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Posted on Dec 01, 2008 - 1:10am by John P. in News, Videos
Recent deaths during “Black Friday” sales give a whole other meaning to the phrase, and they illustrate how completely out of control some people are getting based on the mindless greedy rush to get a deal.
A worker at a Wal-Mart in Nassau County, N.Y. was trampled to death on Friday as a crazed crowd of shoppers broke down the door and proceeded to run right over him. The exact Wal-mart location is 77 Green Acres Rd, Valley Stream, NY‎ (at the Green Acres Mall), and here it is on a map:
A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island, New York, store Friday morning, police and witnesses said. The 34-year-old worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too…I literally had to fight people off my back.”
A 28-year-old pregnant woman was knocked to the floor during the mad rush. She was hospitalized for observation, police said. Early witness accounts that the woman suffered a miscarriage were unfounded, police said.
Three other shoppers suffered minor injuries, cops said.
This next video, filmed by some guys who were waiting to get in the actual Green Acres Mall Wal-Mart, captured the lead up to the brutal event. WARNING: there is a LOT of bad language in this video because it’s a few excited young guys. Of course, the entire crowd sounds like a riot, so you know something bad is going to happen.
And after the deed was done, some people stood around and filmed paramedics while laughing and joking about it. Nice.
So, you may be wondering what happens at all the other Wal-marts and stores across the nation even when it works out properly? Pandemonium.
And how people are acting when they are actually inside the stores? Like freakin’ animals!
So, what can we all learn from these experiences? How about this. Stay at home and shop online!!! The stupidest thing of all is that while these morons were lining up outside the Wal-mart, they could have already been purchasing the sale items at home on Walmart.com!
Yes, that’s right. Walmart, and just about every other retailer, made their Black Friday deals available online long before the stores ever even opened. Oh, and I had already dished out the sites that help you do that early bird shopping well in advance.
I use the "No Adverts for Friends" plugin by Donncha O Caoimh
Contrary to my previous comment, suddenly Amazon’s looking pretty good.
What an awful story … even individually, people can be pretty horrible sometimes, but as a mob they can be sickening.
i have been absolutely sick over this black friday insanity. a guest poster on my blog today called it “red friday” — red ink for the retailers, red blood for the minimum-wage workers.
and what is it about long island? that’s also been the site of several horrendous hate crimes since obama won the election.
there was also a shooting at toys-r-us over some gimcrack. makes me very sad. this is what americans do in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
adbusters is right. i love their buy nothing day campaign that’s been held for several years now on black friday. looks like those of us who observe it are keeping ourselves just a little safer…
I always highly disliked Black Friday, especially this last few years when I’ve been able to get the same good deals online. However, after reading about this, I’m flat out refusing to buy on Black Friday at retail stores. Good, normal people turn into savages. The Best Buy just down the street had people setting up tents and camping out on Wednesday night! A fight broke out minutes before the door was opening. While I look down on a lot of the lawsuits files against big corporations, I hope the family of that worker squeezes ever penny they can from wal-mart.
I was so shocked and saddened when I heard the news of that guy dying. Utterly, completely awful. I kept talking about it all morning to my family, because, I just could not believe it.
One of my biggest fears is being in a crowd. Serious validation. ugh…
And why weren’t they doing rescue breathing? That did seem pretty odd. I might have to dig around for more info. on that.
I ventured to Best Buy on Black Friday morning. The group of people lined up there probably raises a number of interesting sociology questions and theories. I spoke with a few people; all were normal and friendly. And yet, when the line started moving, the group became energized, competitive, and focused. It was a fascinating experience.
Honestly stores almost encourage this sort of behavior, because it builds buzz. Not that they want violence to happen but they do like the news coverage that a mad rush draws. If they all moved to a ticket based system (or lottery based) then things like this wouldn’t happen. To me its all senseless and sad.
There are a plethora of reasons behind why I don’t participate in black friday, however homicide was never one of them. I hope they review the surveillance something. Yet another reason to stay in, and switch to “cyber monday”
Now that’s some scary tihs<… It was a freaking nasty stampede.
It is really a bad news as this black friday shopping has led to death of stock clerk and miscarriage of a lady.
I hope that Wal-Mart will help the family of their worker. Such incident has made me tostick to online shopping.