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Wal-Mart Shoppers Are Trained To Be "Savages"
By Al Norman
"Outta My Way, I'm shopping at Wal-Mart."
That actual bumper-sticker sums up the attitude of the only thing worse than Wal-Mart in our culture: Wal-Mart shoppers.
The killing of a Wal-Mart worker this week during an early morning crush of customers at the retailer's Valley Stream, Long Island store has given the company a Black Eye from Black Friday.
Law enforcement officials are reviewing the video tape of the incident for possible criminal charges, but Wal-Mart corporate attorneys are no doubt looking at the video to determine the extent of the company's legal liability in the case. The retailer may be more preoccupied with how to prevent a multi-million lawsuit from the family of the dead worker, than how to prevent another Black Friday death.
The 2,000 or so Wal-Mart shoppers at the Valley Stream store were merely lab rats responding to a stimulus. When the door opened, they went after the cheese. In the past, it has been fellow shoppers who have been killed in the "savage" rush, as one onlooker at the Valley Stream store described the incident. Our culture of mass consumption has bred these "supershoppers," who will show up for every clearance, every special, with one goal in mind: to be at the cash register first.
Wal-Mart and the Nassau County Police now have to decide if they will press criminal charges against these supershoppers. There were at least four other people who were injured in the Long Island incident---one of several that took place across the country. A similar incident took place in Secaucus, New Jersey--but the woman injured in the 'shop 'til you drop' crowd was not killed. In Rapid City, Michigan, a teenage girl at Wal-Mart holding an Xbox 360 video game was "struck in the throat by a male shopper who was yelling and pushing his way through a line of shoppers."
Where better to carry out these random acts of violence than at a huge Wal-Mart, where price takes precedence over people? We can behave like 'savages' at Wal-Mart, because we are part of a large, anonymous throng. Wal-Mart spent $2 billion in 2008 on media advertising to encourage us to behave like out of control consumers. The crowd at Valley Stream was just following the program.
Wal-Mart has never been very good at protecting its workers or customers from crime at its stores--whether inside the store, or in the No-Man's-Land known as the parking lot. The latest Black Friday death is no exception. The poor temporary worker who happened to be given the job of unlocking the door, Jdimytai Damour, gave up his life so that some shopper could get a Playstation 3 Entertainment Bundle. Wal-Mart knew--or should have known---that shoppers on steroids are a dangerous breed. "We expected a large crowd this morning," Wal-Mart admitted in a press release, "and added additional internal security, additional third party security, additional store associates and we worked closely with the Nassau County Police. We also erected barricades. Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred."
So far, all Wal-Mart has provided for the family of their dead worker is its "thoughts and prayers." But Damour's family is going to need a lot more than prayers to pay for the loss of earnings this young family has suffered." Instead of watching video reruns of the incident, or spending its corporate resources trying to track down the "savage" shoppers who crushed Damour, Wal-Mart should announce that it will use some of its vast wealth to provide the Damour family with a generous financial settlement. This is the moment for company Chairman Rob Walton to come to the aid of this family out of his own $23 billion fortune. The family should not be forced to file a lawsuit to receive justice from this company. Wal-Mart should have its compensation offer ready for sign-off within the week.
At Wal-Mart, they know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. It was the manager at the Rapid City, Michigan Wal-Mart store who said what the company's top brass in Bentonville could not say. "There's nothing in my store that's worth people's safety or lives."
Al Norman is the founder of http://www.sprawl-busters.com. His first book was "Slam Dunking Wal-Mart."
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Many Americans have no idea what makes up a social society. Wal-Mart or no Wal-Mart, there still would be people that are aggressive slobs. Many people just don't know what it means to be polite, kind, thoughtful, or respectful to others or themselves. They have been taught, through example, by watching O'Reilly, or listening to Limbaugh, that aggressive hate and disdain for others is acceptable behavior.
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
The "funny" or ironic part of this savage analogy is that Wall Street operates the same way . . . but with more ferocity and disdain and reckless abandon for the investor's dollar or American tax dollars.
This isn't the first Black Friday incident at WalMart,and doubtful it will be the last. Its just a matter of time before some entrepreneur will make a buck off these events,and compile a "Black Friday Shoppers Gone Wild " with WalMart trampling footage as a bonus offer. And sell it at WalMart.
"The 2,000 or so Wal-Mart shoppers[…] were merely lab rats responding to a stimulus."
No, they most certainly were not. We are not lab rats: we are individuals with free will, and are responsible for our choices and our actions. The unfortunate work at Wal-Mart, fools shop there, and the heinous profit from it all, but absolutely no one is compelled.
The dragon comes to the village every year and we sacrifice our children to it in ignorance and fear, but the dragon is not to blame. Monsters like Wal-Mart exist only because people feed them willingly.
You and the author are speaking about two kinds of human animal. You are talking about the individual and he is talking about the mob. Marked difference in behavior have been recorded between the two subsets. It was the unfettered mob at work at Wal-Mart.
Where's the Dragonslayer when you need him?
"Wal-Mart spent $2 billion in 2008 on media advertising to encourage us to behave like out of control consumers. The crowd at Valley Stream was just following the program."
This statement is absolutely outrageous.
This.
