wal43635324
Photo by Newsday |
By Carlos Miller
There has been much debate on the Internet over who is to blame for the death of Jdimytai Damou, the 34-year-old Walmart worker who was trampled to death by shoppers on Black Friday.
Many people blame Walmart, saying the store is directly responsible for the death for not implementing safety precaution measures, including extra security guards.
Others blame the mob of shoppers who did the trampling, saying this particular crowd was so caught up with saving a buck or two, that they had no regard for their fellow human being dying on the floor.
Of course the shoppers are to blame because in their rush to beat each other for bargain deals, they refused to stop and help this man back up.
But Walmart is also to blame because it knew the potential for danger it was creating having seen it before, according to this video of a Black Friday Walmart opening in 2005 where several people got trampled. Only they didn’t get killed.
Note how quickly the Walmart employee scoots out the way after opening the door. If only Damou had seen this video perhaps he would still be alive today.
Knowing the potential for serious injury, Walmart did nothing to change its opening Black Day tactics. In fact, all it did was hype up Black Friday by taping a handwritten sign outside the store, stating “Blitz Line Starts Here” to set the mood for customers as to what will happen once the doors open.
Blitz line as in Blitzkrieg, which is defined as “an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory.”
wal_walmart_stampede_01
|
Or as in Blitz defense where a linebacker or cornerback vacates their post to strike fast and hard at the quarterback.
In other words, to blitz into the store means to not worry about petty little obstacles like human beings being trampled under your feet.
It is exactly what you see in the above photo, which was taken by one of the customers that morning and posted on the New York Daily News Website.
To get multi perspectives on national news stories, I like to visit Democratic Underground and Conservative Cave to get the reactions of both sides of the political spectrum. But in this case, the responses were not much different.
A Democratic Underground poster named Magic Rat, who used to work at Walmart, tells this story of how Walmart deliberately understocked products that are set at bargain prices, knowing the people will pay regular prices for whatever else they’re buying.
Two years ago at this time I was working at Wal-Mart while I was going to school to earn my degree. I remember the black friday that I worked in 2006. It was absolutely insane. About 500 people on line outside the store at 4 am.
At 5:00 they opened the doors and people flooded in like locusts. They made a mad dash, running into eachother, knocking stuff over, all trying to get the $400 laptop that was on sale and the Nintendo Wii that we had in stock.
We had three laptops and six Wii’s – all for the 500 people on line who wanted them.
When I read about this story a few minutes ago it absolutely broke my heart, because the person who died was a part-time worker like I was. He or she probably made around $7 or $8 an hour.
If you don’t think Wal-Mart is entirely to blame for this, you’re wrong. The way Wal-Mart sets up black friday is to have everyone stand in a long line and as soon as the doors open, take about 20 or so people and have them come into the store first, then wait a few minutes and have another 20. Of course, Wal-Mart only tells the people at the front of the line this. Not to mention that they don’t tell people how many actual items are in stock, so if you’re number 50 on the line, and you’re expecting to get a laptop or tv or dvd player or something that they have only four or five quantities of, well, you’re shit out of luck.
But when you have 500 people crowding into a space that holds, at most, about a dozen people, you’re going to get a mob mentality, because it literally is every man for themselves.
And a Conservative Cave poster named Big Don who also works at Walmart confirmed there are limited items that are listed for sale, but he blames the distributors. He also blames a managerial screw-up in Friday’s incident.
I work at Wal Mart. I make OK money and have, contrary to many stories, excellent medical coverage, and a number of benefits you never, ever hear about. The ONLY people who have keys to the doors at Wal Marts are the Store Managers and the Assistant Managers, these keys DO NOT leave their hands, that said, if this poor guy was unlocking the door, as reported, someone did something VERY incompatible with company guidelines.
We had 16 of those XBoxes, and no fights and not even a raised voice when we sold out of them at 6:05. A better target for rage on Wii, Xbox and PS3 pricing and availability would be Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Why don’t we have enough, because THEY do not make enough to meet demand.
It’s pretty startling to learn that on the busiest day of the shopping year, either Walmart or Sony or Microsoft or Ninentdo or any number of corporations that are pulling our consumer strings have done very little to supply the demand they are counting on to get them out of the red and into the black.
