This Is All Too Believable

I worked in retail for 10 years (79-89). & I saw the worst of the worst at times. 1 time we had a customer who claimed something was in the Sunday ad. when we showed the ad to her, she didn't admit she was wrong. She said it was in her copy at home. (It was another store's ad she was thinking about.) We were the liars trying to embarrass her.

When certain items were on sale, people would be all but break down the doors. I was arround for the worst of the worst. I was arround for the original Cabbage Patch Doll craze. If we got a shipment in, people would grab 1 & then make a bee-line to the pay phone to call their friends & tell them. (Remember, this was before cell-phones became ubiquitous.) People would be lined up hours before the store openned if we had them in an ad. & when the door openned, stand back.

So when I saw this headline, I knew that it was all too possible. & as I read the article, I suspected that the reality was even worse than the article described it as.

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

(From the article) A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thursday morning.

Nassau County police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the store doors at the mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the man, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour of Queens, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.

"This crowd was out of control," said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as "utter chaos," and said the store didn't have enough security.

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said.

What is sad is that no one will probably be charged with the murder of the worker. Even with the surveillance video it will be almost impossible to find the guilty people.

What is even more disgusting is the fact that these aren't exactly the stereotypical poor folks that are supposedly Wal-Mart's customers. "The median income for a household in the village is $103,243, and the median income for a family is $110,585. Males have a median income of $80,094 versus $56,260 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $66,334. About 1.0% of families and 1.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.4% of those under age 18 and .4% of those age 65 or over." (Source: Wikipedia article Valley Stream, New York)

"Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like 'savages.'"

"'When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'' she said. 'They kept shopping.'" Based on the 2000 census info has 50.6% of the population identifying themselves as being of Italian ancestry, I would say that the best word to describe them (that I can put in this post, that is) is gavone. The use of the term "on line" tends to confirm my suspicions.

Given that there were dozens of employees working, I have to ask Lt. Fleming what he considers enough? It is easy to be critical in retrospect when something gets out of control. I also suspect the Nassau Police are trying to pass the buck as well. Why? Wal-Mart issued a statement where it "said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police." Based on my retail experience, I tend to believe Wal-Mart did its best in this case.

& then there was this other incident. "A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said." She finished shopping 1st. In this case the 1st word I come up with is "pazzo".

As I said at the start, I found this very believable. In fact, given my experience & the fact that things haven't really changed since then, I am actually surprized that there are more incidents like this. The biggest reason for that is that most retailers know how people act, like a stampeding herd, & prepare for this. But, every so often, the best of plans fail.

Christmas gifts are supposed to be symbolic of the gifts the Magi gave to Jesus that 1st Christmas. Actions like this are anything but in keeping with the true Spirit & Meaning of Christmas. This is greedy selfishness gone wild. It is another symbol of how far our society has fallen from its Judeo-Christian roots. Yes, I find the trend towards "Happy Holidays" only offensive. Actions like this give some justification to that trend for 1 reason, these actions have nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas.

I am not opposed to gift giving. But, we need to get it back into perspective. When gifts become the end-all, be-all of the holiday & Jesus is, at best, on the periphery, then what we have is a blasphemous insult to God.

It is also another example of how much our society buys into the "culture of death". That culture views people as utilitarian. & desposible as a result. So, why be concerned about trampling a person when he/she stands in the way of what I want? & if that person dies so I can fulfill my selfish wants, so what?

I can hear someone say "Wait a minute, this is a gift for a child or another relative. HOW IS THAT SELFISH?" Simple, when it is done to buy the silence of the child, when it is done to say "See how much I love you by spending so much!", when it is done to make the buyer look good, selfishness is at the root.

Gift giving can be a symbol of love. But they are not the be-all, end-all of that love.

What we need to do is get back to the true meaning of Christmas. We need to remember what it is we are celebrating. & that can be summed up in a very familiar Biblical quote: "For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son . . . ." (John 3:16)

In some of the branches of the Catholic Church, Advent has already begun, for others, it begins tommorrow. There is still plenty of time to properly prepare for the celebration of God's love that is Christmas. How will you prepare? Will you chose to celebrate death, or life?

(Source: Christus Vincit HOW LOW CAN A MOB GO?)