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.

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Lately I’ve been getting increasingly more angry whenever I visit either Costco or Sams Club. I buy a LOT of crap at these places and I’ve got the top membership levels, so why is it that they always want to see my receipt before I leave the damn building?

I mean, let’s face it. I just waited in some horrendous line, they don’t even bag your stuff up for you, and then 50 feet from the checkout they want me to stand in another line and then reproduce my receipt to allow some lackey to glance at it, glance at my cart and draw a line on it with a marker? What the hell is up with that!?!
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