Talk about corporate greed!

[Planogirl]

Thanks for the correction. What works in a town in Montana obviously doesn't work in LA or NY. Many (most?) doorbusters aren't given to customers with a numbered coupon and the rush to the pallets leads to near riots. The fact that a customer saw the need to use Pepper Spray as a shopping tool (or for defensive purposes) says a lot.

By all accounts this customer used the pepper spray to keep others from getting a certain item and then fled. How would any store keep someone from pulling a stunt like this? I though that I heard that this was over the cheap griddles. If true, no store handed out coupons for items such as these.

 

[beansmom]

the best solution to the whole problem is for YOU to stay home and not contribute. THat's what I do. Getting any one item is not going to make my life perfect OR destroy it.

As for getting kids everything they want, life is full of disappointments. We get over them and move on.

 

[kwhite1022]

My group all decided to refuse to be pressured into doing the midnight run at stores, as this is sooo unfair to all the families who work in retail, and the repurcussions that has on their families Thanksgivings. In all honesty it worked out to our advantage. We didnt go out till 5 am, and had the best BF shopping experience EVER. No lines, no pushing/shoving, and were able to get all the "hot ticket" items.....even Best Buys Tablet at 1pm on BF, which we only asked on a joke. No lines around the building at Target waiting to get in, or 2 hours in line to check out as in past years, same for Kohls. Everyone I dealt with was nice and friendly, the only "grouch" I dealt with had been out shopping since 10 pm the night before....Id be grouchy too! So while we hoped that others would refuse to go earlier, and force these stores to go back to the traditional morning hours....now I figure even if they dont, its a win/win for my group. Though an employee at Target told me this was the one and only year they will do this.....Ill believe it when I see it.

 

[Lewisc]

By all accounts this customer used the pepper spray to keep others from getting a certain item and then fled. How would any store keep someone from pulling a stunt like this? I though that I heard that this was over the cheap griddles. If true, no store handed out coupons for items such as these.

A poster corrected me and said there was evidence the spray was used for defensive purposes. I posted the way I did because I didn't search to get a definitive answer. Any news report I heard suggested the pepper spray was being used a a shopping tool.

Maybe a store needs to limit the number of blockbuster items to items like TV sets in which coupons are given out. Maybe items like griddles should be a "special purchase" item with more then enough quantities to accommodate shoppers.

Maye one solution is to give stores the choice of either distributing coupons for a doorbuster or be required to offer rain checks.

The more items which are offered in limited quantities at a price significantly below "market price" the more opportunities we have for mobs.

 

[AmandaNied]

I was at walmart at 9:30pm. I didn't *need* anything, but just wanted to pick up a few movies and the Madden 12 football game. The lines were full for the computers, TV's and game systems and seemed to be well organized. The DVD's were wrapped in plastic and it was a mad rush when they said "Go". Most people were friendly though, and I grabbed a few things for people on the other side of the rack and they returned the favor.

At midnight, the story was different. I wanted a few sd cards and they were put on the same rack as the digital cameras. A lady had parked her cart sideways in front of the cameras and had slllooowwwlly started to slide a few out of the plastic wrap and into her cart. An employee finally came over and told her she needed to put it back, but she already had about 6 under her coat. She then proceeded to yell at people when she couldn't get out of the camera area after they said it was OK to shop. Someone suggested she shouldn't have parked her cart like that in the first place and she wouldn't have had a problem. She gave one of those "looks could kill" glare and pushed her way through, with a total of 9 cameras.

The best part about it was after the big rush, there were at least 20 cameras left over. All that screaming and yelling for nothing...

 

[leahjade]

Around 10:20 on Thanksgiving night, the unidentified woman shot pepper spray inside the store when the coverings were lifted off items she intended to purchase.

“Somehow she was trying to use it to gain an upper hand,” police Lt. Abel Parga told The Associated Press.

The use of the chemical agent appears to have set off a small panic in the store, resulting in 20 minor injuries, according to fire department officials who said that “rapid crowd movement” was to blame for the injuries

I can't believe some posters are trying to blame this woman's actions on Walmart! When does personal responsibility ever kick in? It's the banks fault when people get more mortgage than they can afford, it's the credit card company's fault when people get into debt, when does it end???

 

[JB2K]

Though an employee at Target told me this was the one and only year they will do this.....Ill believe it when I see it.

And how would the employee know this kind of information? Those decisions are made in a CEO's office in Minneapolis -- not at the local stores, or their regional bosses. We may not know the true results of BF 2011 for a couple of weeks, yet.

 

[jmkst58]

I can't believe some posters are trying to blame this woman's actions on Walmart! When does personal responsibility ever kick in? It's the banks fault when people get more mortgage than they can afford, it's the credit card company's fault when people get into debt, when does it end???

ditto

 

[Jey12]

All of this madness is the cause of the retailers. They don't have to open up at 12am. If you have the lowest prices and have enough items and open up at there normal time this wouldn't be an issue. It's all the retailers being greedy.

You don't think there would be lines and large amount of people if the stores opened at normal times? Even when the times were much later than they are now, there were still the masses and crowds of people. I've seen folks line up outside of Best Buy or TRU because they had reported they had a shipment of a hot holiday item in after black friday. Many years ago with the cabbage patch craze people were creating a riot scene over these dolls, during normal business hours on a regular day. The problem here, as with most things, is the people who chose to act like fools.

Of course corporations are greedy, they want to make money. I imagine their employees are happy they are in the business of making money because that's how they get paid. Walmart constantly sets themselves up for these types of situations by deciding not to close their doors, even for a few hours. They aren't making that much money in the few hours before a black friday sale starts because no one is buying anything, they are waiting for the sale time. If they would close their doors, allow people to line up outside, give their employees time to put the products in place and then open their doors I think some of these issues would stop. Hand out the tickets for items in short supply and place things like cheap towels in open areas. It's not rocket science. They chose not to do this, and the people chose to act like idiots. For those reasons I chose not to shop at walmart on black friday.

Even my 24/7 walmart is closed on Christmas, there's no reason they can't close for a few hours on Thanksgiving to prepare for the start of the sales. As a matter of fact my 24/7 Walmart used to be closed on Thanksgiving in the late afternoon and evening. They would reopen when the black friday sales started. I don't see where it's corporate greed that's keeping them open now, because they just can't make that much money before the sale. I think it's more corporate stupidity driven by consumer greed.

 

[jemgumby]

The whole reason for Black Friday is greed whether it be corporations or the consumers. The corporations for making $$$ and consumers for wanting and feeling they MUST have a certain item....I think it's ridiculous and refuse to be part of it. It's not worth risking my life.....I find it ironic this all for a "religious holiday".......pretty disgusting to me.

 

[leahjade]

The best part about it was after the big rush, there were at least 20 cameras left over. All that screaming and yelling for nothing

The next day at our Walmart, all the $2 and $5 dvds that everyone was pushing and fighting over were restocked with no crowds or crazy people to deal with! In fact, the poor security boy was trying to put out more copies Thursday night but the people wouldn't even let him near the pallets so he just laid the boxes on the floor and let the vultures grab for them. It's really a sad sight to behold! Everyone is so afraid that someone is getting something that they may not be able to get!

 

[nunzia]

The whole reason for Black Friday is greed whether it be corporations or the consumers. The corporations for making $$$ and consumers for wanting and feeling they MUST have a certain item....I think it's ridiculous and refuse to be part of it. It's not worth risking my life.....I find it ironic this all for a "religious holiday".......pretty disgusting to me.

nah..we aren't allowed to have religious holidays anymore...