Also: "Wal-Mart corporate attorneys are no doubt looking at the video to determine the extent of the company's legal liability in the case."
Name ONE corporation who wouldn't be doing the same?
ANY corporation who didn't have a stampede of 2,000 shoppers on Black Friday.
White mob kills black man. Sound familiar?
The largest most profitable retail store in the world should have done a lot more to protect its employees and their customers, especially when they are baiting customers in this depressed economy with unbelievable bargains, provided you are lucky enough to get one of the very limited popular items they are promoting.
I hope Bill O'Rielly was at the front door making sure that customers were greeted with Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, the celebration of Christmas is getting out of control, and taken over by businessmen selling Chinese merchandise. Scrooge was right, Bah Humbug.
why should wal-mart be held responsible for the actions of others? From the article itself it sounds as if wal-mart did everything they could to limit injuries to shoppers and employees, this is the fault of the shoppers and not wal-mart.
Walmart should be sued for this on many levels, and their executives should be charged with inciting a riot. Clearly we cannot count on the brainless customers to figure out on their own that if you have to stand in line for ten hours in the cold to save a couple hundred dollars on a TV that maybe you should buy a smaller TV. To tempt these goofballs (and killers, as it turns out) with deals when they only have a very limited number of items available items year after year is to train them to act like sharks among chum.
Gee, I didn't hear about any trampling deaths at the Wal-Marts in, say, Nebraska.
I wonder how those Wal-Marts are so different from this particular Wal-Mart. Anybody have any ideas?
One word.....unbelievable! I wonder what "shoppers" would do if christmas presents were NEVER a part of christmas ever again? Would we all stop "celebrating" this incredibly commercial holiday? I hope the shoppers that trampled this man wake up every morning knowing they killed someone, especially Christmas morning. "Gee Johnny.....I see you're smiling because you're happy you got what you wanted this Christmas....oh I wonder, is that DNA on your new pair of jeans?" Every year, we'll see this kind of mentality because we just can't have Christmas without the presents under that stupid tree. I wonder, how much more stupidity can we take year after year? "Welcome to WalMart....leave your brains and sense of decency at the door!"
Right analysis, wrong target. You see, Walmart doesn't train people to be savages, Walmart exploits a society that has long trained people to be savages. This is the Me-Generation on speed. The remnants of Generation Narcissus mutating into the next logical organism. We live in a country where mass killings can barely generation two days on the media circuit, where my boys are put through safety drills that act out what to do if another person/classmate walks in with an automatic rifle and starts blowing kids away. We live in a culture where there is no common sense of decency, right or wrong, values, or world views. Heck, there is almost no common sense. We sit around and wait until a scientific research team concludes that drinking shampoo is bad for your health, then the media runs with it as if 'now we know.' We are taught that we are nothing but animals. We are taught that freedom means a right to instant gratification. We are taught that we have a right to have what we want, when we want, where we want, and as often as we want, and no one has a right to stop us. And if there are negative results, it is everyone else's fault, and the government's responsibility to clean up the mess. No, the 'we are taught to be savages' is right, but don't blame Walmart. It's what we want, because we all hope to benefit from it in the end.
good points
Actually, violent crime rates have trended down substantially over the past 16 years and last year were at record low levels.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/cv2.htm
Property crime have also gone down to record low levels.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/house2.htm
As have gun related crime:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/firearmnonfatalno.htm
etc.etc.
I didn't say crime was at an all time high (though I am at pains to remember being drilled on what to do if someone comes in and starts blowing us away in school when I was young). I mentioned the increasing trend in our society to act like animals, lacking common sense, with a tendency of apathy (at best) toward events that once would have galvanized a nation. My point was that the article is wrong in trying to suggest that the savagery experienced that terrible day was the result of Walmart. It is, rather, the logical result of a society based on the things I wrote. By the way, no one suggests that crime hasn’t been decreasing (though unfortunately, there have been some upward trends in the last couple years). The reasons are, of course, hotly debated. But the level of savagery and mindless violence has shifted crimes from where they once were to new areas and trends not witnessed in previous generations.
Thank you for your article, but your conclusion misses a point. If Walmart were to offer a generous compensation package to the family of Mr. Damour, it would only encourage others to die at Walmarts across the country. There would potentially be a spate of suicides-by-shoppers by other workers, or even by other shoppers, flinging themselves into the path of the mobs at every door-buster sale. Think of Walmart's potential exposure! In this economy, in this country, at this time, it might be the only way for a family member to provide security for his or her family.
Has anyone noticed that there is a WalMart ad at the top of this page just before the posts begin?
Wal-Mart should be put out of business; their assets seized by the government and redistributed to the needy. No more Wal-Mart !!! Many new jobs could also be created to dismantle the stores and buildings and to distribute the merchandise.
what would be your legal justification for seizing the assets of a mulit-national company? Would you seize only the wal-marts that are on US soil or would you go after the overseas stores too?
While there would be temporary employment to dismantle the stores in the long run wouldn't this lead to greater unemployment? Would wal-mart's employees be better off or worse off after you closed their stores?
Who decides who is needy and what they get? Do the really needy get the bigger, higher quality TVs and the quasi-needy get the smaller TVs? By what right do these needy people have to the property of another?
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