Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Holiday Madness
Posted on November 30, 2003 in Consuming Crosstalk
From Photodude comes a few reports of Friday shoppers gone berzerk, including a woman run over for a parking space, fistfights in lines, and the trampling of a woman in a rush to grab a $29 DVD player on special at Walmart:
“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!'”
Ellzey said some shoppers tried to help VanLester, and one employee helped Ellzey reach her sister, but most people just continued their rush for deals.
“All they cared about was a stupid DVD player,” she said Saturday.
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.
The focus on this and similar incidents will undoubtably be on the shoppers, but what about the retailers such as Walmart who don’t take sufficient steps to protect their customers from mobs such as this after baiting them with ridiculously low prices? This was like throwing red meat into the midst of a pack of winter-starved wolves. It speaks about the bad economy that still troubles us. In true, cheap Walmart style:
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.
As for ourselves, we completely avoided Friday’s consumer hurricane and remained at home. When we went out on Saturday to meet a friend for lunch at Irvine Spectrum Center, we were shocked to find the parking lots half empty. It was no trouble at all to find empty spaces near the entrance, a matter of seconds of searching. Nowhere did we see shoppers mobbing the stores. The restaurant where we ate was also mostly empty.
I am not impressed so far with the rebound of consumer confidence in our nation. One day of great sales on drastically reduced items does not make for an impressive or confident recovery.
