Walmart, Was Black Friday Worth Someone’s Life?

Are you happy now, Walmart? Annual tales of disorderly conduct outside your stores as you opened on Black Friday didn’t get you to re-think the shopping phenomenon.

Now a part-time employee in your Green Acres mall (Valley Stream, NY) store is dead. Trampled by a stampede of consumers who allegedly barrelled through the front door before the employee could get out of harms way.

For what, Walmart? The 50″ plasma HDTV for $798, or the $2 Rush Hour 2 DVD?

You know, my wife came back from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (as Miley Cyrus’s float escort, and as an International Multimedia Superstar) and asked me what Circuit City is selling on Black Friday, and if there was a reason for them to have stanchions set up outside the Trumbull, CT store.

My theory was they probably didn’t have much to sell, but everyone is into electronics, and they probably wanted to have an orderly opening. I also figured people weren’t going to camp out overnight at the Trumbull Macy’s for Black Friday specials (and I was right).

But back to you, Walmart. You encourage a mob mentality when you just let throngs of people stampede into your stores. You further encourage it when you put up hand-made signs that read “Blitz Line Starts Here” outside the front door.

Walmart, were you waiting for someone to die before you became a responsible party on Black Friday? Because now the unthinkable has happened.

Rest in peace, Jdimytai Damour. You didn’t deserve to die this way.