People Who Complain About Wal-Mart

[Mytical]

I have to agree with Mongo, for the most part. Where I differ is..first I would not insult animals by calling the people animals. Second..I would indeed also apply blame to Wal-mart or anybody else for that matter who didn't think this through. Just like the insanity with PS3, while mostly on the SHOPPERS, a lot rests on Sony's shoulders as well.

Black Fridays go smoothly all over the world, a lot more then go bad..because the shops will actually think it through a little. When one goes bad, it is because of the people, the shop, and the circumstances.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I have to agree with Mongo, for the most part. Where I differ is..first I would not insult animals by calling the people animals.

Yeah, but "ravenous beasts from the depths of Hell itself bend on devouring the souls of all they encounter" is both a bit of a mouthful and fictional.

I was looking for a real-world comparison and you do have to admit, the image of pigs jumping on the backs of their fellows just so they can stand in the shower of foul smelling (but obviously yummy to the pigs) shower of rendered protein so they can get to it first and to hell with the rest of them...

Well the image is very akin to seeing consumers clamoring over each other to get the last PS3 that will ever be made for the rest of eternity (at least that's how they were acting).

[Mytical]

^ I approve that post, and almost laughed so hard that I would have gotten in trouble at work .. luckily nobody was around.

[KellyHabersham]

People shop at Wal-Mart normally because 1) It IS cheap. 2) Often it is the 'only game in town'. While there are stores that carry similar things, it is one of the few places that has everything in one store AND a large selection. I personally prefer to avoid it, but am forced to go from time to time for various reasons. I shop there maybe once a month..if that. Never by choice. Thankfully the internet has gotten to the point I can get just about anything delivered to me, and I have to visit less and less.

It's not the employees, it is often not the customers, it is the corporation. *shrugs*

I'd have to agree with that second point, because that's what it was like in the area where my family used to live - we had two "Mom and Pop" grocery stores, two Circle K's, and a few craft/gift basket and hardware stores, but for anything else..........you had to travel to one of the larger towns in the area, where Wal-Mart was pretty much the only option for shopping.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

In my city, my shopping choices are the swamp, the Wally World Supercenter or half a Kohls (it's not a full-size store and doesn't carry their entire product assortment).

I prefer to shop at the swamp for the employee discount, or Kohls for clothes. The things I hate about the local Wally World are that it's always dirty and disorganized, a lot of the employees look sketchy, and none of the emplyees are helpful. It's a depressing shopping experience, but I can mitigate that by getting in and out as quickly as possible.

Years ago, when it was being expanded to a supercenter, I overheard one of the cashiers saying it'd be the largest one in the state at the time. I thought that to be akin to boasting you have the biggest infestation of crotch crabs in the state.

[smileyeagle1021]

I'm sorry. I do not consider Walmart to be solely at fault here. Sure they may not have had crowd control. No the thought process behind only having 5 of the insanely popular item of the year at a ludicrously low price wasn't the most well reasoned.

But the people, the customers, the consumers who were willing to trample any poor fucker too weak to withstand the onslaught and fall at their feet are in my mind the ones the most to blame.

They made the decision to act like a bunch of mindless animals.

And Wal-Mart, who should have known better, decided it was a wise idea to put raw meat in front of hungry animals. To some extent, if you willingly jump into shark infested waters with an open and bleeding wound you can't put all the blame on the shark when they attack you. Not to take responsibility away from the hord, Wal-Mart shouldn't be let off the hook for creating the situation in the first place.

[DrFaroohk]

But the difference between people and animals is people can be held accountable for their actions. Animals just go on their instinct. You can't blame the shark for going nuts in the bloody water, but you can blame a person for doing something similar. Hell, if I leave all my expensive gold jewelry lying out in the open where junkies can see it, and they steal it, that's still not my fault. It's their fault. Stealing is wrong. Trampling people is wrong. Leaving my jewelry out is not wrong. Just like a business holding a bunch of really great sales is not wrong.

[Cheshire]

But the difference between people and animals is people can be held accountable for their actions. Animals just go on their instinct. You can't blame the shark for going nuts in the bloody water, but you can blame a person for doing something similar. Hell, if I leave all my expensive gold jewelry lying out in the open where junkies can see it, and they steal it, that's still not my fault. It's their fault. Stealing is wrong. Trampling people is wrong. Leaving my jewelry out is not wrong. Just like a business holding a bunch of really great sales is not wrong.

People are just as instinctual as animals. It is only our reasoning developments that make us think otherwise.

The more anonymity is given to a person, the more heinous a crime they can commit. Sometimes, without even realizing it.

Create a tightly packed crowd in a room and leave them like that for a few hours. Then, offer a large amount of money in another room with only a thin doorway linking to it. In such a rush to get the money, people will completely forget their humanity in their instinctual urge to further their own wealth. I doubt most would even remember the events.

Wal-mart only did the same as other business have been doing for years. It was simply an unfortunate event brought on by peoples desire to buy into commercialism.

[McDreidel09]

Years ago, when it was being expanded to a supercenter, I overheard one of the cashiers saying it'd be the largest one in the state at the time. I thought that to be akin to boasting you have the biggest infestation of crotch crabs in the state.

