in fashon to blame everything on “American Greed.” I am amazed that while we talk about the evils of steriotyping based on a variety of reasons, it is somehow appropriate to generalize unrelated events on opposite ends of the United States to represent the greed of an entire nation. Maybe the author needs some introspection to recognize his own bigotry and lack of perspective in order to make a story. America’s Greed contributed $34.8 billion to developing countries through private philanthropy in 2006 (most recent data available).
Another $25.53 Billion came from the U.S. Government. Obvious examples of American greed. https://www.hudson.org/files/documents/2008%20Index%20-%20Low%20Res.pdf
Jon – if you’ll take note, those (undoubtedly significant) contributions in foreign aid to other countries (either private or public) is a measly percentage of our GNI, around 0.16%. In fact, while the US contributes almost the most dollars in foreign aid, we contribute the lowest percentage of our national wealth to foreign aid of any industrialized nation – Norway contributes the highest percentage of their GNI, around 1% of their total.
Regardless, I’m not sure how the generalization that our nation is greedy is an example of the author’s “own bigotry” (forget the fact that this was written by the editorial board, not just a single individual). To ignore our nation’s extreme infatuation with wealth, status and accumulation of material goods over equality, cooperation and acceptance is to turn a blind eye to what is probably our nation’s greatest weakness – arrogance.
Priscilla, if you’re going to correct someone’s spelling and punctuation, you need to make sure your own writing is correct. OK should be spelled “OK,” not “okay.” You also spelled gruesome wrong. I don’t know any writer that would say “lots more” either. Lastly, is this a writing critique or a response to the subject of the article? You’ve got a mix of both- I’m confused.