Of course this makes stupid business sense, so I’m betting they restock the shelves once the early morning sale ends and the items go back to their regular price, once the hundreds of early bird customers have scratched and clawed and trampled over one other, only to end up empty handed.
This is when the mobs of shoppers will now pay regular prices for something they could have purchased any time between now and Christmas at the same price. But by buying it on Black Friday, they are doing their corporate masters a big favor by pushing them into the black.
So when it comes down to it, Walmart’s methods of hyping up the sales was just another version of the illegal bait-and-switch tactic.
Only this time, the victim ended up dying.
Popularity: 3% [?]
12 responses so far ↓
1 scg // Nov 30, 2008 at 9:11 AM
A well written post, and right on target. Wal-Mart is to blame for this, but the people who let their wills be controlled by corporations are to blame too.
Great read.
SCG
2 Rick // Nov 30, 2008 at 10:04 AM
It would be nice to hear those who criticize Wal-Mart, no doubt in part because they are big, bad Corporate America, suggest what could have been done differently to help the people who decided that a human life wasn’t worth as much to them as a deeply discounted TV.
It might also help to mention, Carlos, how these same people bitched and complained when told they would have to leave the store because it was now a crime scene. That was part of the media reports, too.
Perhaps Wal-Mart could have done more, but to ignore the psyche of these morons who somehow believe that this kind of crap is somehow part of Christmas does your analysis injustice.
.
3 genewitch // Nov 30, 2008 at 12:59 PM
er… people understand that it’s a first come first serve thing with the “deals” on black friday; that’s why there are lines. And as far as a conservative working at walmart and considering it “good pay” i’m going to call BS – on both parts of the idea.
When there’s a shooting (as there were at least two newsworthy shootings on black friday, one in hollywood, the other at a toys ‘r’ us – oh, toys ‘r’ us isn’t a corporate overlord, so that tale doesn’t warrant a mention?) so when there’s a shooting, do you write about the corporate gun manufacturers that do NOTHING to make their guns … i mean do you understand how this sounds?
yes, walmart is a cesspool that destroys communities, then after it swindles people into being disloyal to their local retailers, jacks up prices so high that people can barely afford them… but where else can they shop now that mom and pop had to close the store? – but they’re hardly to blame for plain ass human greed… Especially in new york.
most of the coverage on KNX 1070 los angeles mentioned that the paramedics and police on scene were getting knocked to the ground and bounced around by crowds, as well. Is walmart to blame for not making their vestibules large enough to hold emergency teams trying to save someone’s life, and greedy pigpigs that are there too?
Furthermore, the two posts you inline quoted couldn’t be further apart in ideology… One is saying “this is a tragedy, everyone should share blame, the people, and walmart”
The other is saying, quite freaking explicitly – “walmart isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out. heck they even have health insurance lol! (oh and a 10% discount. some benefits!)” – like health insurance is some “rare” freaking occurrence at large corporations or something.
One made me feel for the walmart employees. the other made me want to punch the nearest person with a mccain sticker on their car.
How does one even get the gumption to reply to this happening with “well, walmart is good to me, so therefore “? that statement is BS, because it’s not SONY, Microsoft, or nintendo’s fault that they can’t meet demand… it’s mostly IBM’s fault. and last time i checked, IBM is a huge american corporation, that has more employees and money than god. See, they make the CPUs for these consoles, and if they’re not producing according to demand, then how is that some japanese company’s fault? or walmart’s, for that matter? should walmart cease stocking these particular items, or what?
come on… this is the HUMANS’ FAULT.
4 genewitch // Nov 30, 2008 at 1:17 PM
ugh, it deleted a bit of my content in that post. because i put it in the angle brackets.
For the record, i’ve worked retail at two different places on black friday, including circuit city which is renowned for its huge sales… and there have been long lines and stuff. They can’t stock many at “those prices” because they’re under cost. Being from the east coast (and south) – i wouldn’t expect you to know what a Fry’s Electronics is… but they do this every week… yes, every WEEK with their print ads. they have like 4 items that they sneak into the ad that are really amazing deals, and when you get to your local fry’s they’re always sold out. because each store only had 3 at that price.