1)LOL
2) It was boasted that the one in my college town was the biggest one in the state. I highly doubt that, though.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

And Wal-Mart, who should have known better, decided it was a wise idea to put raw meat in front of hungry animals. To some extent, if you willingly jump into shark infested waters with an open and bleeding wound you can't put all the blame on the shark when they attack you. Not to take responsibility away from the hord, Wal-Mart shouldn't be let off the hook for creating the situation in the first place.

A shark is a unthinking eating machine. It has no higher thought processes. It is a creature of instinct that has remained largely unchanged since the time of the dinosaur.

You jump into shark infested waters with a bleeding wound and yes the fault is yours and not the shark since you have the ability to think and therefore the decision was solely yours. The sharks are not at fault since as soon as they smell blood, their instincts (a biological autopilot as it were) takes over and they turn into bat-shit crazy eating machines.

A human on the other hand is the product of millions of years of evolution from the basic primate ancestors, developing progressively more complex brains that allowed them to get more clever until finally Homo Sapiens evolved with full out, real intelligence and self-awareness and the ability to no longer be driven by instinct but by conscious choice.

Or if you ascribe to the Creationist theory, 6,000 years ago God created Adam and Eve who were created to be better than, and to have sovereignty over the animals he created and placed on the Earth.

So in either case, the ravening horde made the decision to ignore their better natures and to devolve into the ravening horde.

DrFaroohk made the comment that if he were to leave Gold Jewelry out, that is is not his fault, but the person(s) who stole it.

He is partially correct. It is his fault for putting it out and leaving it unprotected. But his fault would be a fault of poor judgement only. He should have known that such a thing could happen.

The thief's fault is a fault of a criminal act. The act of theft.

If this were to go to a court of law, DrFaroohk would have no legal responsibility for the criminal act. The judge may or may not admonish him for the poor judgement at not protecting his valuables, but only one of the two of them would be facing jail time.

And it certainly would not be DrFaroohk.

So in the case of Walmart, I say that the fault, the CRIMINAL fault lies on the people who decided to act like a bunch of animals and trample the living fuck of the poor schlub that couldn't get out of their way fast enough.

And let's move past the Walmart incident for a minute. Is the Toys R Us in Salisbury Maryland at fault for the near riot they had back when Cabbage Patch dolls first came out? They ran out of them and a fist fight ensued over the bloody things.

Now mind you that they had stocked the same amount that any Toys R Us store in the country would have had. It was enough to satisfy what they expected to last them the 2 weeks before the next shipment (where they could calculate which ones were selling and get an adjustment on inventory to match demand) and since they were a new item with tons of accessories, they sold with a %10 off coupon as a loss leader to get people in to buy the dolls (at a not unreasonable markdown) and the accessories at full price.

Would you blame Toys R Us for that near riot? Would you blame them if that near riot turned into a real one? Would you blame them if someone got killed?

At what point do you say "Gee, the people who let themselves turn into a bunch of mindless murdering assholes need to be held accountable for their actions?"

[Andara Bledin]

At what point do you say "Gee, the people who let themselves turn into a bunch of mindless murdering assholes need to be held accountable for their actions?"

Crowd dynamics are scary things. It's a disturbingly small step to go from rational thinking individual to irrational member of the pack.

Most people don't have both the intelligence and the wisdom to avoid situations where this sort of thing might come into play.

^-.-^

[JustaCashier]

I would put some level of blame on the Company, since especially over the years there have been so many incidents of injury and death. They're creating the scenario by continuing to have these sales, and by hyping them up so much. They either need to discontinue them altogether, or quit being cheap and fork over the dough to pay for measures to ensure an incident is very unlikely to happen.

I also place some blame on the lemmings themselves, that choose to put themselves in such a dangerous situation. Do they deserve to be trampled? Of course not. But nobody forced them to participate in the insanity.

The ones I feel the sorry for, and place absolutely no blame on, are the employees. They pretty much have to show up for work as scheduled, or be fired.

I would also add lemmings kids to the list of those that I feel sorry for. It's not their fault their parent chose to put them in a potentially dangerous situation.

Mike

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Trampling incidents are solely a Wal-Mart thing. There was a case where a guy got trampled at a Target store around Buffalo last year. It's a "retail on Black Friday" thing. I t could just as easily happen at the swamp.

Fortunately some stores are finding smarter ways to go about doling out Black Friday electronics deals, like starting those sales at a different time from the other sales, or handing out tickets outside. This way you don't have people in a confined space trying to rush through the doors, and any disturbances can be handled by management and/or security outside with the shoppers in line.

[bainsidhe]

When I worked for WM, the biggest problem I had was that it was just so..big. I've worked other, much smaller, retail environments before starting at my local supercenter. With over 100 cashiers alone, it's hard not to get swallowed up and forgotten. There's no coziness, no warmth, it's just a job. But compared to other local retailers (including Target!), it also paid higher and offered benefits. Even so, many of my full-time coworkers were on food stamps because a retail wage is often not a living wage. While I wish Wal-Mart would offer higher wages and cheaper/more expansive benefits, I don't blame them for setting the low bar for wages in the retail industry. Wal-Mart gets such a bad rap mostly because they're the biggest fish in town. Target is no better.

[Hyena Dandy]

On People of Walmart, I'm fine with making fun of how people dress (I'd never tell them they can't dress any way they want, of course) but I don't like it when people are like "OH MY GOD THAT WOMAN IS SO FAT GET AWAY FATTY" style things.