As far as i know, truth in advertising as far as “how many are in stock” only applies to car dealerships, as they’re the only ones i ever hear mentioning the inventory count on any medium.
i’ll step down from the soapbox, now.
5 Carlos Miller // Nov 30, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Scg,
Thanks! And of course the people who let themselves get manipulated by the corporations are also to blame. But we all know most people are like puppets waiting for someone to pull their strings.
Rick,
It is a given that those people who did the trampling are clearly at fault. They did the trampling after all. I never once said that they are innocent in this matter.
What I said, Rick, is that Walmart has a responsibility to ensure safety in their store. And knowing that there was the potential for customers to act like a herd of animals during feeding time, they could have taken some preventive measures.
You ask what Walmart could have done differently?
Perhaps instead of selling a handful of products at 50 percent off for only the first hour (or whatever it is they do), they could sell their whole supply of that particular product at 15 percent off throughout the entire day.
In the end, their profit on that particular product should be the same.
But of course that will just make the Black Friday sale like any other sale throughout the year, so they needed to do it this way in order to ensure that the people would sleep off their turkey hangovers and be at the store at 4 fucking a.m.
So they created the hype. And they added to the hype by posting that sign that said “blitz line starts here”. And they did nothing to control the hype by maybe hiring security guards for crowd control.
In the end, Walmart did everything at no or low cost. That’s their business model. And that’s what got that worker killed.
6 Carlos Miller // Nov 30, 2008 at 1:49 PM
genewitch,
The reason I posted what the conservative said is because he confirmed there were limited supplies. That whole thing about the benefits is a subject for a different debate on a different day.
And being the loyal Walmart worker, he refused to blame Walmart for the low supply but rather the distributor.
But regardless of whose fault it is for the low supply, it really doesn’t make business sense because all these companies are out to sell as much as possible, especially on Black Friday.
So I have a hard time believing that these companies would not stock up on these products knowing they are going to be sell throughout the day.
I have a hard time believing that these companies only supply enough products to last the first hour.
The shooting I heard about was gang-related, so from what I read, it really didn’t have to do with fighting over a product but to gang colors.
I know Fry’s Electronics well because I used to live out west.
Regardless if their methods for advertising are legal or not, it is clearly a bait and switch tactic, which is not legal. Nor ethical.
And I never said the people were innocent in this matter. But these people in NY are from a low-income area. To them, saving 50 bucks on whatever product it is that Walmart is selling is a big deal.
So Walmart exploited that into creating the hype that ultimately killed this guy.
7 Rick // Nov 30, 2008 at 2:04 PM
Maybe Wal-Mart should just limit its big sales to on-line only. Then no one would get killed. Right? How far do we have to go to keep people from acting like animals?
Remember Blue Light specials at K-Mart, Carlos? Amazing how no one was trampled when those lights went off, wasn’t it?
It’s people, Carlos, not the company.
.
8 Carlos Miller // Nov 30, 2008 at 2:30 PM
I shouted out,
Who killed the kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me
You know who killed Jdimytai Damou?
You killed him.
I killed him.
We all killed him.
Just think about that for a second.
9 genewitch // Nov 30, 2008 at 7:02 PM
i think the real wtf is that he was merely a temp worker. that makes it about 5 times more sad in my brain.
10 Rick // Nov 30, 2008 at 7:34 PM
Just think about that for a second.
Okay, just did and I guess the Stones are way too deep for me because I have no idea how these lyrics relate to a Wal-Mart worker getting trampled in Valley Stream, New York.
.
11 genewitch // Nov 30, 2008 at 11:36 PM
i think it was symbolic of everyone’s participation and condoning the actions and reactions that allowed this particular event to transpire.
12 Carlos Miller // Dec 1, 2008 at 12:18 AM
Rick,
It’s about the consumerism that we, as a society, have allowed to permeate our lives.
About how we, as a society, judge our fellow man by his material possessions.
About how we, as a society, have allowed the day after Thanksgiving, a day where we should just be doing nothing – or at least something we truly enjoy – turn into “Black Friday”, a day that really does nothing but benefit our corporate slave masters.
We, as a society, could easily put a stop to it by just refusing to shop when they tell us to shop.
But no, we allow it, we follow it, we abide by it.
I can go on, Rick, but maybe you’ll get the picture.
Leave a Comment